Southern Champs
Chawton Park Woods, Alton: 19/08/07
By Ben and Calum
This should have been known as the Southern Mud Slinging Champs. Days, even weeks of rain turned virtually the whole course into a slippery, sodden, muddy & claggy mess. But five team members still turned upto race anyway, supported by Clive who opted to keep his clingfilm dry! Ben and Calum have given us their view from the pack below. Meanwhile both Paul's kept the wheels turning and the feet running cyclocross style to finish strongly in Masters. Warren endured four laps taking him to a well deserved fourth place.
Ben...
On the start line I was asked why I was still on dry weather tyres when everyone else was on full mud tyres, it wasn't madness as I knew with low enough pressure I would have almost as much grip in the mud. It was wet, slippery and the mud was deep but I was very motivated to win and the conditions although very poor didn't distract me. The Sport category was the first race of the day and on the off I managed to brake late into the first corner jumping past many of my competitors putting me into the top five. This group of five quickly formed on the first half of the lap as we began to pull away. Lee Imrie (Beyond MTB) jumped off the front of the group creating a gap, however on the fireroad with my faster tyres I caught Lee.
I led at the end of the first lap just ahead of Lee, with Chris Lane just behind. Over the next lap I extended the lead to half a minute. I was feeling comfortable and kept pushing, I wanted to have a decent gap in case I had a technical. That's exactly what happened when halfway round the third lap I punctured, it took a while to clean the thick mud away from the air valve but no real disaster as a gas canister quickly inflated the tyre. I was now down to 4th place as it took me almost a minute but I was raring to go. I quickly passed 3rd placed Gary Record and was chasing hard when I got another flat! My 2nd and last gas canister re-inflated the tyre with the sealant doing its job of resealing the tyre. Back down to 4th and with the adrenalin pumping I got going again until 2 minutes later I got another flat tyre.
That was it, race over. The chance of being Southern Champion gone. With no gas canisters left I couldn't re-inflate my tyre. My Southern Championship gold medal 'stolen'.
Calum...
My race was a combination of bad and good. Bad in that I got a poor start through bad gear choice (I ran out of gears so was spinning the middle and 11 at the back) and as such got stuck in the singletrack. Then suffered from the poor mud clearing abilities of my tyres, going sideways a lot. I got held up in the Masters/Supermasters 'running race', but this turned out to be a good thing as my running pedigree came forwards and got me on the leaders tail (only to lose him when I got back on the bike, maybe I should have stuck to running). It then went alright as I rode well, if a little slower than I would be with a bit more training. Disaster struck half way round lap 2 (final lap as my race had been cut short) when my mech hanger snapped. I ran for a while, then my mech got tangled in my wheel so I stopped and broke the chain and pocketed that and my mech and carried on running/freewheeling towards the finish. At about half a mile to go I went to jump on the bike, but missed the pedals and hit the ground hard slicing my shin on a flint. Didn't stop me though and I ran on to finish second. First race with shaved legs and it paid off, all the sticky stuff I've had on my leg would have been agony to take off otherwise!
Pos Laps Time Time+ Name Lap 1 Lap 2 Lap 3 Lap 4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- JUNIOR 2 2 01:18:44 10:47 CALUM CHAMBERLAIN 34:03 44:41 SPORT 4 4 02:25:11 10:10 WARREN BATES 32:16 35:28 37:56 39:31 12 2 01:04:00 BEN THOMAS 30:53 33:07 - - MASTER 4 3 01:38:34 04:58 PAUL HOPKINS 30:48 33:20 34:26 8 3 01:43:39 10:03 PAUL HOWARD 33:36 35:02 35:01