I have heard it said that the reason downhill is such a great sport is because it’s social and friendly – you’re only racing against the clock. This cannot be said of today’s Tickertape:
Firstly we were all battling against the rain, sloppy mud, and mechanicals. Bird was against Jim, Neil against Denham, Denham against a tree, Dave against himself, our shoes against traction, Sam (Wells) refusing to compete against anyone.
Sam and James were competing – to be muddier or crash better than the other while Will & Ben Batt were against full runs, preferring not to not finish each run rather than go any less than 168%.
Highlights of the day included very vocal support (or abuse), shouts of “PEDAL” to those with no chain, Ben’s MC Hammer trousers, everybody going on everyone else’s bikes, Will “sending” the biggest of the Spork drops and finally the Cobble Wobble King surprising himself by enjoying the wet – and snatching the fastest time of the day right at the death.
I’ve just got confirmation from Keith at Transition Bikes that we’re going to be able to hold a special TickerTape event on Saturday 2nd January. Full details will be published soon, but we can say that it will be a Triple Crown (one timed run on each of the three trails) and will be made extra special by the addition of some pretty amazing Transition prizes.
What ever you do make sure you keep 02/01/10 free!
With so much rain fall over the past few days every root shone; first testing our reactions then our nerve as it became increasingly harder not to tense up on almost every corner, anticipating the dreaded and oh so sudden loss of grip.
Moron was particularly tricky with only Dave White looking pinned (thanks to some cheeky tyres) while the rest of us struggled on the roots. Those bloody roots! We all tried hard though, and Bart certainly showed the most determination; crashing on the last corner into a stagnant puddle then flailing like a slightly drunk seal with a freelap watch on and a point to prove.
Other highlights included finding out how Stace and Jim’s life long pissing contest started – hitting themselves with a metal bar to see who could take the most pain. Brilliant. God knows what will happen when they get bored of mountain biking.
Nige also showed his self harming tendencies as he flipped over the bars on the half way double. Only in WWE Smackdown have I ever seen such an elaborate flip-to-back-slam manoeuvre. Not good. It was particularly selfish as it definitely changed the tone; leaving almost everyone keen to sit down and eat rather than run the risk of such an unfortunate end to the day. I blame his leg armour and matching shoes.
The new top line on spoons used Spork into the race line and it worked really really well. I don’t think anybody rode it bang on all day, which is testimony to how good a section that is. In fact due to the conditions nobody seemed to manage a whole clean run, so there’s certainly room for improvement all round.
Friend of the club Keith from Transition Bikes Co popped by to say hello, show off yet another lovely new Transition bike and hand out some awesome prizes. Sweet. I should say at this point that we (I) didn’t keep our ‘Cake’ side of the bargain as I’ve decided that with lush trails to ride and prizes to be won cake is in fact completely unnecessary. We’ll be serving more cake at dig days instead (we’ll also be giving out some Transition prizes too…..stay tuned for more info).
As for the times, well check the board out. Loads of mini battles again, some resulting in massive air punches and the odd smug “yessssssssssss!”. Others in frantic tyre changing and excuse finding.
Despite a few absent faces we had a great turn out, a few spectators and some who just fancied playing about on the other trails. Robin (recently hooked up by Transition Bikes) showed everyone that you don’t need a front brakes or tyre tread to have fun. Just a lush Transition bike, and balls out commitment into every corner. Sorry for laughing Rob, but it was pretty funny!
Special thanks to all those who turned up early to rake and prep the course and all those who stayed late to pack away.
Word on the hill is that OneFourThree (with a couple of tweaks) would make a great one off TickerTape course. What do you think?
Saturday was like bonus summer time, the sun was out and the trails were bone dry. Thanks to some hard graft earlier in the week BBMS + Moron were in A1 condition so the prospect of riding them and eating four different types of cake meant we were all on a real high.
You know the format by now; ride, time, write up time, eat cake, tease whoever you’re faster than, eat cake, try and put off whoever you’re slower than, eat more cake, pose for a photo. It’s pretty simple.
There were quite a few mini battles going on between riders, Big Bird, Jim and Stacey had each proclaimed that the other two stood no chance. Pre race trash talk is always funny, especially when it goes too far; Jim had stupidly declared “…I’ll sell my bloody bike if Stace’ beats me!”, less than 2 seconds stood between him and Stacey by the end of the day – so Jim was either very confident or bloody stupid! Bird took the overall honours though, riding real fast and smooth all day.
Times were really close all day, with BBMS + Moron being basically a one line trail there was always going to be little to separate the riders. That said, getting a clean run is flipping hard, and continuing to push on when you know you’ve made a mistake was even harder. There were definitely a few field splitting sections though; 90 degree flat left, the section immediately after the log drop and contention corner. Each had to be cleaned if a personal best was to be had.
[Rob] Lewis set some fast times right from the start, keen to make his mark despite only having an hour to do so, then Simon Bartlett surprised a few people by taking 0.3 seconds out of the current fastest with his first timed run! Chris Smith was on form (as always) but suffering a little after an over the bars the day before (he’s started making excuses before he starts). Speaking of which I was suffering from my usual stomach paralysis, so was unable to eat any cake all day long! All four of us were posting 54 second times, so finding something to separate us was causing a lot of head scratching (Chris seemed to think that wheelieing would help, though i reckon he just needed to PEDAL!).
A special mention should be given to Daniel who put in his first ever timed run at a TickerTape! Daniel is the most naturally talented rider I’ve ever seen, and definitely one for the future!
Charles Mountford was enjoying his first TickerTape, and rode with some real determination despite a spectacular over the bars. A few other TickerTape first timers showed up too, keen to watch and get involved (two have joined since!), making the day a winner!
Keith from Transition came along too, scoping out the trails with his brother. Transition gave out some awesome prizes again, this time both being given for “Giving it Beans!” to Jim and Charles.
Check out the times below; fastest was captured with Gordons headcam. Next TickerTape is Sunday 25th/09/2009 11:00 – 15:00, Spoons + Moron. Good Times!
Preparations for the Cobble Wobble and some other commitments mean that this weekends Dig Day (Sat 12th/09/09) isn’t going ahead.
Don’t worry though, we’ll be running two evening excevators between now and TickerTape (26th/09/09) to make sure we can all get our fix of shovel and rake based antics.
For more details check the calender over the next two days ….
