Fred podium pants.JPG
Ooer my back, etc...another fun day/night at Minley, this time riding in the male 3 rider cat with Russ from Hackney GT and Neil Cooper, a long term associate of Russ. Well organised, good atmosphere, pretty low key but with enough going on to make it feel like a proper event.
On the Saturday there were the kids races with Stan's son, Dylan, going like a train in his one, at the front all the way until he had a prang in the woods and came in third. Fred, my lad, and I were having a cup of tea waiting for the start of his race when the organiser lady came running over saying that his race had started, they'd decided to run all the older categories together, so followed a comedy rush to the start where we saw the peloton heading off into the dust. Not the best start and as he came round for lap 2 he still didn't know he had another 3 to go. He did get on the podium but there were only 3 finishers in the 13-15 class...
We managed a fairly respectable 4th in our category the next day with Russ setting the fastest lap times and me and Neil not too far behind. I must admit to being apprehensive about the night riding and managed 2 offs in the first dark lap, the second a quite spectacular endo whilst enthusiastically but inaccurately riding the A line I'd committed to. I hit a tree stump at some speed which suddenly appeared towards the top of the exit of the rooty half pipe thingy. Nice dismount, so embarrassing rather than painful. Harvey (ex LP) was a witness to this but it was only after getting in that I realized it was him who'd been asking if I was ok.
Some of the solo 12 hour riders were blisteringly quick, shooting past me on the last couple of laps where tiredness and caution were slowing me down, obviously technique means you can save energy but still some were setting faster laps at 11 pm than I could manage sprinting in the day time.
Anyhoo, all good fun, need to get in some more practise and upper body strength!
Didn't see Stan at the end of his 6 hour solo, hope it went ok and your shoulder held out.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
. Up for some others if I can.