Sunshine at Swinley

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BY: Louise Robinson

Published: 27th February, 2012

What a difference a couple of weeks makes! Three weeks ago, round 1 of the Gorrick Spring series was cancelled due to snow, yesterday, round 2 almost necessitated sunscreen!

Guys ask me loads what would make more girls race and I have said before "offer a crèche" but no one ever seems to take me seriously.  So in an effort to ensure the ladies numbers were boosted by two on this round I entered into a time-share kid swap with fellow Tunnel Hill Troll Jo Fisken (Female Vets). The big bonus to being at the race all day was seeing almost all the races start, with the ensuing carnage, and ensuring the kids were thoroughly worn out. My six year old particularly enjoyed the start of the Mens Open race which had two crashes within viewing distance from the start line (the first one being only about 2 metres in).

Dave Brothers leading out the Vets race for Four4th Lights.

 

Busy start to the Fun race.

 

Four kids for the morning could have been a recipe for disaster but lovely weather, a whole forest to play in and a secret stash of kitkats meant we had a lovely time. If only the racing was that easy!

This was my first ever Ladies Expert race and when I lined up there was definitely more testosterone on the start line than I am used to!  I was quite aware of the fact I had 4 laps of the 5 mile course to complete and so when Rachel Fenton (AW Cycles) disappeared into the distance I had to let her go.

My plan was four steady laps, not to blow up before the finish and overtake as many of the back end of the mens sport field as possible.  It went pretty much according to plan. One killer hill did for my legs within the first half a lap but fabulous flowing single-track made the rest of the course great fun. Jo Munden, racing for the new Pedal Heaven team (ladies Sport) passed me on the second climb of the first lap, not bad considering she is recovering from a broken wrist and 2 broken ribs after a road biking accident (well if you will partake in dangerous sports…) By the time I had completed four laps, the three leading expert men had lapped me. Chris Minter (Pedalon) passed me at the bog (if you were there you know where I mean - if you weren't it was a bog that got more and more boggy as the day went on).  Us mere mortals are forced to trudge through such sections but Chris just floated over it. Life is never fair!  Second place Expert Ladies was not a bad result for my first outing in this category.

 Many thanks to Nick Cammell from Mountain Trax who gave me something to chase on the last lap, and to Jo Fisken who cooked roast dinner for all of us at the end of the day.

Six days to go and then onto the London SingleSpeed Championships at Black Park.

 

Louise Robinson

XCracer.com

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