First DH race, FoD 6th Dec, My attempt at the final MiniDH round Options

[SammyC]

After a bit of prompting by some mates I popped my DH racing cherry last weekend at the final round of the MiniDH series at the Forest of Dean.

Well it was the first time I've ridden at FoD so on the suggestion of my better half we popped over on the Saturday before so that I could scope out the track (as I knew it would be taped by then) and hopefully get a couple of practice runs in. We arrived at about 2:30pm and after a bit of faff I'd pushed to the top by 3pm. After a bit of a chat to another couple of guys practising I set off down the course. It was pretty muddy but it was holding up quite well considering the amount of rain we'd had recently. You started on on a flat section, into a tight left hand followed by an open right hand berm that was very muddy but held you well, another left and then a drop down onto the road. Across the road dropping into a right hander and then a long rooty off camber slog into a very tight left hand switchback, From here it then started to drop down into the steep section with interlaced roots from all the trees. After a bit you popped out into the sunlight for a small stepdown roller before heading back into the trees for a steep rooty drop into a long traverse, open right hand berm, left hand, right hand and then a long flat and straight sprint to the big table at the bottom before a couple more berms and across the line.

All in all a pretty nice track with nothing too technical. My first run down I did in 3m15s which wasn't great but I'd stalled a few times in the mud so I knew I could go faster. A push back to the top and my second run down came in at 2m40s which was much better but once again I knew that there was plenty of places I could go much faster. By this time it was starting to get dark (3:20pm) in the trees so I pushed up for one last run down. As expected it was near pitch black in the trees, only the tape and yellow painted tree stumps showing me which way to go! Final run of the practice day was 2m20s which considering I couldn't see 90% of the track I was pleased with. I'd heard from others there that the quick boys would be doing low 1m20s so I was happy.

On the Sunday my mates and I arrived at 7:45am to get set up and walk the course before practice which started at 9am. We got to the top at about 5 to 9 and there was only two other guys waiting so we were one of the first people down on the day. Considering I was probably one of the last down on Saturday I wasn't expecting much to have changed. How wrong was I! The overnight rain had turned what had been relatively firm ground into Somme like conditions, and then they'd also change the final section making it longer and slower! Damn! After a few practice runs I felt like I was as ready as I was going to be, we weren't due to start our runs until 12:30, with racing starting at 10:45am for the younger categories. We started to walk up to watch some of the racing but it soon became clear that there was a problem. To cut a long story short it ended up running nearly 2 hours late due to a fault in the timing gates. Simply put this removed any chance of us getting in two race runs like we had expected and therefore we'd only have the one run down. Not what you need!

The wait for my start slot was pretty nerve racking not helped by spying three other mates stood by the start line with cameras ready! I can't remember thinking much as the clock counted down apart from suddenly thinking that I needed the loo, badly! Once I set off it quickly became clear that the previous 200 riders hadn't done the track any favours and what had been slippy in practice was now slippy and sticky with lots of extra exposed roots, with the odd wheel catching rut to add a bit of spice! I had my mate starting 20 seconds behind me and I knew that it wouldn't take long for him to catch me so we'd discussed where would be good overtaking places. Luckily I heard him coming and although this flustered me a bit we managed to arrive at the best overtake spot at roughly the same time, although there was a bit of a comedy 'After you, no after you' moment when he wasn't sure I was going to let him through. As it was I don't think it cost him much time and it only cost me a few extra seconds.

The middle section was a blur and not a well executed blur at that, I'd got myself a bit flustered by letting my mate through and never really settled after that. We'd scoped a new line down at the bottom that should help miss 90% of the really deep mud, and I'm pleased to say that I remembered about it in time to make the correct line choice! At least something went right. I crossed the line absolutely shattered, I'd been pedalling most of the way down it had been that sticky!

My time in the end was 2m26s which I am pleased with considering the course was much slower in both condition and layout compared to the practice course, 58seconds behind the fastest. I came 47th out of 50 in my class and 241st out of 280 overall, so not last! Yay!

I was massively frustrated by not getting another run in as I knew that I could do a lot better, there would have also been the added bonus of starting in track time order so I wouldn't have to worry about having much faster riders starting behind me. But it was not to be, the last few riders were coming down in quite dark conditions and there is no way we'd have been able to get another run in, not that I think the track could have taken it.

All in all a brilliant fun day but with a bitter sweet after taste of 'What if?'.

A few photos:

Me at the start:



Dropping into the road crossing:



One of the lower flat turns:

[Gareth]

Nice write up Sammy, enjoyed that as I've ridden those downhill sections this year!

Shame about the mud with all this rain but I guess it's what you would expect at this time of year. What tyres were you runnning as high speed in mud can be downright dangerous without spikes...

[Mad Pierre]

Nice write up mate.

[addict]

go sammy!!! woop!

That's quality. I want to enter some raceees next year - we should organise a mtbbritain contingency to one and see how we all do (against the rest of the world I mean)

enjoyed that write up sammy, really good.

[SammyC]

Cheers chaps!

G-man, I had a supertacky Swampie on the back and a supertacky Wetscream on the front. Quite phenomenal grip but probably too much considering the gradient. I reckon you would have survived without the Wetscream and probably rolled a little faster as a result. That said, they were leant to me by a mate so I'm not complaining!

[goog]

good effort matey

[Nik]

Nice one Sammy!

[littlegirlbunny]

Excellent write up mate - really enjoyable reading

How'd you like the Forest of Dean? Did you see any other tracks when you weren't racing?

[payneib]

i wanna race!!!!!!!

not down hill, but I WANNA RACE!!!!!!!!!!

was lookin at some alternative xc races the other day for jan-april before the southcoast xc series starts, but i'm no where near fit enough, and there's a transport issue till then too!

nice read bud,

certainly perked me up this evening!

[Paul]

Nice one Sammy, I loved the write up! Nearly felt i was slip sliding me way down the trail with you

[SammyC]

Cheers guys.

@Jo, yeah we did one to the side but can't remember what it was called whilst we were waiting for our start. Really good fun.

[SammyC]

@Jo, the one where you had your crash is the Dh track they used earlier in the year. The track they used for my race is to the left of that as you look down it. I also did another trail to the right of the your crash trail. If that helps any.