After a well navigated trip down to a not very sunny dorset, we arrived at the UK bike park on Friday night. After a dark, very slippy and muddy walk of the track, it was looking interesting. The track consisted of a level pedaly start, into a bus stop, off a 4foot drop, into off camber, rooty hairpin corners that snaked down the valley until a very fast section consisting of 3 medium sized doubles, into a very long road gap, finishing with a slippy off camber left corner the finish line.
On Saturday morning, with wet mud tyres on, armour, and a good hearty breakfast bars chocolate spread we set out for the first practise run of the track. It was very tricky, and though the practice day there were various casualties, including a dislocated shoulder from Jay, having landed the road gap squarely on it. On the whole a good practise day, leaving us in good spirits as we prepared to camp for our second night.
Race day came and it was clear to see that there were a lot more people there than on the practise day. With a couple of practice runs down, the track was feeling good. Lined up at the start I had a felling that just a solid run with no crashing would be a fair time. First timed run down was sketchy, as the conditions on the track had changed since my last practice run. Arriving at the final straight over the doubles with plenty of speed gave me a good feeling that I was doing ok, but having over cooked the corner after the road gap, I slid out and came to a halt on my back in sight of the finish line. I grabbed my bike and ran across the finish line in a time of 2:07.
I was disappointed with falling off, but a fairly reasonable time with a crash. Second run down was a lot better, the track was dryer, and the sun was shining, brightening everything up a little. With a good solid crash free second run I pulled in a time off 1:50.9. Feeling much better about my second run we all headed up the top to check out the positions. With my better second time I managed to get 16th place out of the 77 riders there. On the whole a good weekends racing.
