Black Park London Single Speed Championships

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BY: Louise Robinson

Published: 17th March, 2013

Traditionally the beginning of the Spring/ Summer race season, where a crisp spring morning produces a fast and furious race in early year sunshine. Yeah right!

As I stood at the bedroom window at 6.30am this morning, watching the rain lash down on the already soaked street I saw my mojo pack up his bags and slam the gate on his way out.  Hmm, it will be another wet one then.

 

But mojo or not, there was no escaping the inevitable. My little boy Isaac was racing for the first time in the under 10's race and hell and high water would not have put him off. So we packed the car to the roof with picnic (in a waterproof bag!), spare clothes, spare shoes, waterproofs, wellies,  more spare clothes and umbrellas as well as all the usual racing paraphernalia.

 

After a bit of rain some of the puddles were nearly hub deep - no really, small children would have drowned in some of the puddles on the race course

 

12 under 10s lined up on the start line, and they all looked like serious racers.  Half the bikes were worth more than mine. I felt intimidated so I can't image how Isaac felt.  Parents are allowed to ride behind the race providing they don't interfere (as if?) and don't get in the way.  So, on the gun Isaac raced off with the other kids and I hung behind with the tail enders.  After picking up a couple of fallers and replacing the odd dropped chain Isaac was well out of sight in the distance. I didn't give it a second thought and cruised round to the end of the first lap. As I passed my husband (and a number of other parents) he asked where Isaac was.  I thought he was ahead?  It turned out that a number of riders had not come past and with only the tailenders behind me that meant a number of kids lost in the woods somewhere. So I rode round the lap again, looking out for anyone looking lost in the woods. 

 

 I did find Isaac and a couple of others about half way the course looking very upset as they "couldn't find the finish line".  They were on the course but it appears had taken a wrong turn and doubled back on themselves. To be fair, quite easy to do as the course snaked around a fairly small area and although it was well marked with direction signs, did not have any marker tape blocking off the alternative trails. I can see how an overeager  9 year old would have missed a sign and everyone directly behind just followed.  Anyway, Isaac  did me proud and completed another lap and a half to finish the race, riding really well in the slippy, rooty singletrack and battling the mud and bomb holes like an experienced racer.  It was quite a shame that the Fun Men where set off while the kids were on the course as this really added to the pressure when a continuous stream of riders wanted to get past and, I assume, quite a pain for the men as well. 
 

Well done to all the kids who raced in filthy conditions and pouring rain. You are all stars.

 

After the fun and games with the kids race I ended up cutting it really fine to get to the start of my race, but luckily the singlespeed field was not what one would call huge (3 of us, and that was girls and boys). The course was 3.5 miles of pure filth by this time.  I feel really sorry for the guys at West Drayton, they had obviously worked hard on the course, reinforcing sections with bark chippings and using logs to bridge the worst of the mud.  Unfortunately for all, the existing ground conditions (after 48 hours of near constant rain) and continual rain during the race meant the reinforcements only held for the duration of the kid's race. 4 laps on a single speed felt a long way as the mud just sapped my speed and strength.

 

Does my bum look muddy in this?

 

After dilemmas over tyres (I'm glad I plumped for the Nobby Nics) it was actually the gear ratio that I wished I had changed. I am a very girly single speeder (light spinney 32:17 ratio) but as Black Park is completely flat I made the rather rash decision to run the slightly harder 32:16. But mud is probably your worst enemy on a single speed, worse than hills - both up and down, and by the end of the 4th lap I was really cursing my decision.  Sitting here now, I can tell my legs are going to be stiff tomorrow. But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and all that.

 

Hard work on a single speed

 

Whinging aside this is a proper grass roots mountain biking event, run by mountain bikers for mountain bikers. So next year we will pre-order the sunshine and I will see you all there.

 

Louise Robinson, Mum, Pharmacist and part time mountain biker
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