Three hours, kinder climbs, how many laps can you manage?
Category: BCC Weekender
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25/07/10: Dinner 'til Dusk 2
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Dig Reminder!
One week today is the first Dig Day of the new Split Weekender – Sunday 16th August 2009 – 09:00 – 17:00, any time you can donate during the day would be great.
Hopefully see you then!
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Good just got better…
For over a year we’ve run the ‘BCC Weekender’ every month. The format was simple, a whole weekend of BCC goodness; Dig Day on Saturday, and TickerTape (our timed DH event) on Sunday. Lush.
The events have been a real success; new trails being built, existing trails getting plenty of TLC and everyone enjoying riding against the clock on our fully taped DH courses.
The only problem has been getting people to both events. While the idea of a whole weekend on MTB trail building and riding sounds great, the reality is that people often found it hard to commit to both days meaning they had to choose, and no one likes a catch 22.
So we’ve decided to change the format, making it the BCC Split Weekender. Essentially every two weeks we’ll run either a Dig Day or TickerTape, alternating between the two. This way we’ll also be able to vary the day we hold each so that people who have weekend commitments can make each once in a while.
Don’t worry; the format of each will remain the same; Dig Day’s boasting tea, coffee, cake and biscuits along with plenty of trail building, and TickerTape with it’s relaxed atmosphere, banter and great trails – We’re just making them more accessible so that everybody can join in the fun!
We’ll be sending out reminders to all our members and affiliates via e-mail, and will publish the event dates on the website in good time. Our website calender is broken right now though, but will be fixed real soon…
…So in the mean time, here are the next two dates:
Sunday 16th August 2009 – Dig Day, 09:00 – 17:00, Stay as long as you like, any and all help is greatly appreciated! Plenty of refreshments, (See the Trail Development Plan for current trail plans)
Sunday 30th August 2009 – TickerTape, 10:00-15:00, no pressure, relaxed DH timing event, taped course, spot prizes, full face helmets only (if being timed), other trails open all day.
See you there!
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Longleat, WI: 12/07/09
For many gravity athletes the prospect of tackling the fast, rooty corners of Spoons in the wet was too much, but not for one-time Tickertape Champion Andrew Denham who rampaged to the win with a sub 33 second run that obliterated his challengers.
The run was made especially impressive by the introduction of a huge new raised rock garden (‘Boobs’) built the previous day, with the determined labour of Josh and Ben being key to it’s construction (along with the vision of Neil “One Run” Cousins).
Ben – a Sutton Veny native – also excelled against the clock with his determination and continual improvements (only challenged by Burv) winning him the coveted ‘Beans’ award (and an Eastpak wallet). Unfortunately for Josh he did not find Spoons as easy – his near slick tyres and unconventional set up hindering him in technical sections, but not from going large of every jump at every opportunity.
Several riders set times early then left, confident their times would put them on the podium, sadly for both “Waterproof” Dave and ‘Big Bird’ this wasn’t to be.
Another competitor was SouthernDownhill.com owner (and prize donator)’Straight Line’ Lewis whose disgust at being unable to challenge for the win led to him only revealing a couple of his race times.
Meanwhile while some riders were aiming for speed, others were aiming for style – Simon with his 180 degree high speed skids, Nigel with his (circa 1999) Rocket Parts gloves and Daniel who received copies of Fastlane mag for being a pinner, not to mention having his own pit crew and media team.
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Heavy Spooning
TickerTape tomorrow:
taped course
timing
banter
prizes
…and plenty of beans.
Come a long and check it out; we’ll be there from 10:00 till 15:00 (just remember your full face!)
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You dig?
1 plan, 6 people, tea, biscuits and plenty of hard work.
Simple really.
143 is really coming along…
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We're in MBUK!
That’s right kids, the dude in the photo looks like a younger skinnier Chris Smith. Well it is! In between his contracted 3 out of every 4 cover shots for MBUK Chris manages to write a column about being ‘Britain’s best known freerider’.
This month Chris talks about the fantastic new Gawton set up and the TickerTape Mix-up! Read below for the article in full.
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Prizes
Just incase you didn’t realise.. these are the prizes from this months TickerTape that’ll be winging their way to James and Adam.
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April BCC Weekender – TickerTape
The day started fantastically, great weather and a spotless trail to mark… somehow Rob and I managed to make the 500m role of course marking tape last 450m’s meaning that we had to get creative if we were to give the illusion of a fully marked course. Seemed to work though as no-one said a thing.
The format was same as always – 1 taped course, plenty of freelap watches, a white board and some good old fashioned competition.
BBMS was riding faster than ever, and it quickly became obvious that the day was gonna see some new PB’s and potentially a new track record!
Some of the highlights were Ben Irons frantically dancing to the jingle of the Morris dancer bells he ‘d strapped to his arms as every rider rode past, James Richards riding the log drop like a man possessed and and Robert Bunce showing more stamina than anyone else ( racking up 8 timed runs).
Chris Smith managed to set a new track record: 36.13, before braining himself on a rock. Pretty selfish really as I’d just managed a 36.48 and was pretty flippin’ intent on celebrating rather than wiping blood off of his face and telling him “you look fine mate, really, it’s not that bad…” typical pro; all about him!
The day ended pretty swiftly after the sabotage crash (seriously, his last run was timed at 8:10), but it had been a great day.
James Richards won the prize for “giving it beans” after riding with real commitment, showing that he’s got the skills just needs to let them out. Closely followed by Robert Bunce who really put the effort in on the day.
The spot prize was won by Adam, the stealth rider amoung us, quietly going about his business getting his lines sorted….won’t be long before he starts posting some fast times.
Both James and Adam won a bottle of Fenwicks bike cleaner.
Check out the white board to see how people got on….
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April BCC Weekender – Dig Day
April saw our usual “second full weekend of the month” format challenged by the Easter break, so in the interest of camping trips, family visits and general brownie point winning we postponed our monthly event to the following week.
Saturday’s Dig Day had the following list of things to do…
1. Basic trail maintenance (all tracks). – We worked on every trail, but is always ongoing
2. Continue work on the bottom of 143 (as per last dig days agreed plans) – Tabletop done, massive tree moved, but quite a bit still to do
3. Begin work on the existing and alternative top section of 143 (as per last dig days agreed plans) – Still to do
4. Prepare BBMS for this months TickerTape mix-up.– Special Thanks to Juliet, queen of the leaf rake!
5. Collect rocks, stack wood and undo unused trail features to clean up the hill. – Always ongoing
6. Erect noticeboard at seating area. – Still to doIt was a great day; Juliet Amor deserves a very special mention for making BBMS prettier than ever before! And Mark and Gordon also, all three have put a great deal of effort into building stuff they don’t even ride at the mo, we’re really lucky to have such generous members! Cheers guys!
(The next project will be a blue grade XC style downhill section so I’m sure we can all return the favour!)
13 people made it out at various stages, all chipping in and working hard to make sure that BBMS was ready for the TickerTape and the rest of the trails got the love needed to keep them in great shape for the summer.
The mini double on Spoons has been tweaked and is now a lot safer but should ride even nicer too, winner!
The new table top on 143 is lush, it’s got a two stage landing, and is real floaty. It flows straight into a great naturally banked corner which fires you off towards a step up (yet to be built).
We also built a stepped push up to the seating area from the main fire road (bottom of all the trails) that avoids pushing up the back of that berm on 143.
And finally we routed a new line on BBMS into that real flat rooty corner which although easier root wise will still be hard to do real fast, makes the whole section flow better on a Sunday afternoon.
Cheers to all those who got stuck in, it was a great day!
