Southern XC Round 5 & Southern Championships

 

Date: 06.07.2008
Venue: Chawton Park Woods, Alton, Hampshire
Event Website: www.southernxc.net

Report: Joolze Dymond

Above and below - before and after pics underline the on-course conditions

 

They're a hardy bunch the Southern XC lot! Well they must be, with 3 of their races this year being hit by some pretty unseasonable weather. And yet, they still they come in their hordes to race. Unfortunately the latest round made it four bad weather events out of five. You'd have thought after the number of years I've been doing this job I would have known that a XC race in early July meant torrential rain. But no, optimistically I turned up in a T-shirt but soon changed my mind and my outfit to a thermal top and full waterproofs. This was going to be a messy one!

Still, riders from all over the south turned up to stake their claim to the Southern area championships as well as bolster their positions in the overall series standings.

The RATz boys were once more the ones responsible for sorting out a cracking venue and entertaining course, with plenty of promises that this course would be weather proof and anyway that wouldn't matter as they couldn't be hit by bad weather again.....could they???

Situated in Chawton Park Woods, Alton, Hampshire, the 4.5 mile course provided lots of fun features: masses of fast flowing singletrack in a deep woodland setting, a couple of good leg straining climbs, coupled with some fast open tracks, topped off with 5 varieties of bombhole, before popping back into the arena to do it all again. In the weeks leading up to the race, conditions were perfect with the ground baked hard under hours of summer sun. Fast-forward to the morning of the race and a nasty drizzle replaced the summer sun: still nothing too worrying as, as promised the trail was riding well in practice. But as the Pee Wees races got underway the rain started to come down in bucket loads.

Soon it was the turn of the juveniles and youth riders to get stuck into the course proper and with the rain still pelting down they set off just hoping they'd made the right tyre choices. It was a race that slipped and slithered all the way round causing some interesting racing.

Luke Gray took it all in his stride as he blasted round the circuit leaving the rest of the field spread out behind him in the youth race. Soon it was getting hard to identify the riders as they quickly became covered in a lovely shade of brown. Gray went on to take his 3rd win of the series, with Steven James just 33secs behind and Max Sykes a further 26 secs in 3rd. Hugo Humphreys coming home in 5th spot still holds the overall series lead but with just 5 rounds out of 6 counting, the youth category is wide open.

In the juvenile race, Alex Baker found himself in all sorts of trouble in the slippery singletrack and despite a good opening bust he was soon caught and passed by Hugo Robinson. But even his race was not without drama as he punctured. He decided to keep riding, but soon his innertube wrapped itself around his disc leaving him no option but to run the last sections of the race, hoping he'd done enough to keep his rivals off his tail. To his surprise he took the win, his 2nd of the series, with Baker regaining his form to take 2nd just ahead of Harry Franklin in 3rd. Despite coming home in 6th Martin Turton still keeps a firm grip on the overall series but again this is another category where the last round will prove the decider.

Sam Bryant was the only girl to brave the foul weather, so she took the win in the youth category after a sterling battle around the muddy course, underlining her win in the overall series too.

Next up were the open and fun male categories along with the junior, vet, open and fun women's categories. Off they set in the seemingly unstoppable torrential rain, turning the surface dust into a thin runny mud, making some of the more technical section even more challenging than they were to begin with. A close eye was kept on conditions but as the riders were still blasting out fast times, lap numbers were kept the same but slight course changes were introduced to provide an optional line. One of these was the last bombhole before the finish, where you had to drop into a bowl and pedal like mad to get up the other side. And as the conditions worsened only the brave chose the direct line which in turn gave them enough speed to make it to the other side, others attempted to ride down the easier line, some made it, some fell, then they had to scramble up the other bank. Bikes were thrown up first leaving riders slithering, clinging to trees, anything to stop them sliding backwards? and as the races went on this just got worse and worse? Entertaining for spectators but not so much fun for riders.

Mud-pack condtions meant nice skin, but tough riding!

 

After 2 long laps and an hours riding, with puddles turning into lakes and the mud getting deeper, James Foster finally came home to take the win in the fun race, while with one extra lap and with the rain easing Simon Lesser took the win in the men's open, just ahead of Owen Pattinson. Claire Muir took the honours in the women's open race with a comfortable gap on Zoe Haws.

