Thefford Winter Series 2012/13

hopper1

evo3ben wrote:

Some nice pics there! none of me though

So, how much sand did everyone get off there bike after cleaning it? I had a pile big enough for a small sand castle lol. Had to take off the crank to clean bb30 bearings (next round will be the last time i use crap BB30), wheels bearings needed cleaning, jockey wheels etc. Basically needed a full strip down and re-build :shock: Still not got it fully back together yet!
Clothes and shoes were covered in sand also, made a right mess! If i didnt know better, i would have guessed we raced on a beach lol. Hopefully the weather wont be that bad again otherwise it will be an expensive series :shock:

Close... It was a desert! The trees were planted to ease erosion

evo3ben

Not long now and the weather is still raining lol. It is meant to ease up with a few days of dry weather but i really dont think it will make a difference to the course conditions. A bit of snow is forecast for sunday which would be cool but we will see but i do think its going to be cold. Regardless of weather, im looking forward to it 8) Need to get into that top 30 to get gridded and dont have to wait on the line for 30 minutes freezing my nuts off lol

stylish

If the rain eases off and the wind stays it can only help dry it up, as we're starting from high lodge, I would think a lot of the lap will be from d2d....
Just need to shift the injuries from Sundays off and all will be good.

C0LL0

Woops, what happened Darren?

stylish

Collo, i had a go at flying, shortly after leaving the bike i discovered,

A) i cant
i dont bounce

Just a local race, down a steep bank with a paralell root about halfway down, front tyre deflated on the root, the bars snatched out of my grip and over i went! I had done 3 practice runs at the bloody bank, and had no issues, but lap 1 of the race and i crashed......

C0LL0

Oh dear, hope you feel better for race day..... the eye didn't pop out then :-)

stylish

Well i can happily report that the lap for sunday has lots of places to overtake, and considering how much rain weve had its in very good shape, a nice frost on saturday night will do it the world of good too.

it has the usual mix of flowing singletrack and pain in the arse draggy upwards bits, Thetford is too flat to call them climbs!

evo3ben

Thats good to here! When you say in good shape, is that semi slick good shape or mud tyre good shape after 600 bikes have been over it 3-4 times?

stylish

The frost had made it very hard on the surface, some bits are a touch sticky but nothing too bad, if it does rain a bit tomorrow it wont hurt it too much, it will go like it did at d2d, the first lap was slippery then after that the drip came up. There are some nasty roots hidden in puddles though.......

Jimboliana

Thanks for the heads up stylish I am hoping to keep on the ralphs, might go out and do a warm-up lap early

stylish

I was on Conti X Kings, but its what i always run! i just drop the pressures when its wet.....Ralphs will be fine if we get no more rain.

evo3ben

Is Jim knows, i am a mere with tyres I should really just run one set and be done with it. I get very tactical sometimes and think of things that may help me get a faster time. I used 2.1 Ralphs for R1 but my grip was not good slipping on the back and sliding out in some placing on the front. 2.25 Ron up front this time but not sure on back. Was going to use a Dirty Dan 2.0 (cant believe how light they are!) if it was going to be muddy but if its going to be frozen over and not too much mud i may way stick with the Ralph on the back. Will see how the weather goes tomorrow before making my choice as at the moment its saying sleet in Thetford for saturday morning :roll:

WindyG

Had a look at some of the course today, you guys have got a nice lap, frost made the ground just firm and not too slippy, a few muddy sections but not real deep with puddles like on the trails.
Great fast sweeping section off to the side of the beast.

stylish

Windy G, the bit from the top of Double Shocker down to the Moto x trail is a cracker, spent alot of that in the air yesterday........
hopefully a good frost tonight will firm the ground up even more, which could even make some of it icy on the corners...

WindyG

stylish wrote:

Windy G, the bit from the top of Double Shocker down to the Moto x trail is a cracker, spent alot of that in the air yesterday........
hopefully a good frost tonight will firm the ground up even more, which could even make some of it icy on the corners...

Forecast for tommorow is sunny and slightly warmer than today. I thought the course looked firm enough anyway, even Steve didn't fall off there.

Good luck for tomorrow and try and stay upright in this race

paulmgreen

Unbelievable number of punctures today ! I had two. Some people had three!

I saw we'll over 30!!!!

