2007-8 Marin Winter Enduro Round 2

2 Dec 2007 - Mayday Meadow
Images & Report: Joolze Dymond

Results (link) Timelaps

While most people view their Sundays as a day off work and an excuse to batten down the hatches in a warm house, with the telly tuned in to the soap omnibus editions, for many it's an ideal opportunity to get outside and let rip, meeting up with friends in muddy playgrounds all round the country - such is the joy of mountain biking.

Classic enduro singletrack action

The first Sunday of December proved how much fun you can have in the winter despite heavy rain and near gale force gusts, as hundreds of competitors found out when they turned up at the second round of the Marin Winter Series. Proving increasingly popular the Thetford based event sold out well over a week before the actual race, leaving the organisers unsure if they would start attracting ticket touts on the gates as a riders clamoured for a chance to get a ride in this competitive event.

Even the weather forecast of torrential rain and mini tornados, didn't put competitors off as they duly turned up in the droves, brollies and waterproofs at the ready. Organisers Frank and Paul, acted on feedback received from the first round where some 4 hr competitors got held up but the rush for the start line by the 2hr riders. This time to stop any confusion or unnecessary delay, riders of the different 2 and 4 hr categories were penned off and restrained waiting for their allotted time. Just before the off, a dire warning was given out stating that due to the impending heavy winds, the race may have to be abandoned at any time, not a good sign of the conditions expected.

Riders keen and eager despite the heavy rain, began collecting in their pens vying for position well before the off. First released into the forest were the 4hr riders and right from the beginning it was Marin rider Billy Joe Whenman who made the first move, getting a 100meter lead by the first corner and from there he never looked back, as the rest of the riders surged forward.

Next and the 2hr ladies and juniors were set off in pursuit of the 4hr riders and once more one rider pelted out the grid hoping to put some distance between herself and her competitors, this being Debbie Burton, keen to improve on her 2nd spot from the previous round. Then finally it was the turn of the 2hr riders to get stuck in.

What lay before them was 6.2 miles of all the usual fun you get at Thetford; fast flowing singletrack, deceptive bomb holes and deviously evil drags, that seemingly go on forever and sap all your strength from you, before releasing you onto another section of fun singletrack, a definite case of pleasure/pain, made all that more interesting by the surface consistency of porridge due to the ever persistent rain.

Sun, left, was rarer than rain, right, on a damp day in East Anglia

As the riders snaked their way through trails, such as the infamous Beast, followed by the excruciating Double Shocker, flying into Hale's Pit then onto the Helter Skelter before encountering the Mine Field and the aptly named Swamp, the rain continued to fall and the wind continued to gust and conditions seemed to get worse.

For nearly 2 hrs, the conditions were pretty grim but as one of the words in the title of the series is 'winter' I guess riders were prepared for whatever they encountered. Unfortunately for some the conditions did play havoc with their bikes, with a number retiring due to mechanicals, worn brakes and dodgy tyre choice, but for the majority they still ploughed on, the challenge continuing.

In the 2 hour the race was on with all the usual suspects, slipping and sliding out in front. Paul Troughton was the first man back to complete his first lap, making him the man to hunt down, with Dan Oakley, Damien Baker, Ben Loaker, John Smith plus vets John McAndrew and Jef Sharp all keen to get in the thick of the action.

Troughton held onto his lead over the 4 laps opening up a cushion of over 4 mins on second placed Dan Oakley, with Damian Baker having to fight it out with Loaker and Smith for 3rd. A somersault over the bars into the biggest bomb hole for Smith saw the organisers take the decision to close that part of the course as the weather conditions didn't seem to be helping.

First round winner and top vet of the 2hr series John McAndrew riding for Ben Hayward's Cycles, found himself riding hard through the porridge like surface as he battled to keep in contention with the younger riders, though he rode strongly to take the win once more in the Vets' section, placing himself 6th overall. Entertainment came in the form of John's, team mate Jef Sharp, whose decision to run Racing Ralph's in the slippy conditions was a comedy moment for all around him, still he slid comfortably into a fine 2nd spot ahead of Salsa Racings Phil Buick.

Busy scene as one race passes as another waits to start

Next up was the lovely Debs - Debbie Burton, in the 2hr women's race, having opened up a lead on the first section she plugged on through to take the win, a pleasing outcome having had to settle for 2nd at the previous round. Gillian Leech took a deserved 2nd spot improving on her 5th spot in the first round with Lynne Coldray going up 1 spot to take 3rd.

Ross Brinson took the honours in the men's junior race, leading from the start, with Dan Collins picking up 2nd ahead of young monkey Nat Jarvis. Despite leading the junior women's race, and looking well on her way to taking her 2nd win of the series Salsa's Anna Buick had to retire through cramp, leaving the door wide open for rival Sam Bryant to pick up the win.

