Gorrick Autumn Classic 1
Tunnel Hill: 08/10/06
By Paul Howard & Ben Thomas
Calum kicked off the day's racing with a flyer in Youths creating himself a healthy margin of four minutes by race end over second place. Two laps under 25 minutes differing by a few seconds showed what good pace he had on a course to his liking.
Similarly Ben had a fantastic race moving up to the Sport category for the first time. He kept pace with the eventual second place finisher tussling throughout but just lost touch on the fourth lap when the extra endurance required wasn't in the tank. So three sub-25 minute laps shows great promise, but the near 27 minuter might suggest a more even pacing is required. Ben has obviously been training hard now he's started University, though I wonder how the studying is going. ;-) Also in Sport the rumour that Chris has been training seemed true as he knocked out three pretty consistent laps before losing ten minutes on the fourth. What happened there?
Paul started the Supermasters race with tired legs after spending six hours on Saturday walking round the course and marking out. With the assistance of a small group of local riders we have spent many hours building the trails, at least it meant the inside knowledge could be played to my advantage. Riding in no-mans-land for the first lap a little off the leading group but in front of the next pack I was eventually joined by Lloyd "BigRing" Bettles. We worked together on the fireroads taking turns leading and drafting to open a big gap over the chasers. I could see I was faster in the singletrack so always tried to get ahead for the twisty sections. Lloyd would always come back to me on the fireroads pushing the big ring (hence the nickname) with lots of power at a low cadence, as I spun along. Halfway round the fourth lap Lloyd engaged the trusty big ring and powered off up a hill, which was enough to break the elastic as the gap opened to 25 seconds at the finish. He normally finishes minutes ahead so I was happy with the outcome.
New recruit Lorraine Staley settled into a steady pace managing to overhaul a slowing Karin Oakes in the Master/Veteran womens race, to finish third.
Unfortunately the races didn't quite go to plan for Dean and John whose legs weren't up for it today so retired after two laps.
Next up is the Dusk Till Dawn 12 hour race held overnight between 7pm and 7am at Thetford Forest. We have three pairs entered; Ben & Calum, Warren & Dean, John & Chris, plus Lorraine and Paul soloing both with their sights on podium finishes. Lorraine is the 2005 defending Womens Champion no less! Best of luck to you all.
Pos Laps Time Time+ Name Lap 1 Lap 2 Lap 3 Lap 4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- YOUTH 1 2 00:49:37 CALUM CHAMBERLAIN 24:43 24:54 SUPERMASTER 6 4 01:40:40 07:05 PAUL HOWARD 24:36 25:01 25:19 25:44 MASTER 34 2 00:54:26 DEAN MORGAN 26:06 28:20 - VETERAN 52 2 00:59:32 JOHN NEWPORT 29:31 30:01 - MASTER/VETERAN WOMEN 3 2 01:01:38 02:31 LORRAINE STALEY 30:55 30:43 SPORT 3 4 01:39:27 02:12 BEN THOMAS 23:37 24:23 24:37 26:50 15 4 02:04:15 27:00 CHRIS WHITE 27:42 28:42 29:11 38:40