Marin Rough Ride 2009
Before the ride
I drove down the day before the ride and was hoping to arrive before 5pm so I could put in an order for barbeque food and beer.
Unfortunately no one told me that Saturday the thirteenth of June is National Drive Your Big Slow Device Down The Smallest
Lanes In The Country day. As a spectator it's not the greatest event I have to be honest but, credit it where it's due, I'm
pleased to report that at least in Wales, as back home in the Lake District, it's an extremely popular event and the locals
turned out in force! Nearing the
campsite I drove through a place called Pembridge which was a small medieval looking village where just about every building looked all over the shop...
no two buildings alike, in fact no two walls on any one building alike...a very bizarre little village but looks like a great place to
base yourself if you fancy doing some riding in the area.
On arrival at the camp site there were already several hundred people camping and I suddenly realised it might take me a while to
find the club, given that I have no one's phone number and I've only met a handful of them once or twice...bad move. Fortunately
I spotted Chris Denham
on my first lap of the field so went over and said a few hello's and then got all my kit sorted.
It was a beautiful Summer
evening so we went out for a ride for an hour to have a look at the first five kilometres of the course, returning on the
last five which would hopefully be a decent downhill section. Looking at who was going on the ride (Chris, Stephen, Brendan amongst others) I was fearing some sort of full on hammer
session where I'd be left for dead but fortunately it was anything but that. The initial climb took around ten minutes and then we then dropped down
the back side of the hill before hitting some very narrow doubletrack and returning to the top of the hill for the final five kilomtres.
It was on the fast grassy descent that Stephen and Russ(?) went either side of a spooked sheep...chaos ensued as the sheep turned
this way and that before choosing to run in front of Russ who, having nowhere else to go slammed on the anchors, carrying out
a fantastic stoppie and also breifly using the sheep as a bike rack. How he and bike didn't part company I'll never know but at least
there was no damage to rider, bike or sheep.
Following that we climbed back up to the top of the hill on the steep grassy banks before turning for home on the last five kilometres of the course.
It was fast and flowing and I was trying to hang on Chris's wheel, and not doing to bad a job I might add, when suddenly something
caught my eye under the bike...then it was gone. I thought it was a rabbit, but hoped it wasn't a rabbit...we stopped to open a
gate a few hundred yards down the trail...I was then informed of my bunny murdering riding style...hope there's no bad karma heading
my way for that! Apparently someone behind me took out a squirrel on the same section of the course. Small furry animals 0, bikes 3 :(
Spent the rest of the evening sat around catching up, checking out each others bikes etc over a few beers and burgers and helping Stephen
with his tubeless set up. This is something I need to sort out again on my bike and it reminded me of what a massive pain in the arse it is!
During the ride
As I will be riding in this years Mountain Mayhem with Matt and Gill it seemed like a good idea to ride with them and have a good catch up
in preparation for the more serious event to come. Unfortunately Gill had a cold so was missing out on the fun which left me to ride with
Matt who was also riding with Theo from the club as they are old riding buddies. Ceri, Frances (Theo's wife) and Karen would make up the
rest of our very social group and we decided early on to all ride together and enjoy the day, taking a few photo's as we ride along and
essentially enjoy the crack of riding together on a new trail in superb conditions.
The start was to be held at the end of a country lane and a few hundred metres up the grassy climb that we had tackled
the night before, nothing too strenuous but a good ten minute workout to get you warmed up. There was a really good
turn out of around eight hundred riders for what is billed as a social event and not a race, although you try telling
that to some of the whippets who were edging their way to the front of the pack, a number of West Drayton riders were
also amongst them. You can take the race away from the racer...but they'll still find a race in there somewhere! The
rider briefing was held and we took a few pre-ride photographs under beautifully sunny Welsh skys. Being of a fairer
skin I had wisely opted to not bring any sun tan cream or seek any out to apply so I'll take this opportunity to
apologise to anyone who looked directly at my legs during the race without wearing their sunglasses. By the end of the
race my "farmers arms" looked like they had been dipped in hydrochloric acid for a few hours and then dipped in a
tank of piranha's for good measure. It would be an understatement to say I caught the sun. My arms have looked like
I'm permanently wearing a pair of Assos Roubaix arm warmers all week.
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My newly tanned arms
Following the mass start the riders rode upwards to the top of the hill before descending down the back side and then following a roller coaster of climbs and descents round the back of the hill. Thankfully the course was bone dry so the mixture of narrow jeep track and grassy banking was as hard as concrete making progress easy, the climbs enjoyable and the descents eye wateringly quick. Fortunately the sheep seemed to be keeping well out of the eight hundred riders tearing through their back yard so there were no "bike rack" incidents repeated from Saturday night. However, on one of the descents, a relatively straight forward but rather steep and slightly rutted descent, I saw one rider completely lose control and go over the bars with the bike appearing to 'buck him' off and then two other groups of half a dozen or more riders who were rubbing ankles, gathering up items jettisoned from their back packs or generally rubbing their heads and wondering where their bike was. No one looked like they couldn't carry on and I have to admit it looked a little strange how so many had come a cropper so I guess it was just down to "banging bars" with others.