Danielle Ridings was reduced at times to Danielle 'Walkings'? but still she battled on, despite a few mechanicals, to take her first junior win. Meanwhile Anna Baird took the win in the vets leaving series leader Carol Tilley to pick up 2nd.

As the morning's racing progressed, the rain finally stopped. Now it was the turn of the juniors, vets and grand vets to get their races underway. Callum Chamberlain took a comfortable win in less than comfortable conditions and with a less than perfect start. Matthew Taylor heads the overall junior series standings but again it's all to play for in the final round.

With vet series leader Mark Chadbourne not in the line up, Mark Cracknell took no second asking to take advantage and took the win ahead of mud hating Roland Tilley. In the grand vets Ray Crosthwaite made it 4 wins out of 4 to stamp his authority on the overall series along the way.

By the last set of races of the day, the weather had turned completely and now the riders faced laps of a rapidly drying and extremely tyre clogging muddy course. But despite this, times were still fast as the circuit flowed, and this time it wasn't the mud that was making it flow! Undaunted, having ridden here in a race last year in even worse conditions, was elite rider Adrian Lansley. He knew that getting into the singletrack first would probably give him the edge he needed with tough competition from Gareth Montgomerie, Christopher Minter and Simon Earnest.

He flew from the start and got a gap leaving the rest of the elite race in chase mode. Minter and Montgomerie matched each other until, with just one lap to go, Montgomerie took a tumble in the last bombhole leaving Minter to get away, Earnest meanwhile had to abandon his race after just one frustrating lap. Up in front Lansley continued to stretch his gap finally taking the win after 2 long hours in the saddle (mostly!) and with it virtually seal the series. Minter came home 3 mins down to take 2nd with Montgomerie coming in another 4 mins adrift to take a hard fought 3rd.

In the expert men's race a tight battle developed between series leader Chris Lane and Tim Dunford. It was Dunford who made all the moves with Lane keeping in tune with the Hargrove's rider whilst Paul Robertson kept both in his sights. By lap 2 Lane had fallen off the pace due to gear problems, leaving Dunford up front with Robertson hot on his tail, until Robertson too suffered from mechanicals leaving Dunford a clear run for home. 2 mins 30secs later, Robertson came home in 2nd while Ben Thomas riding hard took 3rd. Chris Lane had to settle for a disappointing 5th, leaving the last round to decide who will take the honours. It will be a close call and a very exciting battle should unfold between Dunford and Lane as they fight it out between themselves.

Former elite rider Richard Wood took a comfortable win in the Masters over Paul Hopkins, with Mark Hutt taking 3rd and with it moving him into the series leader position as Graham Warby was defeated by the mud and had to call it quits after 2 laps.

Taking his 3rd win of the sport series, moving him into series leader position, was Simon Allard, despite a hard challenge by Niall Frost. Mandy Hibberd took the honours in the master women's race, with 2nd placed Emma Craddock doing enough to remain in the series lead, while Abi Greenway, kept battling on in the expert race. Despite being demoralised in the atrocious conditions she kept pushing on and managed to take the win after early race leader Hilana Marias succumbed to mechanicals and had to settle for 2nd still keeping the series lead, while Rachel Fenton fought through the mud to take a muddy 3rd.

Finally the last person to finish after 4 long and lonely laps was elite rider Nadine Spearing, she duly got her moment on the podium and then it was off to get the worst of the mud off before it set solid.

Despite the atrocious weather, moral was high and more importantly the course rode incredibly well. I just hope that the last round of this fantastic series is rewarded with some blindingly good weather for a change that would not only reward the riders who regularly turn up to battle in conditions that would and have tested the best, but also so the hardworking crew behind the series can finally see all their handiwork in perfect condition and ridden as it's meant to be. Many thanks to all that made us feel really welcome, next time we'll bring the sun bus, after all every little thing helps!

Riders Comments:

Luke Gray - Youth Winner
It was quite difficult in the wet conditions out there today; you had to be careful picking your lines. It was a very technical course made worse by the weather. My tactics were to get out in front and get a gap and that worked out pretty well for me. I did manage to get away early on but I'm sure the rest of the field wasn't that far behind me. I was hoping to get the win today so I'm pretty chuffed with that and now hoping for a good ride at the Nationals in a couple of weeks.

