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We don't normally put race reports on the Agreeable World as racing is just a small part of the enjoyment of cycling and there are enough sites out there making it look like the be all and end all. Anyway there's something about downhilling at the moment that harks back to the early days of mtbing so we are happy to tell the world what goes on at these great events. Jason Thomas reports... PORC Spring Series race 1, 23rd February, Penshurst, Kent The weather over the past two weeks has been amazing, either cold, dry and frosty or unseasonably warm and dry. If there was ever anything that was going to break this spell of good weather, it was a Penshurst race and sure enough, when I awoke on Sunday morning at some ungodly hour and peered out through the kitchen door, I was greeted with grey skies, a wet garden and the most miserable of all weather conditions, drizzle. Typical. The day before, we'd been at Tilgate riding on a course that was almost bone dry but upon arrival at PORC, we were greeted with slippy mud, and lots of it. Thank god I'd left the mud tyres on. One of the beauties of PORC is that whilst it is not the largest hill out there, they have so many options to use for the courses that each time you race there, it will be completely different. The course used for this event started as usual on top of the wooden start ramp near the café, which being covered in a coating of mud, was a challenge in itself and saw a few people getting squirrely before they'd even reached ground level. From here, there was a choice of two berms from the old duel course before a sprint across an open section, over a pallet jump and into a tight left hand berm, followed by a slippy right hand off-camber corner atop a banking which claimed a few riders. The course then headed over a small drop-off over another berm, over a plank bridge and into another jump with the landing being on a slippy off-camber banking; not many people got through this without having to use their right leg to stay upright. A slog through a thick peaty section was followed by a drop onto a fireroad, a gnarly left hander with an evil root on top of it, a drop back onto the fireroad and a loose right hander leading into a sprint down a well defined track. From the bottom of here, the track got really slippy and caught many a rider out. It started with a peaty section with small whoops, turned onto an incredibly wet rooty section where the only thing to do was to cling on for dear life and finished with a long right hander with a surface made up of wet clay. If you made it round this in one piece, the biggest problem you had was stopping after crossing the finish line; Bronwyn Hawthorn had a clean run all the way down to crash just after crossing the line, in front of a crowd of people. By the time practice was over, the rain had stopped and the sun was beginning to poke it's head out between the clouds, drying the top section of the track slightly and cheering up the hoardes of shivering riders waiting for their turn to race. Timing was done by means of walkie-talkies and a stopwatch, but what can you expect for the remarkably low entry price of £8 for non-members? The format used for the results was the best time of two runs so if you slipped off on your first run, all was not lost. The youth riders were first down the track, with Shaun Bayliss (Addiscombe CC) taking the win with a time of 01:07.78, two seconds clear of second place James Marchant (M & N Racing). With a field of just three competitors, Chris Ball (Bikes, Bikes, Bikes) won the Juniors with a time of 01:06.25. Seniors, as always, had the largest category and also produced the three fastest times of the day, with Chris Marshall (Ancillotti UK) riding incredibly smoothly to take the win with a time of 00:58.32 over Neil Harris, who was 0.27 seconds down on Chris - they have very accurate stop watches at PORC. John Andress (Scambolini) took the Masters win with 00:59.69, Vets was won by Phillipe Da Silva (Velo G) who had travelled over from France to clean up with a time of 01:03.20. The hardtail class is usually a popular one at PORC, most probably due to the quarry and duel course being so popular with the dirt jump fraternity, although only six riders competed in this event, with Neil Kemp (Adoniz) winning with a time of 01:05.94. Unfortunately, there was only one competitor in the Women's race, Bronwyn Hawthorn, who finished with a respectable time of 01:25.39. All in all, it was another great days riding at one of the original downhill centres although the small turnout was slightly disappointing, especially after the success of the Winter series. PORC have gained sponsorship from TwentyfourSeven for both the Spring and Summer series' and they had kindly supplied prizes for the first and second placed riders of every category. The next race will be held on 30th March and who knows, it may not rain!! Full results are available on http://www.ukdirt.com
