Gorrick Spring Series round 5
Porridgepot Hill: 21/05/06
By Paul Howard.
Round 5 was the crucial decider in the Spring Series for Hoppy and Ben to maintain their overall positions of first and second in the Supermaster and Open categories respectively. Porridgepot Hill is a great course; if you like steep climbs, fast singletrack and drop-offs. So ideal for our mix of full suspension Scott Genius' and Santa Cruz Blur's.
The Supermasters was to be a tough race with a group of eight remaining together for lap one. This was gradually whittled down to just Hoppy and Mark Hutt (AW Cycles) by the end. Paul did well to maintain his lead as a rear puncture struck making the tough uphill finish a struggle, but he held on to a 13 second margin to win plus gain the overall series title and an Exodus Holiday, nice work. Once again whilst warming up I strained my left hamstring. It's never been a problem in training so obviously I need to be even more careful on race day. This is my favourite Gorrick course and also being partially responsible for the route I really wanted to race it. So settling into a fast rhythm but careful not to overdo it I was pleased with consistent lap times and 12th.
The Masters race was equally fast for Dean with plenty of competitive riders around to battle with and tenth place finish just four minutes off the winner. The Veterans race yielded the largest field of the day with 56 riders of which John finished 25th. The top four Vet's even beat the winning Masters time so it shows the quality of the older men!
And then came the rain... it had really settled in now with short sharp showers. Looking at the lap times for the guys in the afternoon really shows just how difficult the conditions became. Some sections had free running water or a porridge mix of loam and peat some inches deep. Many roots now became exposed to catch the unwary. I went over to watch at a steep rooty roll in which crossed a fireroad and then onto a mushy descent. Warren came through looking fairly controlled followed by Chris with a little more speed (or reckless abandon!) perhaps due to wisely swapping his minimal tread Panaracer Speedblasters for Trailrakers, which I know from experience are superb in such conditions. They both looked really knackered by lap 3 but persisted and no doubt gave each other encouragement to finish.
Ben's Open race had started before Sport so conditions weren't quite as bad. But the effort took its toll on the third lap as he slowed to fifth place, which was just enough to secure another four points and second in the Series. Another happy man, well done.
So a good start to the season with numerous wins, high positions and elevated form from 2005. Let's see how the rest of the events shape up.
Pos Laps Time Time+ Name Lap 1 Lap 2 Lap 3 Lap 4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUPERMASTER 1 4 01:15:32 PAUL HOPKINS 18:19 18:55 18:53 19:25 12 4 01:23:22 07:50 PAUL HOWARD 19:25 21:12 21:13 21:32 MASTER 10 3 01:04:31 04:20 DEAN MORGAN 20:18 21:34 22:39 VETERAN 25 3 01:13:04 15:43 JOHN NEWPORT 23:33 24:29 25:02 OPEN 5 3 01:12:25 04:58 BEN THOMAS 21:51 24:10 26:24 SPORT 13 4 01:57:03 27:01 WARREN BATES 28:07 30:03 30:03 28:50 16 4 01:58:31 28:29 CHRIS WHITE 27:40 30:29 30:27 29:55