BIG DOG AFTERMATH

No hangover really. Sorry to the organisers but the after party was terrible. No ale, terrible loud tinny music, multiple screeching hen do's and did I mention, NO ALE? I gave the beer tokens away and went to a proper pub for proper beer with a few other riders.
 
Well what a fantastic day out that was. It was great flicking the Klein through the trees on all that single-track, not so fun hauling my butt up those climbs.

My 15min handover delay kept us off the 3rd podium place :roll: but having Dave Hemming take my bike for a quick spin made up for that.

Good effort to all the retro riders great to see your steeds out on the course.

Chris
 
Hi, my names Dom, good to see the bikes out at the weekend.
I was chatting, on one of the fire road drags to the man with the hungry GT that managed to take a bite from his left calf, proper skills! I mentioned that the last XC race I did was on my Manitou FS in around 97. So on his suggestion I chuck it on here. Its hanging in my shed in a state of disrepair at the moment so I'll dig it out and get and get some pics up!
 
Good to see you lot again, good work all.
Good to see the retro category was a hard fought battle!

I entered the singlespeed pairs. Pretty tough but we managed second against some stiff competition.

Max, hope your leg's feeling better soon :)
 
Having said previously that the course was a bit lame compared to last year I think it's only fair to to a proper review now having done the race.

Firstly, there wasn't as much fire road as I'd thought. When I did my test ride the week before I "misinterpreted" the map. There was a lot more than before but as I got used to the course I came to really enjoy the mix of single track and fire road. This made the course faster over all though I think it was a little shorter too and conditions were near perfect.

The first lap was pretty frustrating as it was so congested. I know this is inevitable to a certain extent but I'm sure it was worse this year that previous ones and I think more could be done to spread out the pack early on. I take some responsibility though of course, I should have had the confidence to get further forward in the pack before the start. Also, the course tape wasn't changed after the first loop of the field so it wasn't at all clear where to go when you re-entered the field at the end of the first whole lap.

I loved being able to hit the log jump at full speed as they'd left the logs building it up into a ramp. I still would have preferred them to remove them though to make more of a challenge of it, there is a chicken run around it.

The off camber traverse at the end of Over the Saddleback drop made me smile every time.

So, all in all a great course. Thanks to everyone who put so much work into the day. I'll be entering again next year when I'll be tempted to procrastinate so long I miss the male pairs category and am forced to go retro again :)
 
d42dom":2vee35z2 said:
Hi, my names Dom, good to see the bikes out at the weekend.
I was chatting, on one of the fire road drags to the man with the hungry GT that managed to take a bite from his left calf, proper skills! I mentioned that the last XC race I did was on my Manitou FS in around 97. So on his suggestion I chuck it on here. Its hanging in my shed in a state of disrepair at the moment so I'll dig it out and get and get some pics up!

Hi Dom,

Welcome. Don't give Max any sympathy, he said he couldn't walk on it and used that as an excuse not to ride another lap despite riding back to the Retrobike heckling gazebos OK.

The Manitou sounds tasty, I'm sure you'll be inundated with offers to swap it for a handful of magic beans.

Cheers,

Tad



Any links to pics taken by the massed ranks of photographers present on the course?
 
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