So it was with some trepidation about the weather we slithered our cars to the mid-forest parking spot to take part in round 3 of the Brass Monkeys series hosted by Gorrick.

Starting with numb fingers after a 10 minute practice warmup, 3 LP’s lined up wishing the start procedure would quickly lead on to the race.  Soon we were off, taking some care on the mass downhill start with sharp left turn t the bottom.   The conditions were actually quite good, with the woodland trails firm to start, but forgiving with exception of two short sections at the far end which were coated in ice/snow – careful now…

The narrow trails offered few passing opportunities, especially noted at the beginning sections which had several short steep climbs which backed up the riders on the first lap – a mistake here led to lengthy first lap, but with most riders offering polite passing exchanges the racing was off and soon spread out among the trees.

Registering -1 on my Garmin, it was a case of pushing a steady yet quick pace through the trees.  On the second lap the trails had softened under the many riders wheels, proving a sticky yet actually grippier surface to push front wheels into for the rest of the race.

Congrats to Jack Curzon finishing 19th in Vets, and Allan Wiener despite being new to MTB and snapping a chain, guiding a shiny and very racy looking new Cube around the course.