On the 5th March we decided to search out a new destination for a downhill daytrip. After dragging Bill out of bed 9 of us headed up to the Forest of Dean and met up with ex club members Matt and Iain.
We pushed up. We rode down. It was good.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Southampton vs. Portsmouth Varsity
The mountain bike clubs at both Southampton and Portsmouth deciding to join in with the annual Varsity event between the 2 universities for the first time last year. A downhill and cross country race were meant to be held however only the downhill materialised due to a lack of riders/organisation on the Pompey XC side of things. Portsmouth won the downhill last year and us the cross country by default due to the Portsmouth no show producing an overall draw.
A year later and it was time to have the second ever Varsity mountain bike races. This year Portsmouth had some cross country riders who were vaguely capable of organisation so both a downhill and cross country race were held.
The downhill race took place on Wednesday 23rd February at a rainy and foggy Rogate. Each rider was given 2 timed runs on the track with your fastest time to count in the results. The track we chose for the race was a really good mix of steep, technical and loose at the top with the bottom section being fast and bermed with some drops and jumps thrown in to the mix.
Time varied from 35secs to 1min 12secs after first runs with the top 5 as follows; Matt Shields (P), Lewis Pendle (P), Callum Corbin (S), Bill Bye (S), Ant Hackett (S). Two notable absences from the top end of the results sheet after first runs were Jonny Howe (P) and myself (Pete Irwin(S)) who had both had crashes and would be looking to make an impact come our second run.
For second runs we seeded riders based on first run times which made for exciting racing with the times decreasing with every rider coming down the hill. Jonny Howe crashed again on his second run ending his chances of gaining some extra points for Portsmouth. I managed to put a good run together on my second run which put me in to the lead however the fastest riders from first runs were still to come. Most riders chopped some time off their fist run times second time down which provided a few position changes. One notable position improvement came from Bill Bye who pulled off the most sketchy, out of control looking and pedalling filled run I've ever seen to jump from 4th to 3rd spot overtaking Callum Corbin. My time stood until the last man down the hill, Matt Shields, put in a blazing run to take back the lead which he had after first runs.
Riders scored points for their university based on position and these points were added up to determine the winning university. The results were as follows:
Larger results: here
So Southampton won the downhill! Woohoo!
The cross country race took place on Sunday 27th February in our beloved Lordswood. The pre-decided course was marked out that morning using sticks and due to the amount of rain that had fell in the past week the course was looking wet.
5 Portsmouth riders turned up for the race and we showed them around the course to make sure they knew where they were going before the race began. The format was that we would race around the course for 1 hour after which you would finish the next time you crossed the finish line.
Marshalls were distributed around the course and the race kicked off at about 1pm. Riders sprinted up the first fireroad climb to try and get ahead before diving into the first section of singletrack on course. Callum Corbin put his singlespeed munching legs in to action to win this small battle and led in to the first singletrack. However I think he was forgetting that there was another hour to go...
Lap times ranged from 12min 26 secs for the fastest lap of the day to 24min 43secs for the slowest. As the hour progressed the course gradually got torn up and became muddier making the course more difficult to navigate in later laps.
After the hour had passed riders were finished after completing 3, 4 or 5 laps depending on pace. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the course which was nice to see.
The same points scoring system as was used for the downhill results was employed and then the cross country points were added to the downhill points to give an overall varsity mountain biking score. Cross country results and the overall points are as below:
Larger results: here
Well I think it's fair to say that we absolutely destroyed Portsmouth in the cross country! Perhaps it will motivate them to train some more for next time.
But more importantly, WE WON VARSITY OVERALL!!!!!
Portsmouth: 112 points Southampton: 150 points
Thanks to all the Southampton riders for both cross country and downhill for putting in an awesome effort and getting some awesome results. Also a massive thanks to all who marshalled at the cross country race. And thank you to Portsmouth for providing the timing equipment for the downhill and for giving us some good competition.
A year later and it was time to have the second ever Varsity mountain bike races. This year Portsmouth had some cross country riders who were vaguely capable of organisation so both a downhill and cross country race were held.
The downhill race took place on Wednesday 23rd February at a rainy and foggy Rogate. Each rider was given 2 timed runs on the track with your fastest time to count in the results. The track we chose for the race was a really good mix of steep, technical and loose at the top with the bottom section being fast and bermed with some drops and jumps thrown in to the mix.
Time varied from 35secs to 1min 12secs after first runs with the top 5 as follows; Matt Shields (P), Lewis Pendle (P), Callum Corbin (S), Bill Bye (S), Ant Hackett (S). Two notable absences from the top end of the results sheet after first runs were Jonny Howe (P) and myself (Pete Irwin(S)) who had both had crashes and would be looking to make an impact come our second run.
