This was Ross riding one of the May races, but he was flying again today to leave the rest of the Weaver Valley contingent in his wake. Matthew and I had a battle which lasted most of the 2 hour race and Derek did much better than last time(when he crashed) finishing on the same lap as Matthew and me.
Mathew making it look easy? …well pretty tricky actually…and it was!
Kevin had his first crack at mtb racing and loved it, saying he’ll do it again. We all got back safely without any mishaps on this very demanding course. Thanks to the Brownbacks team for organising it, we’ll be back next year if I have forgotten how gruelling it was. Loads of fantastic action pictures at http://clearshot-photos.com/bike%20gallerys/Brown%20backs%20r3%20s2/index.html and http://ikam99.co.uk/ikam99/Lee_Quarry_181009.html
Meanwhile Kevan has been riding cyclo cross (2 races this weekend) in the NWCCA league where he is well up in his category – well done Kev.
Leave your comments here to let us know what you thought about the race. Results should be at http://www.brownbacksracing.co.uk/ and http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/cyx/cyclo_cross_results.asp soon.
At first I thought I would just go along to watch, and then after a few "why not have a go" discussions decided to become a "Have a go Hero" for the day. Six months ago I would not have even considered it, but Delamere, Llandegla, and Coed-y-Brenin have given me a few skills, especially how to fall off with style. Gutted to see the only action shot on the web is me running down a hill, but I did eventually manage to ride the course, honest.
Can't wait for the results to see how we all did. There are some more picures here. http://www.ikam99.co.uk/ikam99/Lee_Quarry_181009.html
(sorry, I still can't work out how to do the HTML tags to make it a proper link)
I ache a lot this morning. It's the toughest couple of hours I've spent for a while. Great pictures. Glad you had a go Kev and enjoyed it, you have made remarkable progress in a few months.
I'd like to say that I'd raise a glass to all those that raced at the weekend but I my arms are to tired to lift the class up!!
Ross
Good to know you WERE trying Ross. More pics on the BC website and also some info on new trails in Gisburn forest
http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/mtb/article/mtb-20090910-New-Graded-Trails-at-Gisburn-Forest-0#
Anyone fancy heading up there for the January ride?
Those pics of Gisburn look brilliant. Probably not so sunny and attractive in Jan though.
Nice pics on the BC website, me obviously not taking my intended line, and Dereks bum.
Yep, Count me in. I need all the experience I can get for Brownbacks 2010….
Did Gisburn on Sunday in the wet. It's very tight and very technical, drainage is poor in parts making it quite hazzardous in the wet. We had 7 out of 10 fall off. Only minor injuries fortunately. I didn't like it myself. I could see it being better in the dry though. Butty van does a nice sausage/bacon bap and decent coffee. Oh, and the parking is crap.
"It's very tight and very technical, drainage is poor in parts making it quite hazardous in the wet."
Sounds ace!
Derek said…
one too many laps in my book. Solid but very satisfying to finish it this time. I think we looked good with 5 riders all wearing club strip and the support was impressive as well. Standing still in that chill was something we didn't manage to endure after the race for too long so to do it cheering us on mucho respect! The photo's don't do justice to how knackered i was feeling but they are really good on the BC site.
Well done to you guys for giving it a go – making me feel a bit guilty for not trying it! Maybe next time, unless I can think of another good excuse (which I probably can).
Does anybody fancy a Delamere ride this Saturday? I dont have much planned and the weather might put me off my road bike, so I thought I might go crunching over some leaves on my knobblies instead.
Yeah Gareth. I can do Saturday. Meet at the Cafe at around 10:00/10:30?? I hope you know the way cause I haven't got a scooby..
I can't make it this weekend, but have a good time the rest of you.
Can't do Saturday but check out gisburn rollercoaster on utube, looks great
Yeah great Kevin, lets meet at the cafe at 10.30. I know a few trails around the forest but I'm sure I can get us lost somewhere! See you there.
Great. I think we are going to get really wet, just as well I haven't cleaned my bike from Sunday. I know I was only a Have A Go Hero, but the suspense of waiting for the results is killing me!! Anyone else feel the same????
Yeah,likewise. They sure are taking their time.
Hope you had a good time Kevin and Gareth. Had a good day out today at the Otterspool Park cyclo cross – great turnout from WVCC, Karen and Andy Boyle and Ross – Kev started then after 20 metres his back wheel came off (well when he explained it to me it sounded a bit more technical than that but that's the gist of it) so he had to drop out, he was a little dis-chuffed to put it mildly – Ross did brilliantly, Andy kept wise-cracking, Karen was valiant, I just found it really hard especially as I fell off three times in the first lap. But it was sort of fun in retrospect.
Results are out! How fast where the front runners. I lost 3 minutes on the first lap.
OK, I have a bit of time on my hands at the moment and so I have done some analysis on the results and my findings are
1. Only 12 people did 7 laps and Ross was one of them
2. The second lap was everyones quickest, apart from Nick who did his PB on lap 3
3. Derek "died" on his final lap
4. Nick and Matt were very close throughout
5. My fastest lap was my last
Finally, if a few more people took part we would probably have won the Team Prize, if there was one!!!!
Thanks for your analysis Kevin, but I can confirm that it wasn't just Derek who died on the last lap! Thanks for the graph too which seemed to show that we all did lap 4 in around the same time.
I'm going to have to have a word about borrowing the software they used, for logging the times, for next year's cyclo cross, although it didn't seem to speed up the results much.
Looks good for Hit the North race on 20 Feb being a week before Llanberis and I'll put Gisburn down for the January ride – if we don't try it we shall never know.