Fully Sussed SW Series - RD1 - Redruth

With my 2013 season well underway I approached the first round of the Fully Sussed Series with a good couple of solid results in my bag and looking to open the gas slightly and perhaps get out my comfort zone especially as this course is being used for the next national. As a result of this fact and my good friend Luke Chambers wanting to go for a ride the day before my race it made sense to get a couple of practice laps in the day before. This seemed like a good idea...

The lap starts with a flat out decent down to the bottom of the quarry with an almost trail centeresque flow to it meaning you have a fair amount of swoops etc to it. The track then flows into a 36/34 at the rear climb over loose baby head sized rocks causing you to loose traction. At the top the track went right into the second decent. With a tripple arrow rout over some rocks and a steep shoot with minimal magin for error. It then went into another A or B rout, the A started with a steep left hand bend into a slight helta skelta style decent to the bottom, which just didn't look right to me I think the surrounding rocks combined with my semi slick rear tyre causing me to not have 100% control over my bike I just couldn't face it. Luke riding just behind me on his 150mm Turner 5 Spot trail bike cleared it just fine however which was a tad frustrating I then looked back up the trail to see what rout I should take looked back to see Luke on the floor with a rather large slice in his leg nice! Putting me off the rout for the day thinking I'll look at it tomorrow we road the rest of the track. Like last year the course pritty much climbed out of the valley with a slight detour via the annoyingly rutty woods which were just about out of sync with my wheelbase length meaning out of the saddle spinning which was just annoying (although everyone was obviously in the same boat). Back to the start Luke pealed off to look at his leg whilst I fixed a puncture and went out for another lap.... I really wish I hadn't... clearing the first section of downhill fine, the climb then the next section of downhill still not getting the last bit right in my head so avoided it and road the rest of the track to get to the car and check Luke was ok... with all the technical sections behind me I opened the gas on the flat narrow bit in the quarry clipped a rock and then this happened:

For those without trained eyes, that's me hitting 20mph then all of a sudden going to zero... now my Formula R1 Racing brakes are good but they're just not as good as skin to rock. As my pedal hit the rock on my down stroke my rear wheel launched in the air just too high not to be able to push it back down with my legs. Thus causing me to leave the my bike and fly through the air... once when I was a teenager I was happily walking along the street when I felt a sudden blast to the back of my head turing my head to think it was a football I was confronted by a bunch of youths from the local council estate realising that I was soon to receive a pounding I braced, just like I braced whilst flying through the air. Normally when you crash you have the odd ability to realise that's where your going to land, my landing zone just so happend to be in the big pile of rocks to the side of the track i.e. this was going to hurt! Bam! Black out not knocked out but when receiving extreme trauma your body just shuts off... breath breath breath slow that breathing down extreme tight chest moaning. Eyes back online where's my bike move it out the track (instinct). First wave of body system checks I can feel all my limbs, flex of all my joints still intact no exact area of pain. By this time the guy I'd just ridden past had stopped asked him am I ok not bleeding out anywhere no bones showing?! PHEW! Overall considering the horrificness of crashing at such speed I got of lightly... ah my bike as my bike landed on me thankfully there was next to no damage twisted bars and some scuffs on the handlebars but other than this everything was ok amazing! Back to the car I realised my right wrist was weak and had some good grazes on my hips, shoulders and a nip on my ear along with some big scraps on my helmet.

A sleep powered by Vitamin I (imiprothrin) revealed a hurting body but I figured I was able to race and what a race I had:

Refusing to do another practice lap as A. I didn't want to discover I wasn't able to downhill with my body as it was until the race and B. the corse was harsh on bikes I'd be gutted to cause damage to my bike whilst warming up so a spin up and down the road reveled I was able to hold onto my bike but I was still quite sensitive hopefully another portion of Vitamin I and a nice shot of adrenaline during the race would allow me to ride correctly.

Lining up (nearly missing my gridding call) I found a good Expert/Elite field for a Southwest race and without really realising what the British Cycling official was saying the race was underway... now I suck at starts and this race was no exception I like to think this was because of a hurting body but really it was just down to bad warmup and no power from the engine department leaving the field in second to last I had my work cut out. Hitting the first climb I just about managed to latch onto Matt Thompson's Cif wheel before the next decent as I chickened out on the final A line I found myself back off the rear of his wheel. With my work cut out for me I sought about getting back into this race, finally managing to catch Matt again I got past him and caught up with Matt Loke from Southfork and Harry Smith from Certini on the final climb before the wooded section... opening the gas I got past them before the trail narrowed again crossing the line in 6th. As I struggled to get any speed on the decent due to lack of mojo and being a passenger on my bike thanks to my injurys they remained on my tail going into the baby head rocked climb at the top of which I managed to latch onto Luke Egger and Llewellyn Holmes who were duelling it out. Llewellyn's chain dropped part way down the decent which meant I was now in 5th but skipping the A line again (I'll get it nailed before the national) got me dropped behind Luke, Harry and Matt Locke managing to beast the three of them on the climb back to the start where I skipped past Jon Pybus who had a mechanical in the woods (me now in 3rd). My battling with Luke, Matt and Harry continued for the next 2 laps until I realised that they were slowly cracking, my gaps at the start/finish line were getting a little bit bigger and I finally managed to get to the bottom of the downhills (avoiding the A line) without any of them coming past I'd secured 3rd (assuming I had no mechanicals) I then went about trying to hunt down team mate Dexter and James Porter (1st and 2nd) but alas my lack of ability to descend at speed was clearly hampering my lap times and moving up the podium was sadly out of reach.

All in I'm pretty chuffed with my race today would have been nicer to have been more of a contender for 2nd and 1st but that would have meant I wouldn't have had such a good dog fight for 3rd! Thanks for my lovely wife for the photos and support today even though she had a stinking cold!

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