At last! 14 months we have waited for this
moment. A dry race!
The
Gorrick 100 was held on some military land somewhere in the vicinity of
Frimley. I'm not entirely sure where, I wasn't sure as I was driving down, and
having eventually managed to find it was still not really any the wiser as to
where I was. It doesn't matter, it was a very good course which I really
enjoyed racing.
The
increasingly inaccurately named Gorrick 100 had indeed started out as a 100km
race way back when. Last year it was 112km and this year it was up to 114km.
The
race started well, I spent much of the early part in the group which was
chasing the leading pack. However, this was brought to a rather abrupt halt on
the third lap. When ducking to go past a sloping tree at about 20mph I managed
to hit it rather hard with the sticky-out bone of my hip. This removed a
section of skin and spun me off the track into the undergrowth. The next lap
was a little steady while I waited for the feeling to return to my leg but I
was soon able to pick the pace up again.
I had
one more crash on lap 6, I hit a tree stump hidden under a mound of dust on the
outside of a fast corner. Yes, you did read that right, dust! Those of you
under the age of 40 may not have seen dust before, unless you have been abroad.
Sometimes mud dries out, (yes really!) and this can form a kind of hard
substance which then crumbles and blows about in the wind. Yes, honestly, mud
can dry out occasionally. It just needs the water to stop falling out of the sky for a
short while. I'm guessing that after last summer the sky has finally run out of
it.
Anyway,
back to the race. The track was surprisingly hilly for the south east, no huge
ones but nicely undulating, It was nice to have so many little loops on it too,
good for keeping an eye on the opposition, and I managed to time it right with the
shorter races too and avoid being caught up in their starts, which can cost a
lot of time. It was great to be able to push the bike really hard on the dry
ground for once, so much more fun than squelching through the bogs, it's races
like this which remind us all why we do this sport.
The
result itself wasn't great, just over 7hrs and 32nd place but it was a lot of fun,
despite the crashes.
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