Dalby Dare 21/05 – Beastway 25/05

[Sylv]

DD

Last weekend was the Cross Country Mountain Bike World Cup round 2 in Dalby Forest, North Yorkshire. Joel and I went to watch and also entered the “Dalby Dare” citizen’s race on the day before the Elite event, which took on one lap of the course, plus an extra loop into the forest. Our warm-up was completed with the 20-mile road ride to the venue which helped getting rid of the previous night’s wine excesses, and pre-race meal was a ham sandwich, cappucino and energy Bar, plus a taster of seven sausages from the Yorkshire Tourist Board, which was trying to find out which one was the best. We hoped that we wouldn’t encounter those sausages again during the race.

Lining up before the start I got asked by the commentator how long I was expecting my race to take, to which I hazarded a guess of about an hour – the cheeky sod seemed to find this hilarious – it was only meant to be 20km after all – or 25 depending on the source. I also said I had never ridden the course which seemed like a bit of a concern to him. Off we were and after a frantic start I sensibly let someone take the lead, following his wheel through the twisty forest singletrack. It was all fine until we reached the first of the infamous technical sections, a vertical drop-off which had me coming to a standstill and getting off the bike! Lost some time there, as well as on another tricky rock climb. Later on I had a small tumble which misaligned my front mech.

So I lost sight of first place and saw at the end of the lap, on the giant UCI board, that I was 40 seconds down after 22 min. The Elites would take over 2 min less than that .. Then it was onto the forest loop, mostly less technically demanding. I tried hard to push on and as we reached Dixon’s Hollow, the BMX-type set of berms with 1km to go, was within sight of first place. A lack of marshals at a junction there meant that he hesitated and lost maybe 10 sec, so I got even closer but thought it would be bad form to now fight for the win. Still, I would have had a hard time had I tried. We crossed the line him in 1st and me 2nd seconds apart, that was an amazing (and quite humbling) experience to be riding the same course as the pros, and to be able to compare our times.

As the same commentator spotted me again after the finish I had to have a go at him as my time was only a couple minutes over the hour (and the course 21.7km). So he gave me a T-shirt.

Elite race photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/patronchou ... 788522472/


BW

I would not normally had ridden both Palace and Beastway in the same week but it was such a nice day and I was keen to put some racing miles before having a good rest prior to this weekend’s suffer-fest in Wessex. I made sure I had secured a lift back from Hog Hill first, with Grahame. Riding there from central London via Eastway, which I hadn’t done in a few years, brought back some good memories! Billy Joe Whenman, who was also racing in Dalby but in the Pro race, and is an Olympic hopeful, turned up so the win was already pretty much out of question save for a miracle.

Course was good fun, weaving its way around and up and down the road circuit, bone dry, pretty hilly and with nowhere to rest. Experts and Juniors started first and Whenman shot off to eventually win by 1’30. After another old familiar face, Steve Hambling led the rest of us for a lap then faded badly, from then on three of us got engaged in a battle that would last all the way to the line. It was me leading, followed by Ian Longville from Beyond MTB, and Matthew Webber from hosting club London Phoenix (who later fell back). It was relentless, despite my attacking up all the hills and trying to nail the lines in the twisty slow forest sections, in the corner of my eye I could always see someone right behind me. I didn’t even get a chance to take a drink from my bottle all race long.

On the last lap I was getting pretty knackered and so decided to let Ian come past, take his wheel and hope he’d go a little slower this way, to recover for the finish, an uphill sprint across a rutted grass field. I could probably have played it a bit safer and try attack before that, but it had seemed that I had the ascendant on that section in previous laps so I gambled on it. So we both went for it, it was so so close, I almost managed to come through on the inside of the final corner, as he’d gone wide outside a lapped rider, but just couldn’t, and John Mullineaux had to almost physically refrain us from crashing into each other as we reached the finishing timing mat, him in 2nd and me 3rd. A great race followed by birthday cakes courtesy of Sarah from the Structureless Tyranny and the usual few pub drinks on the way back, which got me home minutes before Thursday.

[Jon H]

Well that's all very interesting, but which was the best sausage?

[Sylv]

By common agreement, # 7. We double checked too. And we wanted to triple check after the race, but they'd gone.

As you can see, we ate it all

[img]http://www.baseballphd.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/aAF7Vpaa.jpg[/img]

god i'm bored!

[stamourp]

Fantastic result Sylv. I saw them posted this morning, and there was only one second in it. Sorry I didn't see you there. When Billy Whenlan glided to the line I knew the Experts was going to be a fearsome race.

After a rotten start at Beastway #1 (6th in class), I was planning for better this week racing Masters. The course last night was my preferred format, maximising the downhill from behind the clubhouse all the way down to the foot of the anti-clockwise road course ascent. I was starting to find my race legs about half way through and apart from the usual tribulations finding a way through the backmarkers and juniors, was happy with my position.

Coming in to the final lap I could see a rider coming up fast behind. I thought if I could maintain speed from the sections I know I was pulling away in, and make myself wide in those I was not, I could carry it to the line. Strategy was working well until the transition over the lip from grass to pump track midway along the downhill, taken safely countless times before. The take off was masterful, the landing a disaster and I came to with a smashed helmet in a heap, staring at a marshall. Lost two minutes putting myself back together, and I don't know how many places.

Knackers. With seven out of ten rounds counting, and the first two not being exemplars, I'm working for a change in fortune for the remaining events.

Thanks

Peter

[Sylv]

Ouch. Do you mean just after going behind the clubhouse? That was a tricky section, each lap I was tempted to go through that bump flat out without breaking, but I bottled out of it every time – probably for the best.

Did spot you from afar before the start, but kind of forgot I wasn’t in ACC colours and so would be difficult to spot myself!

[stamourp]

Yes, the very same. Some publicity for Beastway has a shot from 2010 of Billy Whenlan flying masterfully over it.

Same as you, each lap I'd wiped some speed off to avoid what I rode straight into on the last lap. What an eejit I am. I'll keep a better eye out for you next time, Addiscombe colours or no.

I enjoyed the write up of Dalby. Something I'd very much like to do, and I know Serge had mentioned the course was not his favourite due to the technical sections. Sound pretty challenging for an XC course, as they should be at World Cup level. I've only seem them on TV and the majority of the pros were taking the chicken runs.