Fire road of doom!

stylish

There were indeed lots of punctures, i got one on lap 4 while on for a top 20 in the veterans, had to stop 3 times to pump it up as it wouldnt seal properly, but still finished 22nd, so happy with that.
The sad thing about the punctures, was the high number of dumped tubes around the lap, just thrown on the side, its that sort of thing that will get races stopped there by the Forestry Comission.

evo3ben

Great race today! Not for all though. That fire road was full of flint which puctured so many peoples tyres. I was fortunate not too puncture or to skid off on that really slippery corner where so many did. I saw two people in front of me on seperate laps come off.
Weather was good and the frost made a nice quick course and considering the amount of rain we have had, it held out really well 8)
I managed a respectable 37th in the senior 18-39hrs cat which i am really chuffed with

C0LL0

You looked determined when you shot past me Ben, good result, I didn't puncture but I did get bitten by the corner of ice, Loved the Flint pit run down through to the moto x trail, really got some speed up; that really did flow for me. didn't even get anything too cold, my new NW celsius boots are the dogs danglers.....

evo3ben

Cheers Paul Fair play to you for doing the 4hr races! I had a mega sore throat (an still have) causing a few caughing fits during the race. One guy told me to give up the fags lol. I would of agreed but i gave up back in may . Must admit, the course suited me well. Im not the quickest on twisty single track so the open bits gave me a real chance to put the power down (an then cough my guts up again after). Only real mistake i made was putting dark lenses in my glasses. The dark wooded singletrack areas i was near riding blind!
I did notice when looking through the photos that you went down on that corner. Alot of people did. I ran my tyre presures fairly low (28psi front RoRo and 30psi rear RaRa) hoping to get what traction i could on the frozen ground and in all honesty, my tyre grip was fantastic! But to run at them low pressures and not pucture on that flint road was mega lucky! Have yet to check the tyres for slices.
We must catch up at the next round!

Jimboliana

Good to see you Paul if it was only your backside! I managed 52nd which was a good result for me, I was just looking through the pics and saw you went down on that corner, lucky I didn't but I did on the one b4 the small hump that everyone seemed to struggle on. It was a good course and I would have beaten Ben (if only I had not done that practice lap, that's what I blame it on!!!) some fantasic flowing single track that I just loved and was looking forward to so well done to the Thetford MTB team for a great race as this time it was more like a race, loads more places for people to overtake me Ben was knocking people off left right and centre and I had to dodge the carnage, took all my skills!!!
Saw Shrimpo at the end of my last lap, he done well. There are a few pics of you on www.pics4all.co.uk trying to get round that corner
I could not believe the amount of punchers on on the first lap, people out left right and centre. Ben I had my lenses on as well and I was the same going into the woods I either followed everyone else or went with where I thought which was right, couple of months off now guys so keep up the good work and see you soon

stylish

Collo, which number are you in the crashes? I was lucky, I binned it on lap 2 at the bottom of Warren Bank but nobody was there to picture it!
Someone went down hard in front of the group I was in on the grassy section beside Mayday Meadow, we all checked he was ok, and he insisted he was, but to me he looked rather stuck in the bike?
I was happy with my times, I was only 17 seconds off my mates fastest lap, And he is 10 years younger than me!

C0LL0

821 in the GMCC blue and white kit, I think I saw your dad this time Darren, looks like he'd skinned a rabbit and stuck it onto his head .

I stopped at the end of my fourth lap to pick up some food bars from my bag on the ground only to find them frozen solid lucky I had put my drinks bottles on the vans bumper so they were okay.

Training is off until the new year, but I'll still be out riding with the Hadleigh Club and will be joining the Trog group for their ride on December 30th around Tunstall forest.

stylish

That was him, hiding in a dip halfway down double shocker, and i think i bought him that hat one christmas!

C0LL0

I've been told series standings are out, but even when I follow the facebook link I don't see any, just empty boxes

C0LL0

found them; I'm 21st in the old fella's 4hr, but I'm 14 points and 3 places behind my mate ......... ggggrrrrrrr

evo3ben

Nice one Paul! Im sitting in 42nd in 18-39 cat 8)

WindyG

Good results from both of you.

stylish

Ive only got one finish, so its scrapping through the pack at round 3 again for me! but after running well inside the top 20 last time until i picked up a puncture, i cant wait for round 3, and hopefully i will be rolling on a new machine.........

C0LL0

You've been a good boy this year then Darren if santa is bringing you a new bike....