oneblackdot

I had missed the previous two races in the 2nd Brownbacks Race Series as they all clashed with other events/races. So was looking forward to the final race of the Hope sponsored series.

As the only bike that wasn’t in bits the decision was made for me to ride it on the singlespeed. I’d ridden two of the three races at the Quarry earlier in the year on the Genesis iO so knew what to expect; a hard, uncomfortable race.

Lee Quarry is nearly all singlespeedable (just) there is no let up it, no real rest points. Each climb is just on the limit of do-able and the descents all require full concentration, the rider needing to really move the bike around. To sum up its knackering.

I also elected to go for the all or nothing approach to kit (no tools, no pump, no tube) due to it been a short race at around 1.45 and I’d not punctured in the 3 previous races at Lee Quarry (tempting fate you say?).

er ?! GO!

A good 10 minutes hanging around getting cold on the start online and apparently we were off, which took me and others by surprise (what happened to megaphone and countdown)? In the middle of 70 or so bikes scrabbling for grip on the loose rocky hill start approaching the first corner and narrower section. I went out relatively hard (its either that or push if your riding a singlespeed starting a race on a steep loose hill) and by the first narrow section was towards the front of the field.

The fast start soon caught up with me and the familiar breathing hard and feeling ‘orrid kicked in. I was passed by a few other riders which continued for a while eventually finding a bit of a rhythm 3 laps or so in and not feeling quite so bad and started to pass others again. The iO as always excelled at the swoopy and rocky stuff, although the frame is built around 100mm fork it feels confident and is surprisingly quick at Lee Quarry type terrain.
I didn’t have the heart on the final lap for long slog of a climb (the tramline) and pushed/ran part of it, jumping back on to ride the final climb to cross the finish line feeling pretty much done in.

I was 2nd singlespeeder to a very fast guy from the Wheelbase lot and came 10th out of 52 in my ‘Weekend Warrior’ category which I was pretty happy with.

One gripe with the otherwise ace event is the category set up, there are three categories overall:-
1. Have-a-go-hero (beginners)
2. Weekend Warriors (done quite a few races but don’t have a race license or owt)
3. Racer (fully licensed up racer)

In the first series the starts of each category were staggered, so all made sense. In the second series the ‘Weekend Warriors’ and ‘Racers’ start at the same time AND the winner of the ‘Weekend Warrior’ race would have been placed second in the ‘Racer’ category?! The self-seeding obviously does not work - what’s the point?
If the two categories had been amalgamated I would have finished in 24th position overall - Racer cat. for me next time.