Gorrick Kawasaki 100

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BY: Louise Robinson

Published: 6th May, 2013

After extoling the virtues of the new trail centre at Swinley Forest last week, there was one thing I overlooked. The new trail centre means the area is no longer available for racing. Therefore the annual Gorrick Enduro was in need of a new home. And finding a venue with suitable parking, pit area, sufficient space for a 10 mile course and not over the site of any rare nesting birds is not easy. So when the boys at Gorrick announced that this year's enduro would be held at Windmill Hill in Deepcut (site of XC races and 1 round of the Brass Monkeys series) we all knew the course would be good fun, but we were also a bit sceptical that it was possible to find 10 miles of good fun.             

 Ha-ha…never to be outdone the Gorrick team pulled off another cracker.

 

The weather was perfect. Warm, but not too hot. Dry for the last week or two with a gentle pitter-patter of rain on Friday which provided just enough dust damping to make the trails fast and furious. The course was fabulous;  10 miles of Gorrick XC trails. All the usual trails, but linked as you have never seen them before. In order to get 10 miles in on a relatively small piece of land the course snaked and doubled back constantly. This made for a great spectating course, if slightly disorientating for the riders. No significant climbs also meant no significant downs and with only the teensiest bit of fire road there were no "free" bits on this course.  With races from 1 to 7 laps available there was something for everyone.

 

I entered the 3 lap race and lined up on the start line with Lewis King, Sam Stean, Nick Evans and Lydia Gould to name but a few. The race started fast with a short fire road run before the initial section of single track.  My aim for the day was a steady pace for all three laps so I settled into a (not quite) comfortable pace just in front of Lydia. The nice thing about riding enduros is that the men and women go off together so for us girls there is significantly more company than usual. This also has a down side however and I took a tumble on a short steep uphill section as one of the chaps in front of me stopped half way up.  This had a domino effect and Lydia was forced off too (sorry 'bout that Lydia ). 

The start of the 3 lap race

Lydia rode directly behind me until the early part of the second lap when she pressed the nitro boost button and took off like a train. I continued at my own pace for the next lap and a half until the friendly voice of Nick Evans appeared behind me at the bottom of "No Quitting" - a steep, loose, zigzag climb that had an awful lot of people quitting by 3pm in the afternoon.  After multiple mechanicals and a "getting lost in the woods" incident Nick was not having the best race of his life but he was still chipper and passed me on the flat section at the top of the hill. This gave me the opportunity for a tow and I jumped on his wheel. We then headed through some fabulous single track, including the ever popular "Ant Hill Mob" section that has appeared in numerous races before, until we finally wound round to the finish. Nick rode the whole lot fairly effortlessly and I just hung on to his wheel for grim death. By the time we were in sight of the finish line I thought my legs were going to fall off. Thanks Nick,that was quite a giggle. I am just very glad you only caught up with me a mile from the end of the lap - I really wouldn't have managed any longer.

Finishing lap 1 - closely followed by Lydia Gould 

All in all another good day on the bike. Lydia took a well-deserved win in the ladies3 lap race with a time that would have given her 12th place in the mens race.

Other notable finishers were Jo Munden in the ladies 7 lap race who stomped to a convincing victory in just 6 hours 55 minutes and George Budd and Ant White who stormed the men's 7 lap race and were probably riding motorbikes rather than mountain bikes.

Jo Munden and Paul Howard finishing lap 5 of 7 

Having ridden and pitted at many of the Gorrick Enduro's over the years I think this was the best by far. OK the weather helped a lot but the Windmill Hill venue did prove to be far superior to anything Swinley Forest could offer. With masses of parking practically on top of the start area, great spectating areas and a quality course almost completely devoid of fire road this was definitely my favourite by far. However it was a brutal course and the lap times confirmed it, being significantly longer than previous years. I was quite glad I had only entered the 3 lap race; I am not sure how many of the 7 lappers were actually able to walk this morning.

Thanks Kawasaki - think it's time for a shower 

But as I can walk, I suppose I should make the most of this Bank Holiday Monday and get on with sorting out the camping kit for next weekend, Exposure 24 at Wasing. Oh don't get the wrong end of the stick, I will NOT be riding. I will be mummy, wife and pit bitch next weekend as my long suffering hubby gets some quality riding time in for himself. I am still not convinced I will be getting the easy part of the bargain though.

 

Louise Robinson, Mum, Pharmacist and part time mountain biker

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