Just as the 2hr race came to a close, the rain seemed to ease and the remaining riders were treated to some gusty but dry conditions, making the going even better, as the porridge soon developed interesting lines. All eyes were on the creaking and swaying trees with fingers crossed that the threatened closure of the race would not happen just yet, those mini tornados seemed happy to stay clear of Thetford just for a while longer.

In the 4hr, all the action was in the chasing group as young rider Billy Joe Whenman, just blasted through lap after lap, increasing his lead with each one. The young rider, who since Dusk til Dawn has been concentrating on parties and fun rather than racing, hasn't let his fitness drop - this was pretty obvious as he left the rest of the field in his wake.
Easing on his last lap so he wouldn't have to do 9 in total, the young Marin rider came home with an impressive 8 laps and a massive 21 min lead to take the win.

It was a day when helmet hair and mud-pox were both rife

Only 4 other riders accumulated 8 laps in total in the tough conditions, the first of those and the man to take second spot behind Whenman was Luke Smith, with Paul Ashby once more mixing it with the younger riders coming in close behind to pick up his first spot in the vets race, the only vet to have completed 8 laps, while 3rd in the seniors was a beaming Lloyd Bettles, delighted to have ridden such a strong race in such awful conditions.

2nd in the Vets behind a nearly exhausted Ashby was rival Michael Powell, he took the decision to call it a day after 7 laps having done enough to take 2nd ahead of James D'Arcy in 3rd.

In the ladies 4hr, it was Lorraine Staley who took the honours, after riding a different tactic. Friend and mentor (or should that be tormentor) Jenn Hopkins persuaded Lorraine that she was more than capable of riding much faster than her usual pace and so a cunning plan was hatched. ? Jenn rode some of the race on Lorraine's wheel, (when she wasn't stopped on the side of the track chatting), urging her to keep the pace high, a tactic which paid dividends, in that Stavely not only took the win but also came out of the race with a much more positive outlook on her abilities. Jenn took 2nd with Mira Salmi taking 3rd.

The fun race or as it is now known by some 'the 2 lap sprint' was won by Mark Bayley 40secs ahead of Craig Finch with Robert Calvert taking 3rd. It was good to see a few younger riders on the track towing their Dad's behind them, as they had a good go in the mud. I'm sure they showed their Dad's how it should be done!

Nice display of festive minimalism from this rider

And so with the sun peeping through and the trees intact the 2nd round came to a satisfactory ending with plenty to smile about and loads of mud to be scrapped off both body and machine. Strangely with Xmas round the corner, talk was not of turkey and trimmings, but of the next exciting instalment of this cracking series. With plenty of trails and the expertise of organisers Frank and Paul (the very same organisers who later in the year will bring their expertise to the NPS XC - check out www.britishnps.co.uk soon for more info) at the helm you know that Thetford will be full of surprises once more at R3. If you fancy blowing off those Xmas cobwebs and having a go, make sure you get your entry in now at www.thetfordmtbracing.com as the series is selling out fast? or you could find yourself hunting on eBay for one of the most sought-after race tickets of the year!

Rider Response:

John McAndrew - 2hr
Started the day with porridge and then ended up riding in it! After a quick 5 mins warm-up spotted the guys lining up at about 10.25 for the 2-hour so quickly placed my self on the front row for a clean getaway. Bang it worked into the first single track about 5th the 3 rd by the time we hit the beast. The pace seemed quite high compared to round 1 and with the soft going it was more an individual effort and no sitting in for a free ride.
Jef (Sharp) my team mate hooked up with me for laps 1 and 2 but after the rain his Ralph's weren't gripping so well so I pushed on trying to keep 3rd overall. It was great fun balancing the grip of the tyres in all the corners and picking the fastest line through the Porridge. Then John Smith came up and soon rattled by. Shortly after Ben Loaker, Damian Baker and I settled down and worked hard to chase Smithy down constantly swapping places as and when we felt stronger. With half a lap to go and comfortably 1st vet I let them have their own dual and cruised to the finish.

Dan Jenkins
I had to abandon the race after half a lap; I've got absolutely no brakes, nothing to do with the conditions here just bad maintenance! I was enjoying myself out there until this, it's nice and squishy under the wheels, sliding round corners it was great fun. Brilliant fun, just wish I'd sorted my brakes out before I started.