Hugo Robinson - Juvenile Winner
I haven't been doing much on my bike these last couple of weeks, so I didn't expect to win today. I got a bad start and Alex (Baker) had got ahead on the singletrack, but I managed to catch him by the first climb, by the second climb I'd got a gap and I just continued from there. Near the end though, I hit a tree root and my whole tire ripped off, but I kept on riding as I thought it would be okay then it became unridable, so I hopped off and tried to inflate it but found my inner tube wrapped around my disc. I had to run the rest of the race and kept looking back to see if Alex was close behind, I was so sure he was going to overtake me, I was well this is it, I've lost now, but I held on and got the win. Brilliant day, well apart from the weather.

Alex Baker - Juv
I was going really well until after the first fire road bit, I had a really big lead on the climb but as soon as I hit the singletrack my tyres were all over the place. I know every time I tried to put the power down I kept on slipping. I just tried to hang on and then on one of the downhill's I came off, I hit a tree stump, slid across the ground and picked up a few gashes in my knee. I was on the ground for a minute or two, picked myself up and then slid of round the next corner. I was just so close to packing in, then 2 people overtook me, so I carried on and I caught them as they both had mechanicals, so it was a bit of luck for me to actually get second. It could have been worse.

Samantha Bryant - Youth girl
It was quite easy out there with no one to race against; I was just going around doing my own thing really. It was awful out there but I did love every minute of it, we just need more girls in the sport to make it all worthwhile.

Danielle Rider - Junior woman
I'm really excited about this, this is my first win. It was terrible out there, mud everywhere. I really enjoyed each one of my laps despite falling off a few times, I tried my hardest out there, if it had been dry I might have done better but I did what I could in the conditions.

Anna Baird - Vets women
Oh it was fantastic really good fun, it was actually a lot faster than I thought it would be. Fortunately it just didn't stop raining which was fine as it meant the mud didn't start getting sticky. I got away from the first corner and just didn't dare look back, but it was great, really filthy but brilliant.

 

Simon Lesser - Open men
It was very boggy out there right from the start. It was a day I started with Porridge and ended up riding through porridge, but it was good fun. There were quite a lot of guys out there racing today and it was tough. I got away quite quickly but it got very lonely towards the end of the third lap covered head to toe in mud but it was fun.

 

Roland Tilley - 2nd Vet
That wasn't really my type of course it was slip sliding all he way round I prefer hot, dry and hilly courses, all these roots and rain and mud is just not good for me. I had a bit of a poor start, stacked it on an easy bit, my front wheel washed out and loads of people went past But I got going and worked my way back, it was tough and it grinds you down in the end but you just have to keep going. I was very pleased to get second in the end my best result yet in some of the worse conditions, roll on the Nationals!

Callum Chamberlain - junior winner
Yeah that was quite a good race, the first 2 laps were very good and the 3rd lap was a bit slow but other than that yeah it was really good. It clogged up a lot on the last lap. I spent the first Km chasing down the field as I had a naff start I missed my pedals but after that I was off the front. It was a good course; despite the conditions it actually stood up okay and rode really well, and despite all the mud it was very enjoyable.

 

Ray Crosthwaite - Grand Vets winner
It was very muddy, I did a practice lap about 2 hours before the race and it was quite ridable in semi slicks but with the extra rain we had it just made it so slippery. It's not what we expected, we've had such good weather leading up to the event but it got really nasty. I don't know how close the race was I didn't look back a lot! But you can never be complacent, as you never know who is behind you. The first 2 laps were very good as the mud was very wet so you could cut through quite easily. But the last lap it started drying out and it got difficult as it got sticky, tyres were clogging up and slipping everywhere.
Excellent course, they were just unlucky with the weather.

Adrian Lansley - Elite Winner
I seem to do quite well in these type of conditions, I have a history here, the last 2 years have been wet here at the same time of year so I knew what to expect, so a bit of local knowledge seemed to have paid off! To be honest though the course rode really well even in the bad conditions, there were only one or two bits that got really bad and they were sections where people were getting off and running so cutting it up a bit more. The last bombhole got a bit sketchy at the end, but overall it was good fun. I know everyone hates the cleaning and the riding around in the cold but it wasn't raining when we started and we soon got warm! I've been a bit ill so haven't done much training recently so it may have done me some good, so hopefully leading up to the Nationals it'll go in the right direction and it won't be wet, but maybe if it's wet I can do a repeat performance!

