Event Reports

Decisions, Decisions?? Should I do the morning Vets B race and get home with the afternoon to relax or enter clubman and have a lie-in but get home late?

In the end I opted for the morning race. Maeshafn isn't that far away (just over an hour) so the ten O'Clock start would be easy to make without me having to be up in the dark. Plus getting back early meant catching the second WSB race live. It was a tough decision though as the earlier race is just two hours whereas the later one is two and a half. Still, the choice had been made so off I went.

I've been to this venue numerous times over the years and always enjoyed it. Bumpy in (lots of) places with rocks poking through the ground as they get exposed you don't get much time to relax. The course itself winds around and is very close to itself in parts, but the good marking kept everyone on course. Running in a sort of anti-clockwise direction the course seemed to work better this way than when I last went. Having said that, the way it snaked around inside itself some bits were running the same way as ever only to then twist into the opposite way round. Mixing it up like this kept my interest and made for a good track.

After the mini heatwave we've been having the ground was baked solid. This made for a lot of dust on the first couple of lads till the riders spread out a little but wasn't a big issue. The hardness of the ground was a touch jarring at times but as I practised riding the whopped sections faster than my normal pace they didn't seem as bad.

I'd been worried that as I was riding the morning race I'd be mixing it with the youth, beginner and sportsman classes. This turned out not to be an issue at all. There always seemed to be room to get past and with nothing very technical on the course (apart from a single downhill rut) everyone kept going at a good pace. Speaking of pace, I will say that there were some very fast sportsmen at this event who could do with a push into clubman, it's not fair on the genuine sportsmen riders who'll never get near the pointy end of the results.

Even though it was a two hour race I planned to pit once for a spash. I possibly didn't need to but with the possibility of riding for just over two hours at a fair pace there didn't seem any point in risking it. This decision may have cost me dear in reality. The Vets B class is very competetive and VERY close in standard. As the flag dropped less than two minutes separated second to sixth after just over two hours, and first was only a whisker ahead of second. Now that's close!

I was actually enjoying myself a lot on this course. And as ususal paced myself wrong for this shorter race as I still had lots of energy left at the end and could have easily carried on. Having said that though, if I'd entered the later race with more riders on the course would I have enjoyed myself as much? Possibly not.

In the end I had a cracking good ride It's a venue I'd go back to (again). It gets a lot more interesting when it's wet but in the dry it was good fun, and thats what I want, fun on my bike. Well done to WOR for running another quality event.