Anyone racing with Gorrick this weekend ?

weeksy59

http://www.gorrick.com/racing/news_item.php?id=371

Me and a few of the lads are off out to play

Gone for 3 lapper again... we dropped down to 2 last time...but back up to the big boys 3 lap

njee20

Yep I'll be there in Elite!

You've noticed the venue's changed presumably! I hope they don't send us straight up that bloody hill straight off the line!

weeksy59

njee20 wrote:

Yep I'll be there in Elite!

You've noticed the venue's changed presumably! I hope they don't send us straight up that bloody hill straight off the line!

Yep noticed that but have no idea exactly what hill or where the start/meeting place now is apart from the map. I've done Swinley lots, also one event at Crowthrorne earlier this year.. obviously i can see where it is on the map... but not ridden that area at all.

ollie_lucas1985

How far are the laps on these events?..

weeksy59

ollie_lucas1985 wrote:

How far are the laps on these events?..

5-6 miles.

njee20

At most, nearer 5 than 6 usually. Usually around 20 minutes for the quick guys.

Have you done the Gorrick 100 before? That's the Surrey Hill venue. You turn in off the A320, just after the Rapley Farm entrance, before the Coral Reef roundabout. It is all the Swinley Forest trails, there's a seriously steep climb off the start line which they sometimes use, or you can turn off before it gets steep, hope for the latter!

weeksy59

How do you cross the road then ?

If coming from Bracknell, you do a right at the roundabout at Coral reef for Swinley... so looking at the map, i go straight on instead and it's on the left ?

But Swinley is on the right....

njee20

Nah, you have to turn off the dual carriageway, so you go straight over the Coral Reef roundabout, down to the next one, then back north towards Coral Reef, entrance on the left.

weeksy59

njee20 wrote:

Nah, you have to turn off the dual carriageway, so you go straight over the Coral Reef roundabout, down to the next one, then back north towards Coral Reef, entrance on the left.

I'm with you now... I was a little confused for a minute.

Thanks buddy.

If it's the type of hill that's on your right if standing at the main bit in front of the labrinyth then i think i know the one, or one of the simillar ones you're on about and yes..they're buggers LOL. I guess it seperates the men from the boys early on...

I'll be one of the boys lol

njee20

If you've ridden Swinley you'll know it when you see it. I doubt they'll include it, the singletrack on the left is much more fun, but can cause chaos off the start line in the bigger categories!

Shotsaway

From the Gorrick twitter page

"Course update! You can look forward to a dry 4.5 miles with lots of fun singletrack inc. 2 new sections. It's not too technical or hilly."

http://twitter.com/Gorrick

weeksy59

that's a relief... i'm tired today lol

benpinnick

Good luck to everyone riding Gorrick today. Wish I were there rather than painting the nursery :shock:

njee20

And a lovely day for it! See peole there, black/yellow kit, green Oakley Radars, Top Fuel.

weeksy59

Will shout if i see you mate.

Still debating my attire for the day. May wear my new Commencal DH shirt or may actually wear my Endura jacket as it's a bit on the side of chilly lol.

weeksy59

Well today me and one of the boys decided to have a play out at Surrey hills/Swinley and do a Gorrick race.
Entered the 'Open Male' class, 3 laps, about 5 miles per lap.
Lining up i noticed that compared to last time we raced it seemed a lot more serious and was full of lyrca clad whippets

Started near the back as that's where we expected to finish LOL. 30 secs in and the terrain was poorly planned out. Straight into a 5mph bottleneck and we must have waited 3-4 mins at bottom of hill before getting into the singletrack. They really needed a better planned start to break it up a bit better.
The rest of the lap though made up for it, good trails,terrain and a decent mix of both ups and downs.
Managed to work my way to the back of the pack quite well and finished pretty poorly i think. Although it still bemuses me as to where i'm going wrong.
Can't seem to maintain a decent heart rate on teh bike, certainly compared to the rates i can reach and maintain when running for example. The legs are willing but the heart and breathing is like i'm about to collapse.

It was only really the first part of the lap that was really tough, the rest was just decent singletrack with a bit of fire road and a bit of new foresty bit they've prepared for the event.
My target really was to match my mate who did me by about 5-6 mins last time out. However, i think that didn't go to plan and he actually finished i think a bit further ahead of me.
Had a couple of epic battles on last lap, which sadly and rather disgustedly i lost both of and both lads did me before the end.
Had a cracking jump though in front of camera guy and nearly wiped him out as i landed crossed up and went to the right... almost wiping out his mobile phone lol.

Finished the event in a better physical state than last time i did the 3 lapper, maybe that was the terrain, maybe i didn't try hard enough... but DAMN i thought i gave 100%.

Bike was great, glad i swapped to the dual ring setup on the front as twice i needed to use the small ring per lap.

All in all, top day out... but me being me, slightly disappointed in the end result.

njee20

Great fun, I really enjoyed it. That first singletrack through the woods didn't really work, but it was brand new, so I guess theyve gotta try it eventually. Great course though, super fast, and a nice day for it too! We only had 6 starters, of which I finished 4th, not too bad with a couple of decent elites there.

Hated that fireroad after the first woods, seemed deceptively steep! Loads of non-racers out too, seemingly oblivious to other riders!

Edit: Results up! The 2 guys behind me dropped out, hate it when that happens! Consistent lap times though, which is always nice!

gezzza

I entered fun for a laugh as my riding and fitness isnt up there ( 4 rides in four months)

it all went bad when i snapped my small ring on a pratice lap, so i had to race in 42t ring

it was good fun managed to ride it all apart from the first single track uphill

njee20

I did the whole thing in the 42t :-)

SiLanc

Here's the lap by lap analysis if you want to know where it all went right/wrong*

http://xcenduro.co.uk/racing/lapbylap/G ... d12010.asp

* delete as appropriate ;-)

Si