Clowning around at the Circus of Dirt

 

I love racing at Newnham. It's easily one of the best, if not, the best race venue in the country. A fine mix of mountain bike history and infamous sections of trail that threads through the Devonian countryside.

 

Having raced fairly regularly at Newnham over the past couple of years I didn't think there could be too much 'new' stuff to uncover but Maddie and Jay Horton had designed a brilliant loop that encouraged a bit of debate amongst riders what with the length being a healthy  9km variety. These days it seems that size does matter and what with the recent UCI changes now having to be implemented that insist on bringing overall course length down to 4-5km this was a good old fashioned tough, lengthy loop and I loved every minute of it. It was superb. Much of this loop will hopefully go to make up the Twentyfour/12 circuit in July and for those of you who will be making your way down to Newnham in the summer you are in for a treat.

 

This would only be my 4th race of the year. Shocking isn't it but that lethal combination of work and grown-up responsibilities have kept me away for so long that at signing on Jay thought that I was an illusion. He kindly had collected my much anticpated team kit. As team kits go this must be the tightest one I've ever received. So much so that the fridge has now been padlocked. I'm big-boned I tell ya.

 

9km is a lot of circuit to describe and without trying to paint a picture of every twist, turn and pebble suffice to say that initially things seem quite normal until you find yourself out on the moors too quickly and riding through some fantastic, super-fast blue belled lined singletrack.

At 1pm they sent off the Masters and the rest of the categories. Again I can never seem to control myself and I went shooting off with the full understanding that with the first uphill, technical section looming, placing will be important before the steep and loose climb. I manage to get to the front of the Masters and realise that I'm blowing way too hard. At this stage I was thinking that it was the tightness of the jersey restricting my rib cage! I'd look for any old excuse.

Hitting the blue bell woods Alistair Lovell of the Royal Navy surged past at a fair old pace and that was too quick for me to latch onto his wheel and I decided to settle into a more comfortable pace.

After descending off the moors and hitting the 2nd river crossing of the day I reached what was for me anyway, an entirely new part of Newnham. A fireroad that was punctuated by technical little drops every 40 or so metres and after a km of this the gradient then stiffened and it was at this stage that Matt Loake of Southfork and Steve Ferguson of Torq went past me grinding out a steady gear. Again I had to Iet them go. This climb gradually steepened until you entered more woods with more bluebells and reached a nice lengthy bit of off-camber trail that then spat you out at the Cauldron. Matt and Steve were constantly to remain in sight for the remainder of the lap and most of the 2nd. The lap finished off with a lovely off- camber descent that finished with a drop down the notorious Clif climb. I've been waiting for years to get my revenge on that bloody climb and spin down it rather than fighting for traction climbing up it. As much as a relief it is riding down it for a change it really is very loose and you can't really afford to 'switch off'. I for one wouldn't want to hit the deck there. You'd be picking gravel out of your flesh for weeks after.

Halfway around the 2nd lap I was caught and passed and now found myself in 5th place but on the 3rd lap I began to claw back and caught 4th and by the start of the final lap I had Matt and Steve in sight and spent most of the lap reeling them in. Matt and Steve had barely a fag paper between them it seems for the entire race and by the time I caught them I wasn't quite sure to go past or sit on their wheel. The cramp in my leg though helped me to make the decision and I sat on their wheel until Matt slipped on a steep climb and allowed me to go past both of them into 2nd place. I tried to get a gap but Steve wouldn't allow it. The last 2km was a frantic dash trying to chase Steve and trying to hold off Matt with 'orrible cramp. I was glad to see the Clif climb for a change and I knew that I just had to spin down very quickly before Matt could catch me. In the end it was decided by seconds apart that is for 1st place who had at least 4mins on all of us. Alistair was in a different league that day it seems! I was well chuffed with 3rd and my lucky dip Shred T-shirt prize. A nice way of handing out the prizes, Jay!

I am looking forward even more now to Twentyfour/12 this July. A brilliant course. A proper mtbers course. It had everything. Stiff climbs, fantastic singletrack, old favourites and water crossings.

I know have 2 weeks to loose a stone so that I can fit into my jersey for the Welsh Champs up at Builth, another tough course.

Thanks again to Martyn and Xcracer

Gateway cycles for the lovely Scott Scale. Accelerade for my energy gels - I had 3 on this course. I just need to remember to drink! Mt Zoom and Exposure lights.

 

Thanks to Snapper Chick for the great photos. They can be seen over at www.Shredevents.com

 

Matt Lewis

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