Gorrick 100 4 Lap Win :) & Dnf at Newnham Puncture!

Sunday the 5th of May saw the Gorrick 100 Enduro at Porridgepot hill in Deepcut. The race was scheduled to be at Swinley forest but because of all the new trails and it becoming a trail centre the Crown estate dont want any competitive events held there any longer. I opted to ride the 4 10 mile lap option, 40miles is more than enough for an Xc race specialist. The 4 lap race kicked off at 10.30am with dry flowing trails waiting for the 86 male and female competitors. I got a good start sitting in around 4th position behind Gary Record, Crispin Doyle and another rider. I took up the front going into the first bit of singletrack and pulled a sizeable gap out coming onto the 1st fireroad. I looked back and it was Gary who was chasing but didn't close the gap on the fireroad and from here on I was alone for over 39miles!. I rode hard on the 1st lap to get an initial gap but didn't want to ride too hard that I would blow my legs before the race was finished. Lap 1 was the fastest lap of the day at 44:04 with the 2nd fastest lap being Lewis king's 1st lap in the 3 lap race at 44:57. During lap 2 I kept a similar tempo to lap 1 with my 2nd lap only 20 seconds down of lap 1. I knew it was going to be tough to hold this for the whole 4 laps and eased of on lap 3 slightly to save myself from bonking during lap 4. Lap 3 came in at 44:40 so I was still increasing my lead by 4 minutes a lap!. My legs felt very strong throughout the whole race and paired with a stiff bike and a stiff set of wheels was a great combination. During lap 4 the earlier efforts started to take there toll but I had such a big gap it wasnt to effect the result with my legs not being able to lap a 4th 44minute lap. Lap 4 came in at 45:45 which was still a 4 minute buffer to 2nd placed Crispin Doyle's 4th lap. The bike I raced was a Whyte 29er-C team Supplied by AWcycles.co.uk. The bike worked perfectly with a good tyre choice from myself with a renegade on the rear and a Vredestein spotted cat on the front, the gears worked well with no issues and the forks did there job too. This was my 1st race out on the Strada Carbon 29er wheels and it went of with a bang. They felt a-lot more responsive than an my old alloy pair with increased stiffness and drive through the corners.
My total race time was 2hrs 58mins and 58seconds and an average speed of 13.5mph.

Heres my strava stats from the Gorrick 100 - http://app.strava.com/activities/52474316

Results Avaliable here - http://timelaps.co.uk/assets/uploads/EVENTREPORT.aspx?eventid=241Deepcut05/05/2013#4%20Lap%20Male

Pictures Avaliable here - http://www.mikeadamsphotography.biz/Cycling/Mountain-Bike/Gorrick1004/29272888_86ZKNN#!i=2495672936&k=7TLM3cp&lb=1&s=A

http://www.mikeadamsphotography.biz/Cycling/Mountain-Bike/Gorrick1004/29272888_86ZKNN#!i=2495645616&k=cvpQWx7&lb=1&s=A 

This result wouldn't have been possible without the help from from my Sponsors.

Thanks www.awcycles.co.uk 

Thanks www.stradawheels.co.uk

  
The following Sunday the 12th of May I decided to make the trip down to Newnham park to race the 2nd round of the South West series. Me and Michael Guildford went down to Newnham on Saturday afternoon after I finished work and we arrived at Newnham at around 8.30pm. We quickly set up the tent and went for a bit of a practice lap before dark. The first part of the course was brutal with a 3minute climb followed by a very steep wet and slippy descent. I took a bit of a tumble which didn't put my head in the right place but after I rode the whole course with out any issues Sunday morning my head was back where it needed to be. Saturday nights sleep wasn't the best in a 2 man tent with very cold temperatures overnight. Anyway our race was off at 10am with me being gridded 5th row which made the start a real struggle to get to the front guys as there was a-lot of climbing/singletrack within the 1st mile of the course. I managed to get to the front 2 guys around 8minutes into the race but this had taken a-lot out of me and kept slipping away from the leaders then pulling them back eventually to get away with Dexter Hurlock. We rode with each other mostly for around 2 laps before i got a rear puncture and I thought that was the end of my race but Dexter chucked me his Zefal tyre inflator and the tyre managed to seal at 30psi which was slightly to hard but I knew I would lose some air during the remaining 2 laps. I went in pursuit of Dexter but got to the top of the first part of the climb before hearing Tisssssss. That was my race over!, great ride from Dexter and a true sportsman giving me his Zefal inflator.

Next race for me is on the road at Eelmore this Wednesday evening. That will be my 2nd road race ever but I do a fair bit of training on the road now so hopefully I can get a decent result. My next Mtb race will be the Southern Xc Championships at Crow Hill on Sunday the 19th of May in the Expert category. Ill be in my brand new Aw Cycles kit which arrived today and looks very nice :)