For second runs we seeded riders based on first run times which made for exciting racing with the times decreasing with every rider coming down the hill. Jonny Howe crashed again on his second run ending his chances of gaining some extra points for Portsmouth. I managed to put a good run together on my second run which put me in to the lead however the fastest riders from first runs were still to come. Most riders chopped some time off their fist run times second time down which provided a few position changes. One notable position improvement came from Bill Bye who pulled off the most sketchy, out of control looking and pedalling filled run I've ever seen to jump from 4th to 3rd spot overtaking Callum Corbin. My time stood until the last man down the hill, Matt Shields, put in a blazing run to take back the lead which he had after first runs.
Riders scored points for their university based on position and these points were added up to determine the winning university. The results were as follows:
Larger results: here
So Southampton won the downhill! Woohoo!
The cross country race took place on Sunday 27th February in our beloved Lordswood. The pre-decided course was marked out that morning using sticks and due to the amount of rain that had fell in the past week the course was looking wet.
5 Portsmouth riders turned up for the race and we showed them around the course to make sure they knew where they were going before the race began. The format was that we would race around the course for 1 hour after which you would finish the next time you crossed the finish line.
Marshalls were distributed around the course and the race kicked off at about 1pm. Riders sprinted up the first fireroad climb to try and get ahead before diving into the first section of singletrack on course. Callum Corbin put his singlespeed munching legs in to action to win this small battle and led in to the first singletrack. However I think he was forgetting that there was another hour to go...
Lap times ranged from 12min 26 secs for the fastest lap of the day to 24min 43secs for the slowest. As the hour progressed the course gradually got torn up and became muddier making the course more difficult to navigate in later laps.
After the hour had passed riders were finished after completing 3, 4 or 5 laps depending on pace. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the course which was nice to see.
The same points scoring system as was used for the downhill results was employed and then the cross country points were added to the downhill points to give an overall varsity mountain biking score. Cross country results and the overall points are as below:
Well I think it's fair to say that we absolutely destroyed Portsmouth in the cross country! Perhaps it will motivate them to train some more for next time.
But more importantly, WE WON VARSITY OVERALL!!!!!
Portsmouth: 112 points Southampton: 150 points
Thanks to all the Southampton riders for both cross country and downhill for putting in an awesome effort and getting some awesome results. Also a massive thanks to all who marshalled at the cross country race. And thank you to Portsmouth for providing the timing equipment for the downhill and for giving us some good competition.
Friday, February 25, 2011
XC trip to Nant-yr-arian and Cwmcarn
Mid Friday afternoon saw the braver of XC members of the club journey to the frozen north of Wales. The five hour slog was mainly clear with some light patches of traffic and reasonably heavy fog on the mountain pass which lead to the accommodation. Those lucky enough to be driven by Dave Mills car broke up the monotony of the journey with a stop at the delightful Seven Seas fish and chip shop in Ross-on-Wye. We got to the (superb) accomodation about 11pm packed down a few beers and headed to bed.
An early start took us over Devils bridge up to the Nant-yr-arian trail center. After a brief interlude for some Jack helmet forgetting faff we hit the steep fire road climb to the top of the trail. Most of us bashed out an opening lap of the blue trail (10miles) with exception of Pete who felt the need to subject himself to the 26 mile orange trail. Nant-yr-arian is a fairly smooth man made trial which has some nice single track and also some fairly rough double track descents with excellent views of the surrounding country side. All trails end with the gruesome "Leg Burner" climb into long single track descent.
We ate lunch in the cafe while we waited for Pete and then did a second lap. It should be noted that how ever unpleasant that Leg Burner climb is on the first assent it is significantly worse on a second outing. Exhausted we returned back to the (superb) accommodation for a well earned bolognese, biking DVDs and as much beer as we could get down before we fell asleep.
Sunday morning we headed out to Cwmcarn. It was clear that everyone was feeling the after affects of the previous days double Leg Burner and the pace was significantly slower with only Pete and Chode showing any real signs of enthusiasm for the climbs. Many admitted defeat outright and took the road climb to the summit. From there the trail was plain (savagely rocky) descending. Some of what are usually rolling trails were a bit sticky with mud but its fair to say good times were had all round. We settled for just the one lap of Cwmcarn mainly due to exhaustion and spent the afternoon in the cafe and headed home early. All in all a fun and exhausting weekend to get the XC guys in shape for the coming weekends Varsity XC race against Pompy.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
January Southwest Downhill Trip
Three days, seven riders and some of the best DH the southwest of England has to offer. Even a nonchalantly absent porter and a wrong turning leading to a detour through the steepest roads in Dartmoor couldn't dampen our spirits as we headed down to Devon to ride the tracks at Tavistock Woodlands. The weather was cold but dry, giving some of the best riding conditions you could reasonably expect in January. Crash of the day goes to Pete for landing on his head off a two metre drop.
