Cornish Coffee

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BY: Mark Spratt

Published: 7th April, 2013

According to Luke Humphreys, owner of Chapeau and Juice lubes, coffee is "the original energy drink". Brewing coffee on the move was behind my latest purchase, a 12V Moka Pot, finishing off the improvements I'd been making to the interior of my van ahead of the upcoming weekends away with the bikes. With round 1 of the Fully Sussed race series taking place this weekend in Cornwall on the course to be used for the next round of the BMBS the ideal opportunity to try out the modifications presented itself. That Juice Lubes were sponsoring the race provides my excuse for the tenuous link to purchasing a Moka Pot.

Mel and I drove down on Saturday, arriving in time to ride 3 laps of the circuit in warm sunny conditions. With a dry rocky surface and steep climbs and descents it couldn't have been more different to Sherwood and we were both excited about racing the following day.

Whilst camping was available at the race venue we opted to drive a few miles further south to a campsite behind a pub, meaning showers, beer and good food. This made for a very pleasant evening with some excellent food , an episode of Dr Who in which he referred to his 2 hearts (take note Rab Wardell!) and a comedy DVD, satisfyingly proving out the TV/DVD combo I'd also recently put in the van. That we were alone in the campsite should have perhaps given us some warning of the night ahead as temperatures rapidly dropped leaving us to endure a cold night where we struggled to sleep well. Come the morning however, the Moka Pot was filled up and plugged in and a few minutes later we were fully awake on strong coffee - a top purchase and one that was to be used two more times that day.

The racing started at 10am and Mel won her race from Carla Haines. Carla suffered a puncture, as did many other racers as the rocks took their toll on race tyres. Dexter Hurlock convincingly won the Men's race, though James Porter looked strong in second and was never far behind.

My race started at 1pm and there was good local competition in the shape of Pete Dawe, Lee Hayward, Brendan Murphy and Nick Butler, all familiar faces from the NPS. I had recently collected some new race wheels from the aforementioned Luke. They'd been of little benefit at Sherwood but in the dry conditions I was looking forward to putting them through their paces. Having not pre-entered I didn't receive a good gridding and had a poor start. The early sections of singletrack offered few places to overtake but I was able to make up a few places on the first climb and continued to make progress throughout the first lap, to complete it in 4^th place. On the second lap the leading pair of Pete and Lee came into view on a couple of sections of the course, spurring me on and I soon caught and passed Nick in third place. On the penultimate lap I could see that Pete had gapped Lee and I was closing on second place. I prepared myself for a big last lap hoping to take second place, but early in the lap I passed Lee dealing with a puncture for the second time this season. So, a second placed finish behind a comfortable win for Pete. Post-race diagnosis showed several more riders had suffered with punctures and mechanicals. It's an unforgiving course that is full of pitfalls for the tired rider. I'm now hoping for a better night's sleep ahead of the National race and to improve on my lap times during that race.