William Gilman-Earle - Fun
I rode the fun race, or the two lap sprint as we call it! This is only the second race I've ever done, the first one was R1 of this series, I'm really enjoying it and I'll be back for the 3rd one in January. I came 6th in the first race and hopefully today I've done better. I just need to lose the beer belly and I'll be even faster. The course was interesting; if you don't get held up you can pick your line. I'm doing this for fitness really and the fun, though I'll let you know how I feel tomorrow when all the aches and pains set in.

Nick Owen - 2Hr
That was fantastic a bit slippy all over the place but it was entertaining watching Jef Sharp out there on his Racing Ralphs, until he let me pass which was very kind of him. This series is a great way to end the season but bring on the beers now until next year.
It was very tough out there today, I rode it in the dry and it was super quick, I was really looking forward to getting out there and blasting round, but after looking at the weather forecast I thought here we go. The second part of the course was the hardest, you got to the bottom of Helter Skelter and all the way back from there it was a real, real, slog. And the bit we call the Swamp, well that just reminded me of Mayhem it was the Somme Woods! You came up behind someone you want to pass on the right, but by time you get there you're on your left but hey it's all good fun. It was a little windy out there, a couple of sections of open fire road where you felt it, you just had to find a nice big guy to sit behind! Right off home for a warm shower a meal with friends and a few beers, a great way to end your day!

Big entry numbers means there's always someone to follow out on the course

Tony Williams - 2Hr
It's not gone well today I turned up about 20mins after everyone else had started and well it just went down hill from there really! It was quite slippery out there but I managed to stay upright for the full distance. It's always worth coming here even if you do end up being last and wet. Fortunately it didn't rain as hard I was expecting and it wasn't too cold, so all in all it was a great race, despite the late start.

Debbie Burton - 2hr
I got the right result this time. It was nice to start at the front it was really good, I hope we didn't hold any of the men up, I'm sure they didn't have any problems getting past. My tactics today was to get out of sight of the other ladies as quick as possible, get a good gap between me and them and hope I could stay there. It was really stodgy out there really energy sapping, but I don't mind slithering around in mud, it's the same conditions for everyone.

Lorraine Staley - 4hr
That was a tough race out there today. The basic idea on the race today is that Jenn (Hopkins) believed I could go faster, if I just went hard all the way round. So Jenn and Grant cooked up the idea to make me ride round hard the whole time not just settle down into the I'm doing 4 hrs I have to go steady, just go race pace the whole way instead.
And it worked; I didn't see any girls go past me, so I think I won the 4hr. I just kept nodding my head stamping on the pedals and kept going faster. Jenn was on my wheel some of the time telling me to pick up the pace, then she'd back right off, or ride ahead, or stop for a chat with people, but physiologically it was a very useful lesson for me, and Jo (Burt) hasn't lapped us at all, which is a bonus! So I'm really pleased. It was a really quick 4 hrs, you were just thinking about the next section you had to do and the mud just made it harder. The Double Shock section was just horrendous, I was using so many swear words when I was trying to get up there. It was good, but it's always good afterwards isn't it?!

Lloyd Bettles - 4hr
It was great to see people falling by the way side cos it was tough and you keep going. I thought at one point just go for it all the way round and some people are going to drop off. It's good fun out there when it's hard it's what it's all about, having accidents plugging through. It dried out after 2 hrs and there was a line you could follow, it was good. I usually hate conditions like this but today it was different I enjoyed it. Can't wait to get back to do the third round now that I'm up near the top!

John Warnock - 4hr
The last lap was very hard work, I think I ran out of energy about a third of the way into it, I was wondering why at times I did the last lap. I'd went through the finish line about 6 or 7 mins before the cut off so it was very tempting to call it day then. But it's been really good fun, there's some really nice sections on the course that bring a smile to your face, I love that type of thing.

Billy Joe Whenman - 4hr
I felt good from when I woke up today really. From the start I had a 200yard lead by the first corner and by the end of the 4 hrs I had over a 20 min lead. I didn't really have any tactics today, I've been out of racing for 3 weeks, D2D was my last race and I've been out partying really. I haven't done any specific race training, I just hoped today I get to the finish, I felt strong on every lap. I slowed up on the last lap, or I'd have had to do another lap, I think I did enough. The Torq gel was really good, I had a caffeine one on the last 2 laps and that was excellent, that and my Mum feeding me jaffa cakes made all the difference. When I started I was sure I had the wrong tyres on for the conditions, I had twisters on, and they're a dry weather tyre but they were okay I had no trouble with them at all, really quick. My back brake went on the first lap but I was flat out from then on. The weather didn't really bother me I just had a great race I've just got to keep it up for next year, The Marin is so good in the wet, it was really responsive. With Luke (Smith) winning the last one and now me winning this one, the sponsors Marin are having a good run. Luke and me were talking in the week about tactics but all that changed on the start line I felt good and just went for it.