awesome to the max
high points
-parking right next to velos pig as soon as we arrived , no wandering around trying to spot people
-some guy actually complemented me on my bike , deluded fool
-velo arguing with a guy on a marin full suss because his forks were older than the frame which wasnt really retro due to a lack of a rear canti hanger
-watching ed and mrkawasaki put up their tent , pair of top blokes , the sitcom offers will be pilling in at any minute
-riding around the 4x track thing which is much smaller in reality than looking at pics with velo and davedownhill and being quicker while not leaving the ground than some guy on a full suss clattering his way around
-cabs beautiful fixed 29er inbred
-the scots
-daves tent
-the chimenea
-cigars
-the ed and neil show
-the boys sense of humor
- cougars
-not getting lost in the closed woods at 2am trying to find the 4x track which was only just up the road
-finding my bike very early on after the lemans start
-the amazing course
-watching females arses
- stopping for a chat with marshals
-getting wicked air , well a bit of squirely air off some jumpy bits where some photographers were ( i might drop this to low points depending on any resuling pics
)
-the xc head who seemed to feel upset that a guy wearing jeans and a tshirt was going to pass along a fireroad so pulls across from the center out to where i was coming past , so going the other way around and leaving him like he was standing still
-catching some guy with suspenders on my rigid on that awesome downhill bit with the wet rocks under the trees . but being too knackered to pass
-not dying
-finishing both laps
-sprint for the finish where i passed the guy who held his title of fattest racer after chatting to and being too tired to pass for a few miles and another guy much further along the final straight who looked surprised to see me hammer past
-not being last . which means there were people slower than a guy wearing jeans and a tshirt riding a heavy rigid jump bike with far too tall a gear
-cab being the only fixed rider and winning loads of stuff
low points
-section of A1 closed , took far too long to travel very little distance
-cold
-camping
-getting a sore knee after riding around the 4x track thing , probably due to no sretching and it being cold
-not seeing the course as i was too lazy to go for the saturday ride
-nae sleep , you never sleep when camping your body just shuts down for a short while
-cold
-running
-5mins into the race realising my 36/16 gear was a tad too high
-coming along a flat straight wondering where it goes only to look up and see people winding their way up a mountain :shock:
-spending forever walking up the mountain
- last i saw of gash was seeing him ride up the mountain as i rapidly fell by the wayside walking
-gash beating me . infact all the scots beat me
-oh shit , it goes up further :shock:
-tapping the end of my bar going along the bit of downhill a foot wide but on the side of another mountain and very nearly thinking i was going to have a very big fall
-at the bottom of the bit where the marshal was telling everyone about the rock at the bottom deciding to get off and walk it only to find my vans had nae grip and nearly faling on my arse anyway
-falling on my arse
one of the downhill bits that had a bit of a step halfway , being too tired to lift the front wheel enough and having a tumble over the bars . i rolled out of it like a pro and carried on . a couple of decent pics exist as the guy with the jones was taking some pics at that bit
-getting a bit lost . i took a turn down a downhill that wasnt part of the course , stopping next to a load of geared spectators and saying
"ive gone the wrong way havnt i ? "
" yep "
" it was straight along wasnt it ? "
" yep "
- running out of energy 5mins into the race so spending the entire time knackered
-knee is quite sore now
big thanks to gil-m and the others for doing a great course and putting on a good weekend