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There's a slight twist in it though too, we'd only likely be riding one trail. 'Proper Job'.
There's a race down there on the 7th Nov, DH race on Proper Job. So we'd likely only go there on the Sat, ride it 2-3-4 times to get his eye in and learn it a bit, then race it on the Sunday.
I don't know if it's a 10 mins gradual ride up, a 20 mins ride, a 30 mins push up, or what. The trail itself looks fun for him, but a little short.
It's a 4 hour drive and an overnight stay. So quite expensive in terms of price per time on the trail. But may be decent experience for the boy and will certainly be trails we've never ridden.
But some personal experience would be nice too.
Can’t comment on the push up, I’ve only ever done the uplift, but the trails are awesome. I’d happily ride Proper Job all day, prefer SuperTavi but PJ is almost equally as good
For me it’s a 4-5hr each way trip, including a ferry, and 100% worth it. Admittedly I haven’t been in a while but that’s because my mates are a bit scared of it and it’s a long way to go on my own 😂
I can see gawton from my house. rarely ride there these days.
10-15min ride up, 20min push. it's quite steep.
if you are going sub 2mins then your pretty quick.
i'm not sure I'd drive 4 hours for that but then I'm not a racer.
I would definitely make a weekend of it, not sure i could just ride that track all weekend but for me you're missing a trick driving all that way and not having a look down the other tracks - Super Tavi, Mega Tavi, Egypt, Rock n roller, even HSD has had a spruce up. Plus there is a nice jump line (Rattler) at the top if your lad fancies some air time in between runs. Mostly steep tech with the odd jump here and there. 20 min push up, you can ride it, it's all fairly steep fireroad.
The problem with riding the other stuff is race practice and fatigue i guess. He'll do better the more he practices on the run he'd be racing on... The good thing is, i could ride all of them LOL.
thanks for the info though guys. We're still debating if we'll make it, there's only 11 others entered which isn't a lot. So may depend on the weather for us.
I saw something about jay williamson doing a training day on the day before the race. Might be worth a look.
It appears i've just entered the boy in this one.
@jam-bo if you fancy a pint the night before we're staying locally in pub.
Looks like we're racing on HSD now, which seems at least in my opinion to be far better for me... not sure it's better or worse for the boy 🙂
Question for locals, do any of the trails finish by the end of HSD. I was thinking of Sunday practice and when the boy heads down the race trail, I'll ride a different trail down then push back up with him.
Pretty much all of them share the same push up, you won't be too far away if you take Super Tavi, Egypt, Proper Job etc all the way down.
Theyre all a bit on the black side of things ?
Missed your post the other day. Got family down so tied up, sorry.
they all finish in more or less the same spot but I think they used to close off the other tracks when racing is on. At least the start of them anyway. Not sure who’s running the show now so might have changed.
you can ride down the road to nowhere which is the push up/ pedal up track. It’s a fire road.
HSD is the easiest, then proper job, super tavy, Egypt.
Thanks Jam. Sadly on the Sunday i shouldn't/won't ride HSD as i don't wanna get in the way of racers practicing. Proper Job looked OK in the videos though so will do that and have a look at Tavy too.
It’s quite an easy place to session sections, there are 3-4 fireroads crossing the hill and every track.
Did 7 runs of HSD. Lots of fun. Pedal back up was fine. He should be golden for tomorrow. Let's see what happens from there.
Today was race day at Gawton. I'd decided before the event not to race and that was partly justified as the boy threw a burp flat at the end of practice run 1. Which meant a quick fix, check and sort back at the car. If i'd not been there and would have instead been out in my practice i'd likely have missed him and he'd have missed run 2.
But after he'd done run 2 i decided i'd sign up to race...
"sorry, we've done all the race numbers/timings and the guy with the transponders has gone to the bottom of the course now"
It was a blessing in some ways as my Cat was out about 90 mins after his, so we'd have been home a lot later, but i was also disappointed that it was a DH course i'd have been able to ride (as we did 7 runs each on Sat of it, clearly i could get down it) and the chance of me doing a DH race again is very small.
But anyway he went out for race 1 and it went like practice, smooth, simple and effective. He was trying a couple of new lines in practice and they'd not really worked, so "just ride the simple route and keep it smooth" was the order of the day. We missed where he finished in race run 1 as we didn't know the timing guy was only posting the results at the finish (which weirdly compared to most places it the opposite end to the car park.
Race 2 was after a 90 min break which he spent most of it jumping on the jump line instead of resting lol.
Again, smooth, easy simple and i met him at the bottom to see he got a 5th place.
Awesome job from him that and over a 2 min run he was 8s off the winner, but importantly he was <2s off the podium place. the course suited him and the bike though that's for sure. But it's a huge improvement in distance to the winner etc from previous DH results.
Happy happy boy 🙂
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51662441643_0e2a6ac376_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51662441643_0e2a6ac376_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2mHew1t ]2021-11-07_08-25-27[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
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