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Your official start line...what a stunning day! Photo kindly supplied by Jon at http://www.rightplacerighttime.co.uk
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The West Drayton MBC\Beyond Mountain Bike girls leading from the front, Theo trying to hang onto their wheel!
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One of the first descents which, although fairly straightforward, caught out quite a few riders
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Descending from the ridge into the woods just before the first water stop
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After the first water stop (8km's in) there was a good hard climb and then a chance to reflect...
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...as well as a chance to have a catch up with old friends
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The climbing was relentless. This beat most people and was so steep that it actually hurt your ankles just to walk up it, not that I would know as I cleaned it (not!)
It was on one of these early climbs that we crossed paths with Les, a club rider who went over the bars entering a twenty foot deep bombhole at the third round of the Whyte Winter Series in Tunstall Forest earlier in the year and who had already had his season blighted with mechanical woes. He was right up at the sharp end and in good shape for an excellent race when his freehub broke. Gutted. His mechanical jinx continues. I know how he feels but the majority of my issues have been car related.
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After a great deal of climbing we hit the highest point of the ride, although we were not even at the half way point
Having spent the last hour climbing it was a welcome relief to get what appeared to be the highest point of the ride. The climbing had been quite enjoyable on the whole with only a couple of "lung buster" sections as Wils might say, which had everyone suffering and for the majority, off and pushing. Matt and Theo were already waiting for me when I arrived, apparently there is a fair bit of rivalry between the two of them as to who is the better climber so they were pushing each other on as they climbed away from the rest of us lower down the slopes. The views were incredible helped by the superb conditions. Matt asked if I was ready to see the route, it wasn't pretty...he then took a large amount of sadistic glee in pointing out the long riband of trail which rolled over the hills and valleys laid out before us...looks like the rest of the day would be spent doing more of the same. Cracking downhill sections which have to be earned with calf burning climbs.
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My riding companions for the day, from the left, Theo, Karen, Ceri, Frances and Matt
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I was loving the descent down to the mid way point, even though I was stuck behind a slower rider. A big thankyou to Jon at http://www.rightplacerighttime.co.uk for this great photo!
Around the mid way point there was a water stop and also a cake stop, a genius idea I might add, but unfortunately no sign of the bacon sandwiches for a pound. The course then split and providing you met the cut off time of one o'clock (three hours in), you could take the longer 75km route. We opted for the more social 45km route which was a good idea as my gears were all over the place due to the ratching breaking in my Deore XT front mech shifter. An intermittent fault which had become a permanent feature of my bike on this ride, not exactly ideal for those big climbs and long descents!
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Karen rode an excellent descent down the technical section, nice work!
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This particular section was a good test and quite steep
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Around the 35km point, the 45km group was caught by the 'racers' doing the 75km route. Go on lads! This is Chris leading from Stephen although the order would be reversed just before the finish.
As we approached the 35km mark we were caught by Chris and Stephen who were doing the 75km route at race pace. They appeared to be in for a
good finishing position and flew past us with a quick grin and a little banter. We watched them climbing one of the hills we were heading
towards and we could tell not only was the climb very steep but they were also catching a lot of riders who were struggling to walk up it
let alone ride up it. It was quite something to watch, even more so when we found ourselves at the bottom of the climb looking up it, it was
very steep, well done lads!
The final ten kilometres brought us back to the ridge that the race started from and once we had slowly ground our way up onto the ridge,
we then turned off to the left and descended at speed towards the last five kilometres and the excellent combination of roller coaster
singletrack and jeep track which we had ridden the night before but without any little furry deaths this time! What a fantastic end to a great day out in the country riding with
friends. I was asked on more than one occasion why I wasn't doing the 75km and there were a few occasions when I thought I should have
been doing that route but given the state of my front shifter and the fact that I would have had my head down all day and not been able to take in
the great views and spend time enjoying the trails rather than enduring them I think I made the right decision. It was great riding with
people from the club which was a first for me as I've only raced with them before today at Bontrager TwentyFour/12 and the Whyte Winter Series.
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At the finish point you picked up your free t-shirt, cake, brew and veggie stew...all very nice too!
Things to change
I like riding these point to point events just as much as the lapped races. It offers a different challenge to a race,
usually because the course is not as "prepared" as they tend to on more natural terrain so you have to prepare for the
unexpected and the technical sections tend to be a little more unusual. It also makes a nice change to not be riding
round in circles (which can get a bit boring after a few laps!) and
feeling like you're travelling through an area on a little journey. Although this event was against the clock like the
Whinlatter Challenge, the purpose of attending for
me was to hang out with people from the club, something I wish I could do a lot more of, particularly the weekly training
sessions they have.
I didn't give much thought to packing before I left and could have done with an eye mask (it gets
very light very early in Summer!), some ear plugs, a small drugs kit, a chair and my cool box which could have had a few
beers and some pasta in it for after the race. It's a great cool box and I can plug it into the car...I need to make more
use of it. I also need to buy some camping gear for making a brews, food, some chairs, a table, one of those off the ground
camp beds...I feel a gadget attack coming on...right, I'm off to the Cotswold's website!
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