Day two saw us joined at Gawton by Bill and friends in his well-travelled camper van, complete with generator powered cheese toastie machine in the back. The tracks at Gawton were a good as ever, and we treated all three to repeated runs. No signs of the rumoured forth track spotted yet though...
Finally we headed up to Triscombe for the much delayed Round 2 of the UK Bike Park winter series. Well done to Pete, Callum and Rob who spread themselves throughout the Senior Men's field and Ant who tackled the course in the hardtail category (http://www.rootsandrain.co.uk/race282/2011-jan-30-10-ukbp-winter-2-triscombe/). The rest of us had fun sessioning some of the other tracks to be found in the area and watching the race runs.
So, there we go. What did we learn? That sometimes my minibus driving leaves something to be desired? Yup... That Saltash Waitrose shuts at 7pm not 8pm? Yup... That three consecutive days of pushing up and riding back down is pretty tiring? Yup. Bring on the next uplift day :)
Strathpuffer 2011
Lisa won the female solo category! She was 5 laps ahead of 2nd place female and placed 8th in overall solo, which includes all the men.
Female solo results:
1st Solo F Lisa Kamphausen - SUMBC 18 laps 24:35:17
2nd Solo F Julie Nimmo - Walkers CC 13 laps 23:15:02
3rd Solo F Kate Cheesewright - SS32 12 laps 21:15:53
4th Solo F Fiona Walker - Walkers Cycling Club 8 laps 22:26:18
5th Solo F Isabella MacLeod - Square Wheels Tea Girl - SS16 6 laps 20:35:04
6th Solo F Anne Metzler 5 laps 24:04:52
Top 10 overall solo:
1st Solo M Mike Hall - Bikeshed Wales 24 laps 23:41:09
2nd Solo M David Powell - Team JMC/Ragley 23 laps 24:13:19
3rd Solo M Luke Morris - Ison Distribution/Lightshed Wales 22 laps 24:37:27
4th Solo M Gary Tompsett - Singular Cycles - SS44 21 laps 23:58:14
5th Solo M Phil Simcock - Team JMC/Ragley 19 laps 22:36:21
6th Solo M Huw Davies - Team Aardvark 19 laps 24:29:22
7th Solo M Rhys Lodwick - Onefgear 18 laps 24:12:28
8th Solo F Lisa Kamphausen - SUMBC 18 laps 24:35:17
9th Solo M Graham Hill - Team Bikegoo 17 laps 24:05:42
10th Solo M Drew Thomson - Walkers Cycling Club 16 laps 23:13:23
Well done Lisa! For her account of the weekend see her note on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/notes/lisa-ka/strathpuffer-2011/489293778460
Female solo results:
1st Solo F Lisa Kamphausen - SUMBC 18 laps 24:35:17
2nd Solo F Julie Nimmo - Walkers CC 13 laps 23:15:02
3rd Solo F Kate Cheesewright - SS32 12 laps 21:15:53
4th Solo F Fiona Walker - Walkers Cycling Club 8 laps 22:26:18
5th Solo F Isabella MacLeod - Square Wheels Tea Girl - SS16 6 laps 20:35:04
6th Solo F Anne Metzler 5 laps 24:04:52
Top 10 overall solo:
1st Solo M Mike Hall - Bikeshed Wales 24 laps 23:41:09
2nd Solo M David Powell - Team JMC/Ragley 23 laps 24:13:19
3rd Solo M Luke Morris - Ison Distribution/Lightshed Wales 22 laps 24:37:27
4th Solo M Gary Tompsett - Singular Cycles - SS44 21 laps 23:58:14
5th Solo M Phil Simcock - Team JMC/Ragley 19 laps 22:36:21
6th Solo M Huw Davies - Team Aardvark 19 laps 24:29:22
7th Solo M Rhys Lodwick - Onefgear 18 laps 24:12:28
8th Solo F Lisa Kamphausen - SUMBC 18 laps 24:35:17
9th Solo M Graham Hill - Team Bikegoo 17 laps 24:05:42
10th Solo M Drew Thomson - Walkers Cycling Club 16 laps 23:13:23
Well done Lisa! For her account of the weekend see her note on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/notes/lisa-ka/strathpuffer-2011/489293778460
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)