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Cos I is!!!
Heading up there with a few others from Sussex on Friday to set up camp and chill out...
A few questions...
-reckon it'll rain??!!! FFS the reports look like the heavens will open on saturday... sigh....
-ironically...will there be water on tap? The first year I did it we had to bring loads of our own...
-will the lowered Octavia make it into the camping field... :/
This'll be my first year racing in the 'general category'..previously always raced enduros on a HT... i'll sink awaiy into mediocraty amongst the bigger pack!!!
Looking forward to it!
DrP
I'm in, making up the numbers in the Vets category.
Can't answer any of the above questions.. looks like the possibility of a bit or rain but hopefully, with the heat and (from memory) quite a lot of the tracks being in the woods, it won't affect things too much. Having said that, we're booked into a B&B and I may stick a spare front wheel with a Shorty on it in just in case! 😜
Looking forward to some loamy goodness..
Meeee
Taking family down to camp nearby on Weds
First race in 18 months
Looking forward to the weather 🌞🌤️🌥️🌦️⛈️🌩️🌩️⛈️
not me. decided my days of racing for mid-lower pack obscurity are over...
shorty would work well in the loam or the slop, although I'm sure i heard the steep side of the hill is out.
although I’m sure i heard the steep side of the hill is out.
It's a few years since I raced there last time so I couldn't remember what was what.. but, yes, I think the FC stuff is out of bounds at the moment.
quadzilla and doris-doris-doris, maybe the big easy?
Sadly not, was tempted to ask Scott for a place for my lad, but thought it was cheeky
Well been here since weds, it's been roasting
But yellow warning of rain, thu!nder & flood from tonight 😳
Lol yup, it's gonna get messy in the UK.
Whatever happens with the weather
These are the poshest race toilets ever
Just done a track walk.. dem roots (there's one or two) are going to be fun in the wet!
I'll be there! Afternoon start tomorrow which is nice as I can drive up tomorrow without a ridiculously early wake up!
Re: the toilets...wow, Scott's really stepped it up this year! 😲
I bet they don’t look like that on Sunday morning…
First challenge may be getting back into the venue up that entrance slope once it's wet! 🤪
Currently lashing it down in Porlock so I guess its the same in Minehead. Sniper roots will have some victims today.
So how was it, the weather improved considerably and trails around Porlock were good.Any race reports ?
Well back home now
Rain on staurday kept things super slick, I was v twitchy on first couple of stages then by stage 3 really started to enjoy it, but off camber routes on 4 had me on my arse & took ages to get back on and straighten bars. Humidity was killer too
Heavy rain on Saturday night meant Sunday would be fun, Ibuprofen got me past my bruises from Saturday.
By the time I started it had dried out to peanut butter at the start but still slick on the roots.
Only had one crash on Sunday and felt much better, even tho my times improve that much on the stages we rerode! (apart from 4 where slower turned out to be quicker, saw 2 big crashes on my run alone)
Hold up due to rider injury (any info?) on stage 5 interrupted a bit, but overall had a great weekend and that finish into the arena is still sketchy AF
So how was it,
Some excellent tracks with the usual great organisation from @scottfitz and the whole SE crew and all of the volunteers.
On the downside, I had an absolute mare of a weekend and just couldn't get my head round riding the wet, rooty conditions at any sort of pace. Finished near the back of my category a sweaty, frustrated mess.. but that's a problem I have to deal with! 🙃
That red dirt is a pain in the backside to wash off too! #mrgrumpy
Despite a feeling of dread Saturday morning after listening to the rain all night, I:
-completed it
-didn’t crash
-improved (just) on all my times on the repeated stages on the Sunday.
A weekend well spent.
My best stages were 4 and 5 both days (the only 4 stages out of 13 where I was ranked better than my overall finish).
This despite having to CX style get off and run on four both days, and seeing two crashes on the gap jump on 5 while on the transition, decided to go around it.
Not that Im obsessed with toilets or anything but
I found my vid from the 1st southern champs at minehead
how its started
how its going
Howdy...nice to have caught up Kimbers...albeit briefly!
Three of us drove up from West Sussex on Friday, and found a beautiful spot atop the hill...one of the only flat spots in the site!
Tent inflated..bikes off roof..and then we had a nice sunny spin over the 'other side' of the hill. It was lush..dry and hot and dusty.. we rode Quadzilla and another trail or two... not wanting to wear ourselves out, we headed back to camp and had a lovely BBQ, a few drinks, then bed..
Saturday am it was pi$$ing it down, but the rain stopped by the time we headed out.
Managed to ride everything pretty well... no major issues apart from a bit of dodgy shifting from my GX AXS/GArbaruk cassette... thought it might be because it was a new cassette??
Anyway... that thought will come back to haunt me!
Finished upper/mid pack on saturday..then went back to tent to wash bies and ourselves (bless the Worx!) and then watch a film on the ipad, and get an early night!
Slept well, but woke on Sunday with neck ache and a headache.. I couldn't find my paracetamol, so took a cocodamol..made me feel 'floaty' the whole day, and the headache never really went.
Rode up the hill for stage one, and blasted into the stage feeling OK.. about 30m in my rear cassette seized up..I couldn't pedal at all... It turns out i hadn't cranked the lockring up enough and the XD cassette had come loose, and was stuck against the dropout..d'oh...
Tried figuring out what was wrong on the stage, but then hopped back on and rolled down as best as i could...
Lost a minute doing that..
Rolled back to the HQ and cranked up the cassette, then climbed back up agan..managed to catch my mates at the start of stage 2, and practically rolled straight into that stage after beasting it up the climb!
MY head was still sore...I'd lost focus, and from then on really enjoyed myself, tried my best, but i kept making daft/lazy mistakes and was crashing on every other stage!!!
The crashes cost about 20 seconds each, so whereas the chap I was riding with was usually only a few seconds faster than me per stage, I was dropping back...
Gave a tree a whopping shoulder check on teh final stage too..ouch!
Like I said, I had a great time, and rode well on saturday, but the focus wasn;'t there from the off on sunday..and it showed!!
Some pics from sat..
And sunday..
I do love the trails up at Minehead, and the new stage 5 was AMAZING!!!!
Great effort Scott et al..
DrP