Mandy Hibbard - Masters Women winner
It was okay, it was hard, and it just got progressively stickier as the race went on. But it was all right and great fun. We all got set off at the same time so it made it a bit more interesting as I tried to keep up with the elite and experts and drop the other master rider and that seemed to work!

Abi Greenway - Expert women winner
It wasn't too bad most of it was actually ridable, I thought it was going to worse. I felt really bad for Hilana she was leading for quite a bit and she had a mechanical. That's mountain biking anything can happen out there. It's hard to keep your motivation up in those conditions but you have to keep pressing on and sometimes it pays off like today. That last bombhole was a nightmare, I thought at the end I was going to be stuck in there forever!

Simon Allard - Sport Race
I seem to go well in the mud so I really enjoyed the race. I got into the first corner ahead of the field, as I knew as soon you got into the woods there wasn't much space to get past people. I knew it would be muddy! I wish one day I can get to ride it in the dry!

Richard Wood - Masters winner
This was my first master's race; I took the decsion at the start of the season to race this category. I'd been beating myself up in the Elites for that last 5 or 6 years so now I thought I'd old enough, I've got a full time job I' more than qualify to be a master now, so I made the jump. It was a good race I wasn't sure how it would pan out I got past people in my race on the first bit of fire road and that was the last time I saw anyone. It was a challenge, it would have been a very good course in the dry it was a very interesting course in the wet.  The basic plan for this year was not to do any mountain biking till about now then sees how things pan out at the National champs.

Tim Dunford - Expert winner
Good race, it was pretty hard in the mud, it got a bit sticky out there towards the end, I was so glad I swapped my tyres about 10 mins from the start, I put some thin ones on and that really helped. It was tough but I enjoyed it. Paul Robertson was on my tail, I'd get a gap then he'd come back to me on a climb but eventually he had a few problems with his gears and I finally got away from him. So I kept it smooth and tried not to fall off too many times.

Results

Youth - Men
1 Luke Gray 00:43:05
2 Steven James 00:43:38
3 Max Sykes 00:44:04
4 Ben Roff 00:46:28
5 Hugo Humphreys 00:47:03
6 Luke Newby 00:48:58
7 Alec Briggs 00:50:14
8 Taylor Johnstone 00:50:26
9 Ryan Keynes 00:54:24
10 Mike Garrett 00:56:36
11 Nicholas Smith 00:57:56
12 Ben Hawker 00:59:02
13 Charlie White 00:59:12
14 Glen Hassell 01:03:17
15 Nat Jarvis 01:07:34

Juvenile - Men
1 Hugo Robinson 00:25:45
2 Alex Baker 00:26:57
3 Harry Franklin 00:27:11
4 Harvey Lowe 00:27:42
5 Liam Keynes 00:29:20
6 Martin Turton 00:29:42
7 Darren Pyke 00:31:15
8 Josh Parkin 00:32:34
9 George Raine 00:34:15
10 Liam Stolton 00:46:31
11 Daniel James 00:57:54

