Race Report

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=110 BGCOLOR="#999933" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="44b006e0ddwnfv.gif"> <div> <B>UK Riding </B><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" ><B>     |    </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="UK Riding "><U><B>home</B></U></A></FONT></div> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=190 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" background="44cbec00esnpes.gif"> <div> <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Races"><U><B>Back to Race page</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My Words"><U><B>Back to 'My Words'</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=370 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> Race Report<FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Onabike Stage Race at Bratton, Devon</B></FONT></div> <div> 21st, 2nd September - Onabike Stage Race - Bratton, Devon.</div> <bR> <div>      <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >This was not your average race, usually we have 2 runs and the best out of the two count. But this weekend we had 7 runs on 2 different tracks, and with all the runs added together to go towards your overall position, you had to be very consistent.</FONT></div> <div>      The weather was hot and sunny both days, which made the tracks very dusty and loose. Both tracks were made up of MX tracks, mixed together with bus stops, corners and technical bits towards the bottom, they were both fast and quite pedally, and about 1.30 mins long each.</div> <div>  <B>Track1- </B>Out the start it was a pedal round a right hand berm then trough a series of tight corners, then over a few drops, and lots of fast bus stops, wide corners and MX whoops. Then towards the bottom, some roots and some wooded singetrack and then out into the finish through the beam.</div> <div> <B>Track2-</B> Straight out of the start there were loads of loose, dusty corners, nothing too technical. Then down a fast wide track with a slight left, this was really really fast, you were going at least mph. Then drop down into the woods, jumping the undulations, then a scary bit going through handle bar width trees at 20mph, then two open offcamber corners, then a drop into the finish. For the 5th and 7th race there was an extra bottom bit, which was along a bumpy track then two berms into the field.</div> <div> My catergory was really close, with me leading Dan Hume (MBUK/Scott) and Ali Maidman (MBUK/Scott), through most of it until I crashed in the 6th run, letting Ali win by 0.11 seconds, that's very very close considering it was over 10 minutes overall. So I was left sandwiched between the two MBUK riders overall - Ali Maidman 1st, Me (Ashley Loram) 2nd and Dan Hume 3rd. Matt wasn't doing too well finishing 6th on a borrowed 222, and he liked it so much he's swapped his giant for one. Winner overall went to junior Ashley Mullane (Dartmoor Cycles).</div> <div> At the end of the day there was a supercup, where the fastest 20 riders out of all categories raced one run. Ashley Mullane won that, and I was fastest youth rider, finishing 7th, and only 0.5 of a second off a trophy and £10, Bah!</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="77b34990.jpg" border=0 width="308" height="409" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">  <IMG SRC="77d199a0.jpg" border=0 width="281" height="410" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div>             Matt, finished 6th.                                                                       Ashley, finished 2nd.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>