Bikefest, a long weekend...

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BY: Joe Barker

Published: 10th June, 2014

This weekend was Bristol Bikefest, one of the most enjoyable events of the

year, in my opinion. It had rained all night and all morning which I knew would

make the course slippery and fun. As I arrived at Ashton Court I was informed

by team mate, Mike Tomlinson, that I would be starting the race by doing the

run for my team. The rest of the team included Matt Loake and Sam Barley.

We were doing male team of 4, 12 hour.

The race started and everyone scramble for their bikes, I placed my bike higher

up the hill to try and avoid everyone crashing however, the other Southfork vets

team decided to put Steve's bike at the bottom of the hill. This worked out OK

as he only went into the single track a couple of places ahead of me.
The track was greasy and hectic on the first lap and obviously very quick. As I

came round to finish the lap I felt strong and handed over to Matt.

After we had all been round Sam went to see where we were sitting and we

were in 3rd. So as I went out for my second lap I kept up the fast pace and

didn't let anyone past me. For the next couple of laps I got into a nice

consistent rhythm. As I got back from my penultimate lap I went to see how

much of a gap we had on 4th and we were all comforted to know that we had

68 mins. Now the plan was to keep upright on our bike and stay smooth.

As it came to my last lap the course was the driest it had been all day so I gave

it absolutely everything. So there we have it, a 3rd place for the second year

running for me.

Well done to the vets team who also got 3rd.

So was that all my racing for the weekend? Of course not! On the Saturday

night I had been asked by my friend Taz Whatmore, if I wanted to race 6hr pair.

I first thought No! I'd be too tired but the idea grew on me and agreed to do it

for fun.

As Taz set off on the run we found ourselves in a top 10 position out of all

categories, he handed over to me 3rd in pairs. I managed to keep my position

which I was surprised about considering I had done 6 laps the day before. I

managed to keep a consistent time for all laps and so did Taz (except for a

couple of mechanical problems). It came to my last lap and I went out just

ahead of 4th, I pushed very hard knowing how close he was to my back. I put

more into it on the single track but he was a lot stronger than me on the climbs

getting back onto my wheel. I managed to squeeze into the single track just

ahead of him and kept the gap for the rest of the lap increasing slightly on the

downhills. I came home with the same gap that I left with. It was now down to

Taz to keep out position which he did sucessfully. Yay another 3rd at Bristol

Bikefest.

Thanks to Southfork Racing for their support this weekend and Dad for taking

the photos.

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