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"> <div> Race Report</div> <div> <B>Onabike Winter Series Rounds 1 and 2 -</B></div> <div> <B>- Launcherly 19th and 20th October - by Ashley Laurem</B></div> <div> The beginning of a new winter series down in `sunny Devon' was held at the steep hill at launcherly. When we arrived on Saturday morning it was freezing cold and muddy. The venue was a steep wooded hillside with a MX track around the grassy fields at the bottom. This provided some entrainment for some of us and a few spectators, launching the big motorcross step-down at the end of the day.</div> <bR> <div> <U>Round 1</U></div> <div> The track started at the top of the woods with a pedal round two fast corners, then brake hard for a very hard tight corner, this was so steep and tight that in practice almost every rider just flew over the top of the small berm. Pedal out and roll along the off-camber corners going across the hill, then through a few tight, steep berms and then fast over some more off camber, roots and corners. Jump down the fast undulations and a few corners and you jumped into a field, pedal flat out and jump over a gap through a hedge and though the finish beam. </div> <div>      It was drying out quite a bit making the top off-camber bits much faster, but it was still quite greasy with some slippy roots. It was quite short with average times being about 1.50mins. Ashley Mullane (Dartmoor cycles) got fastest overall time again, with 1.27, three seconds clear of junior winner James Gould (Remec). Me, Matt and Dan were put into Junior for this race, so it was a lot harder, I crashed in my fastest run so I managed a 6<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >th</FONT> which I was quite happy about considering the people ahead were top 10 in Britain, and Matt came 15<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >th</FONT> and Dan 14<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >th</FONT>, and well done to Dave Michel from our team Repack Racing who got a very good 2<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >nd</FONT> in Masters.</div> <div> <U>Round 2</U></div> <div> It started and finished in the same place as round 1, off the start and keep low over the table top to jump a small double, then pedal across a field and a few tight corners with a drop and `the patio', before dropping down into the steep section, with a few corners and some log steps. You then dropped down an off camber bit, rail a fast berm and over some very slippy roots,  over a pile of logs covered by a carpet, into a rock garden then round a right and drop into another rock garden, two more corners and a wall ride then a jump and pedal into more rocks to gain enough speed to launch a step down into the filed, then just one more open corner and drop off an MX berm into the finish. </div> <div> The course was riding very well in practice, but by the time racing started, it was absolute chaos. The dirt was clay so it became very, very, very slippy, it became impossible to even walk it. Most people were crashing at least every 10 seconds, and only a very small number of riders did it without crashing. I just gave up half way through, as did many others. The fastest time was done by Masters winner Chris Old (Somerset Bike Centre) with a 1.48, (just how he did it I will never know) whilst most of the usual winners were getting around 2.30 minutes!</div> <bR> <div> <B><U>Rd.1 results</U></B><B> </B></div> <div> Youth</div> <div>        1. Alex Evans</div> <div>        2. Ali Maidman (MBUK/Scott)</div> <div>        3. Mike Strickland (Somerset Bike Centre)</div> <div> Junior</div> <div> James Gould (Remec)</div> <div> Phillip Shucksbridge</div> <div> Dan Stanbridge (Muddy Fox)</div> <div> <B>Ashley Loram (Repack Racing)</B></div> <div> <B>15. Matt Schofield (Repack Racing)</B></div> <div> Senior</div> <div> Ashley Mullane (Dartmoor Cycles)</div> <div> Tom Tuckey (Remec)</div> <div> Matt Roberts (Dartmoor Cycles)</div> <div> Master</div> <div> Richard Green</div> <div> <B>David Michael (Repack Racing</B>)</div> <div> Chris Old (Somerset Bike Centre)</div> <bR> <div> Full Results and Rd2 Results at www.mountainbikeracing.co.uk/nacc</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>