Marin Winter Series 2004 - Rd 1 - Thetford
Thetford racing put on either a 2 or 4 hour race over the same course, proper Enduro stuff then.
All links below are photos from the Pro. on site for the day derekhaden get yourself a mousemat here.
Wrong, riders were called to the line on time which meant some frantic throwing of tools into pockets and the mistakes that rushing brings for me and Bigring.
On the line the 2 hour lot went first, this seemed a strange choice as most of the racing whippets were in the 4 hr event. As they went off we were held in our own little cramped pen. As I stood by the bike waiting to be moved forward to the line the race was started.....I nearly booted somebody jumping on the bike, great half the 4 hr were now in front of me as well as the whole 2 hr field.
The first lap was like a mad mtb video game, hitting bottle necks at the bomb holes, ( Jack ) and scrambling past on the narrow singletrack I even passed ( Bigring ) . ( Ed ) got a steady one
First bit of fireroad and as the blur of singlespeed legs cut in, I waited for BigRing to fly past, and waited, he never came.
Next fireroad and it was another wazz past loads of riders, Bigring joined at the end and dived into the laps final singletrack first, Just as I was thinking this was going OK.......bang
I had some humugeous wide bars on and mis judged just how wide they were, hitting a tree and stacking big time as they were ripped out my aching arms. Doh. Took me ages to get up as well, all that overtaking wasted.
Up front Paul Ashby and Adi closely followed by Woody wer ripping the field to pieces with 30 minute laps, Rob Lee and Anthony White chasing hard.
BigRing at 33:53 shows I blew plenty of time coming through at 34:41, but amazingly I was still 2nd in the Vets Cat behind Andy pegg, as usual who flew round in 33:04.
Ed who is flying at the moment was cruely hit with a split gear cable, and after jamming it in one big gear did the first in 36:03.
Just how much traffic is evident from Stu Knubleys- first lap in the 2 hr race. 31:51 is flying must be all that extra training were giving you. Great ride from Stu, leading after the first half lap a crash took it out of him though and finally came in 5th behing FNSS regular Ben loaker in the 2 hr class.
Craig got his new Kona dirty in the 2 hr , and Ian W and Ricky got on with the longest race distance they have ever done.
So lap 4 started with Woddy long gone on his way to victory. Adi still on Ashbys tail, Ed pounding a big gear, chased byBigRing and a floundering Jack
Ed gave up with much the same problem on 4 laps too, pushing his only gear blew his legs.
2 hrs gone and the faster starters pay the price, some of the big losers in the later laps included Adi who dropped to finish 9th.
BigRing on the other hand showed that a steady start does you no harm, picking off rider after rider in the later laps even though stopping to get food after that messed up rushed start we had.
His lap times are a great example of how to pace yourself for the distance, good ride bud.
Nice to see as well that he passed Vet winner Andy Pegg on the last lap. Food for thought, your mine next time, watch out.
I was lucky all I lost was a days memory and some skin.
Are Pace rigid forks worth the risk ?
| 2 hr | Laps | Times | |
| Stewart KNUBLEY - KCC | 5th | 5 | 31:5133:05 34:11 35:24 31:51 |
| Craig SIMPSON - Numplumz | 30th | 5 | 38:50 38:49 39:33 43:00 38:49 |
| 4 Hr | |||
| Adrian SCOTT - Numplumz | 9th | 7 | 30:33 30:20 30:35 32:01 35:01 39:34 41:38 |
| LLoyd BETTLES - Numplumz | 12th | 7 | 33:53 35:38 36:00 35:36 36:14 37:04 37:32 |
| Andrew SEARCY - Cats MBC | 36th | 6 | 37:08 35:56 38:04 43:40 45:39 44:39 |
| Steve GILES | 50th | 6 | 42:54 41:20 41:39 43:23 4:23 44:51 49:36 |
| Ricky COX - Numplumz | 53rd | 6 | 37:52 38:11 42:43 50:16 49:12 47:41 |
| Tom WRIGHT - KCC | 63rd | 5 | 39:11 41:22 42:05 50:00 51:08 |
| Ed MAIR - Numplumz | 75th | 4 | 36:03 34:42 34:24 36:23 |
| Jack PETERSON - Numplumz | 76th | 4 | 34:41 35:15 36:27 42:11 (7th singlespeed) |