Mar 20 -2005 Thetford Winter Enduro Rd 3
One Gear is enough
How's that then, I exploded back into form for 2005 with my first win for over a year. Training hard along with clean living have meant I'm now back on top form and flying. Yea, right. The secret; Some endurance carbo loading in one of Yorkshires finest Ale houses last week contributing to me being a stone over race weight. Stir in a 8 hr shift and a 25mph avg road race the day before. Add that to a full race spec singlespeed with Mecanno wheel mounts, a touch of crap brakes and you have a sure fire recipe to beat team Extremes finest veteran, he he. Brilliant, should have adopted this serious training thing years ago, its loads more fun that clocking up loads of winter hours. Riding is such fun at the moment and to get a prize and a trophy for Series 3rd Overall doing it is cool. Come on guys I'm trying hard not to hog this website you know. Jack Peterson 2005
So what happened then. Saturday it was a 2 and 4 hr Enduro over what seemed like the totally wrong direction for most of the good trail sections. Ed Mair, Ian Whatling, Tom Wright and Nige Scott flew the Plumz banner but all found it hard going in the un seasonal warm temperatures. Nige with mate Martyn, rode the two laps together before Nige dropped back to 9th. Ian Though did enough completing 5 laps for 25th in the 4 hrs. Enough to help him secure 3rd Overall in the Young riders competition for juniors mixing it with the big lads, sponsored by Extreme-Endurance, well done. Tom did 4 laps for 34th and Ed packed after 4 laps for 26th Tom made a full weekend of it and hit the night time trial laid on to entertain the campers for the weekend, and was amazed to find out he did it a lot slower. Don't forget its dark and you had 4 hrs in your legs, recovery drinks are not that good mate. Dave Hemming, there working for Marin, showed everyone a clean pair of heels for the fastest time of the night.
So who's messing up Woody (3rd)and Geoffs (4th) party then?
Sundays race and it was another 2 and 4 hr session. The four hour went off first and Jack span off the line like a hamster on acid to clear a first corner crash, BigRing got clipped and flew off into the bushes. Paul Ashby became honorary Plumster for the day, teaming up with Nige for the pairs as both had raced Saturday. He didn't fair so well and somersaulted over a fallen rider in spectacular style. Top Video here from Pete Harris Paul's the flying rider. Paul showed great speed though, by flying through the field to return after the first 9.5 mile lap as first rider back, by a good margin. Nige must have kacked himself being handed the baton and told to fend off the charge of the Elite soloists including Woody and Geoff B. He didn't hold them up to much as he put in a stormer and enjoyed the clear track. In fact the pairing were the first finishers of the day on 7 laps at the flag. Behind them Jack and BigRing seemed to go into apathy mode cruising with some riders who liked interesting lines in the corners. With 6 laps looking like the potential in 4 hrs, it was steady as you go. The Giant pair of Gregg and Katie proved good pace setters and company. BigRing soon got bored and needed a clear track, moving ahead. But yet again the Thetford jinx struck as he floundered with 2 punctures just as in round 2. The first a sudden flint burst, boy he looked happy.
Adi had his usual go at keeping with the fast boys before blowing up spectacularly towards the end (just for a change ehh). One surprise was when Geoff B took the race to them, and himself went bang for a 10 minute slower crawling lap. This left Woody to cruise in for the win with 7 laps, rounding off a hard weekend after his Saturday win over the 4 hrs too.
Meanwhile Jack soon realised his idea of a fun ride to possibly win the 4 hr Singlespeed, had turned into a winning ride for the Senior Plus event. Second after the first 4 laps to James Carpenter, pretty consistent laps showed the power of spinning round here as he slowly closed the gap. The lead was clawed back and the pass took place on the 5th lap (not that anyone noticed, including me. JP) another lap and he'd have caught the exploding Adi at the end too. Big Ring came in 17 mins later after having to scrounge a spare tube for his second blowout, look at that killer 3rd lap time, Ouch.
Full Results are up Saturday at Timelaps and Sunday at Timelaps Our Lot's times are below Sunday 4 Hours               Lap 1 Lap 2 Lap 3 Lap 4 Lap 5 Lap 6 Lap 7 Total 6th. Adi Scott 36:32 37:20 39:20 40:11 48:28 46:38   04:08:29 1st Vet. Jack Peterson 42:10 41:56 43:10 42:19 43:16 43:23 04:16:14 11. Lloyd Bettles 41:17 40:26 1:00:43 41:26 44:59 44:49   04:33:40 14. Tom Wright 51:04 52:07 55:35 57:42 58:47     04:35:15 Sunday 4 Hr pairs                 1st. Nigel Scott 37:20   38:27   39:59   04:21:29   Paul Ashby 35:45   35:54   36:35   37:29 Sunday 2 Hours               4th. Ed Mair 38:49 39:51 40:37 41:11       02:40:28 7th. Stu Knubley 39:39 40:38 42:29         02:02:46 Saturday 4 Hours                 25. Ian Whatling 45:09 52:42 53:08 56:31 50:19     04:17:49 34. Tom Wright 45:54 52:00 1:49:35 1:05:17       04:32:46 35. Ed Mair 40:13 41:53 47:31       02:09:37 Saturday 2 Hours                 4th. Martyn Chapman 36:48 37:59 40:34 43:10       02:38:31 9th. Nigel Scott 36:49 38:04 47:15         02:02:08 So Adi got fastest lap of the day Sunday (we 'll ignore Paul) but a cracker from Nige at 47:20 in there.
The 2 Hr race Sunday New recruit to Plumz towers Stu Knubley was out for a good finish to try and punch himself up the overall ranking, but the massive entry in round 2 had really meant he had a mountain to climb. Ed joined in the fun for the short one, mainly due to the fact that his Trek's suspension bearings had exploded on Saturday and he was stuck with his vintage Kona for the day. A great ride from Ed saw him just get a fourth lap in to grab 4th ( even though he's in the wrong results and down as third senior Plus rider) Nice of the scorers to mess it up to help Stu, but it was no use only 7th didn't help his cause.
These Pic's of our boys and some others are in the new site gallery section. Go here to see listing - Plumz pics. They are no great quality, as always if you want one of yourself, get in touch.