Pedalhounds 2003 series round one Longmoor Military Camp, Liphook, Hants. 5th January 2003 The first time I went to a Pedalhounds race at Longmoor, upon the approach to the venue I noticed that something quite important to the sport of downhill mountain biking was missing. The race village? No, that was there, with a sign on tent, the usual vans stuffed with bikes and kit and the Southern Downhill tent, with Dave F in attendance with his camera and his words of encouragement (cheers mate, I heard the shouts of "Go on Scum" every time I passed you). Competitors? No, there were hundreds of them, of all ages and abilities with bikes ranging from catalogue specials through to World Cup level bikes. Marshalls? No, they were there too, providing a sterling service as usual. No, what was missing was a hill. I looked above the tops of the trees behind the car park area and could see nothing behind them but blue sky. Did the hill drop away from the car park? Was this some optical illusion? No, it was just a very small hill; more of a slight raise really (unless you live in Fen Country, where it would seem like a mountain of Krakatoa's proportions). So how can they run a downhill race when the most important ingredient is missing? With a bit of thought and creative course laying, that's how. When we had raced at Longmoor in December it was a very pedally course but still enjoyable (in a knackering, calf-burning kind of way) and things weren't about to change for this race unless the REME had created a new hill for some bizarre reason. The course itself was, on the whole, very enjoyable to ride with a couple of areas which really could have had a bit more thought. It started with a sprint through a section of narrow, twisty and whoopy singletrack before opening out into some larger whoops and a rooty section. Round a right hand bend and into a root-strewn banking followed by a large, loose sandy berm formed out of a banking, which had many of the Youth riders spitting sand and untangling themselves from their bikes. It then turned round another right hand corner, over the side of a tabletop and into the worst section of any downhill course I've ever ridden - a very wide sandy area that climbed slightly and had rain ruts across it. This, although not actually being that long, seemed to last for ages before the track once again got narrower and weaved in between some trees before dropping again into a tight right hand corner followed by an equally tight left hander. This is where the hill started (I kid you not). Over a small drop, round a hairpin, across an off camber bank, round another hairpin, flat out onto a long left-hander with a drop-off, round another hairpin, into a left hand berm followed by a long right hand off-camber bend and into the most technical part of the course, a 6 foot drop which most riders chose to ride rather than jump due to the evil and slippy landing. After this was a rough, twisty section, a small jump and the finish line, where the sound of heavy breathing from everyone who had just finished was so loud, it was drowning out the traffic noise from the nearby A3. Now I'm sorry if this race report seems a little bit biased to our riders, but they're the ones that I concentrate on and anyway, the results of the top riders are well published in Dirt and MBUK. I will say that I saw Jim Davage have an utterly evil crash that I never thought he'd get up from, only for him to spring up laughing, shout "That's that f**ked then" and carry on at the same speed. As for the Addiscombe Team DH boys, there were three of us there: x Adam, who was participating in his first ever downhill race but had the added benefit of having the support of the staff from Freeborn (that's what comes from throwing your wages at a bike shop each month) x James (Cushtie) on his new Orange 222 and in true Cushtie style, refusing to practice because he was a 'bit tired' x Jason (me, aka Swan, Northern Scum) on my Bullit adorned with Psylo's (since the Boxxers gave up the ghost) and glad of it with the course being as pedally as it was. I surprised myself by placing pretty high in Masters; after the second run I was in fifth place and I can tell you that it surprised me more than anyone else. Unfortunately, with the pressure on to keep this high place, I made some stupid errors on my third run and dropped to Seventh (only a couple of tenths of a second off sixth), although it was still a result that I was happy with. Adam, racing in Seniors, was having a pretty good time of it. There were 72 people in the class and after his second run, he was in 52nd place; not bad for a first race. His aim was to get a top 50 position and with his last run being his fastest, he achieved it (just); he came 50th. It wasn't James's day. Not wanting to practice because he was tired and also felt he knew the course, he hadn't warmed up and didn't know the bottom section of the course which on his first run, was to be his undoing. He crashed on the sandy berm on his second run and as a result, lost all confidence for his third. He still placed 68th (out of 72), and I can guarantee that the people he beat had practiced beforehand, always an advantage!! What shines through about James is that despite never placing too highly, he is always the first person to want to race again and I think that this will eventually pay off. So, that's the way it went. There are no more races at Longmoor now until the tail end of the year which will hopefully give us all the chance to practice sprinting for long periods of time. Everyone there seemed to enjoy themselves despite the limited descent of the course and as with all Pedalhounds races, the organisation was spot on.
All Pictures copyright of Dave Franciosy at www.SouthernDownhill.com , P John at www.UKDirt.com and Adam at werenearlythere |
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