Brass Monkeys - Windmill Hill

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BY: Louise Robinson

Published: 16th December, 2012

Ahh, Tesco's Finest Chablis on special offer after a brutal 2 hours 41 minutes of mountain bike racing can only mean one thing….zzzz's on the sofa and probably not finding out who won BBC Sports Personality of the Year until tomorrow.

 

Hard day at the office today. Round 2 of the Gorrick Brass Monkeys series at Windmill Hill and after missing the first race due to illness I had some serious work to do. Still not really well but with two small children winter is often a series of viral colds. Some years you get gaps in between them, some years you don't. Been here before. It's frustrating but in the end you have to get on with it or resign yourself to a season off the bike. So I entered myself up and planned to ride my own race and see what happened.

 

This is racing in my back yard and undeniably a massive advantage. I rode a lap on Thursday evening with event organiser and course designer Si Panter. It was bitterly cold and the course was frozen hard and running fast. However, the weather gods had no intention of life being that easy and so we were treated to 12 hours of continual rain on Friday and a gentle warming of the air temperature to ensure every last drop of frozen moisture melted and fell to the floor. Considering the fact this race was held in December after a month of colossal rain, I have seen wetter courses in summer races.  With my mountain bike getting a bit of last minute TLC at home I managed a practice lap on Saturday as well but this time on my cross bike. Ha ha that was interesting!!

 

Race start - 250 racers soon squeezed into 2 foot 6 of single track

 

So I lined up with 250 other riders for the 2 hour race at 12 noon. The start loop round the field was painful but the bun fight in the first section of single track was worse. Not feeling 100% I deliberately didn't go off hard at the gun but that was probably a mistake as it cost me at least a couple of minutes on the first lap. However, the traffic did allow me to ease gently into the race and allow me to really enjoy the riding. Other than the start loop the race course was amazing. Brutal; but amazing. Great fun, loads of twisty single track, some killer climbs and enough technical bits to keep everyone interested. The mile markers really helped me pace myself but I did start referring to mile 5-6 as the" mile of shame". Three technical, peaty, steep little climbs all one after the other meant a mile of pushing if you weren't careful.

 

Rachel Windeatt grinding up one of the" mile of shame" climbs (If it doesn't look steep, you weren't there)

 

This was only the second race I have done on my new 650b wheels and I was very pleased. I usually struggle in the mud but the bigger wheels really seemed to make a difference today and I managed an entire race without touching the ground once (quite an achievement for me!).  The Pacenti Neo-Moto tyres might be a touch uber-niche (truth be told they were an e-bay bargain) but were spot on today. I did struggle for grip on some of the climbs but who didn't. I couldn't image riding todays course on Racing Ralphs but I am sure some people did.

 

Do my wheels look big in this?

 

Uber Niche?

 

Pretty soon after hitting the first bit of single track of the race proper, I saw Laura Sampson ahead of me. Having raced Laura in the past I knew she would be pushing hard and would have the stamina to push hard to the end. Unfortunately for Laura she took a tumble in "Drop in Surgery" and I managed to get past her. Only for a minute though, as she steamed back through on the fire road. Laura and I pin-ponged each other for about half the lap until we caught sight of Emily Iredale who was leading our race.  By the end of the first lap Emily and I had pulled away from Laura and we passed the timing tent together. Then Emily dropped the hammer and disappeared off on the fire road.  I managed to hang in behind her and we then ping-ponged for almost another lap. I managed to draft off her on one fire road, she drafted me the next. I managed to get away from her on one of the final bits of single track of the lap and finished the second lap a few seconds up. On lap 3 I set my sights on a guy ahead in a white jersey and slowly reeled him in. By mile 4 we got chatting (well, a breathless word or two) and we managed to drag each other round the final grinding lap. Thanks Clement, I needed someone to force me on through the cramp.

 

Jo Munden - Winner of the ladies 4 hour race with extra horse power

 

All in all, a very good day out. A real cross section of racers out there today with some valiant race debuts. One guy asked me if I thought it was a hard course or was it just him. Oh no mate, it was not just you, it really was hard. Well done everyone who raced and finished.

Huge thanks to Si Panter who organised and designed the course and to the boys and girls at Gorrick for making it all happen. Thanks also to Chris from Accelerade who gave a bottle of Endurox R4 recovery drink to the first 50 finishers across the line at 2 o'clock and to Dave Brothers, pit bitch extraordinaire who looked after about half the field.

Thanks Ivor for the photo

Louise Robinson - Mum, pharmacist and part time mountain biker
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