Gorrick Spring Series Round 2
Surrey Hill, Bagshot: 18/02/07
By Calum Chamberlain
The second round of the Gorrick spring series was to prove to be a toughie, with reports on Saturday night of a hilly course shown to be very true. Some have been calling it the best Gorrick ever, which is obviously highly debatable, but with its 5 (I made it 7, but my climbs are obviously different to others) climbs and fun fast descents it definitely gave for good racing with one section ending up riding like a road race!
Dean [ Photo courtesy of: Stuart Brazier ]
First off was Dean in the Vets category, who on the back of his fantastic fourth last round, was looking to get another decent race under his belt and hopefully beat a few people. Although Dean drank about 10ml of water throughout the race he still managed to pull home another top 5 position for the team and achieved his personal goal of beating Steve Jones.
Next up was John whose race didn't go quite to plan although it can't be said that the body packed up. Unfortunately John was forced to pull out on the second lap when not only did his seat post bolt shear off, but his cleat became detached from his shoe and remained in the pedal putting an end to his race.
John [ Photo courtesy of: Stuart Brazier ]
Soon after John's and Dean's starts was Lorraine who was coming back from injury but on a new bike; yet another Scott Scale 30 (obviously loved by all the team). Lorraine enjoyed the race, saying that it was challenging, but in a good way, but also that she hadn't felt that tired for a while! All this effort resulted in a very respectable 9th place in the Master/Veteran Women category.
The last race off for the Mountain-Trax team was the sport race, with both Ben and Calum (me) in it. I was doing my usual faffing on the line although I was more prepared than last round, even fitting in a warm up with Ben. When we did start it was a manic affair, with me nearly running over a spectator when I cut the first corner. However it all became much more organised having climbed the first hill and cut into the singletrack. Both Ben and I got good positions up near the front of the field with who we thought were potential podium finishers, however I washed out early on a corner and didn't recover until lap 2 when I rejoined with Ben and the leaders who were embarking on some road race style manoeuvres down the back firetrack. Having worked hard to counter these mini-breaks all race Ben dropped off after one such blast and I soon followed suit. I died fairly spectacularly last lap again, although not enough to loose places. Eventually Ben finished 7th and I finished 5th.
Overall it was a good day, and a very good course. All we can say is bring on Thetford!
Pos Laps Time Time+ Name Lap 1 Lap 2 Lap 3 Lap 4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- VETERAN 5 3 01:21:29 02:11 DEAN MORGAN 26:17 27:18 27:54 GRAND VETERAN 17 2 01:09:12 JOHN NEWPORT 33:13 35:59 ----- MASTER/VETERAN WOMEN 9 2 01:18:34 10:34 LORRAINE STALEY 37:25 41:09 SPORT 5 4 01:48:39 03:20 CALUM CHAMBERLAIN 25:49 26:00 27:06 29:44 7 4 01:50:59 05:40 BEN THOMAS 25:32 26:19 29:03 30:05