Youth - Women
1 Samantha Bryant 01:12:00

Open - Men
1 Simon Lesser 01:19:15
2 Owen Pattinson 01:19:39
3 Robert Mccarthy 01:24:09
4 Dave Nicholson 01:24:28
5 Dafydd Hollis 01:25:47
6 Ben Connor 01:26:21
7 Michael Blaen 01:27:32
8 Owen Turgoose 01:28:00
9 Neil Kemp 01:29:29
10 Richard Lang 01:30:35
11 Kevin Lawley 01:30:43
12 Victor Collins 01:30:58
13 Ed Spooner 01:31:03
14 Hanif Meeran 01:33:14
15 Andy Hunt 01:34:44
16 Glenn Panton 01:35:18
17 Chris Lock 01:37:06
18 Leon Rainsford 01:38:40
19 Mick Pinner 01:40:36
20 Toby Millen 01:41:06
21 Lee Galley 01:42:44
22 Duncan Mcgregor 01:43:11
23 Gary Hall 01:44:21
24 Konrad Hughes 01:45:18
25 Matt Wigley 01:45:22
26 Michael York 01:45:28
27 Matthew Scrase 01:47:41
28 Chris Lamb 01:48:53
29 Michael Turner 01:49:26
30 David Bishop 01:53:14
31 Ricardo Bonegio 01:53:15
32 Philip Lock 02:00:59
33 Sean Martin 02:06:56
34 Tyrone Fletcher 00:49:13
35 Tony Smith 01:06:23
36 Simon Alston 01:07:56
37 Stuart Miller 01:26:15
38 Mark Payne 00:33:21
39 Alan Sanderson 00:38:48
40 Sam Coleman 01:05:43
41 Tony Nicholls 01:06:07

Fun - Men
1 James Foster 01:01:19
2 Lee White 01:03:40
3 Brian Macpherson 01:07:58
4 David Williams 01:08:07
5 Mark Seymour 01:08:33
6 Dom Brooking 01:09:45
7 Nathan Hoy 01:12:57
8 Tom Southall 01:13:23
9 Colin Saward 01:16:44
10 Kevin Johns 01:19:39
11 Matt Ainsworth 01:22:55
12 Adrian Davison 01:24:40
13 Neville Cook 01:25:38
14 Philip Hoy 00:35:12
15 Henk Smith 00:38:50
16 Steve Morris 00:40:47

Junior - Women
1 Danielle Rider 01:42:13

Veteran - Women
1 Anna Baird 01:17:45
2 Carol Tilley 01:25:53
3 Sabine Weinberger 02:03:10

Open - Women
1 Clare Muir 01:19:05
2 Zoe Haws 01:43:02

Junior - Men
1 Calum Chamberlain 01:14:18
2 Max Filleul 01:18:14
3 Ross Brinson 01:19:45
4 Jonathan Pybus 01:22:49
5 Matthew Taylor 01:25:02
6 Sam Barley 01:26:42
7 Charlie Beeny 01:36:05
8 Tom Hooker 01:40:16

Veteran - Men
1 Mark Cracknell 01:16:01
2 Roland Tilley 01:18:56
3 Steve Jones 01:20:38
4 Jon Pierce 01:21:43
5 Andy Cracknell 01:22:40
6 Martin Weinberger 01:25:09
7 Chris Walker 01:25:57
8 Chris Clark 01:26:22
9 Dean Morgan 01:26:58
10 Vincent Halpern 01:27:54
11 Paul Hudson 01:29:06
12 Dean Frost 01:29:55
13 Michael Radburn 01:30:11
14 Ashley Roles 01:30:32
15 Mark Hardwicke 01:31:30
16 Glenn Hord 01:34:29
17 Colin Houston 01:36:25
18 Julian Lye 01:38:42
19 Steve Moors 01:40:38
20 Simon North 01:42:13
21 Kim Burrows 01:42:26
22 Allan Davey 01:51:49
23 Phil Avery 01:56:03
24 Anthony Dyment 02:06:10
25 Timothy Hughes 02:16:17
26 Kevin Gillette 02:43:24
27 Paul Isaacs 01:02:49
28 Keith Rusling 01:15:33
29 Antonius Wubben 01:37:20
30 Mark Chadbourne 00:23:30
31 Keith Sheridan 00:25:25
32 Ian Charlton 00:27:45
33 Francis Baker 00:56:08
34 Patrick Stokes 00:56:43

Grand Veteran - Men
1 Ray Crosthwaite 01:21:55
2 Denys Jones 01:27:44
3 Andy Roberts 01:30:50
4 Ian Petherbridge 01:33:06
5 Paul Warner 01:34:41
6 Garrett Hill 01:42:35
7 John Newport 01:47:10
8 Mark Horton 01:26:28

Elite - Men
1 Adrian Lansley 02:02:06
2 Christopher Minter 02:05:12
3 Gareth Montgomerie 02:09:44
4 Andrew Howett 02:43:34
5 Simon Ernest 00:25:08

Expert - Men
1 Tim Dunford 01:40:47
2 Paul Robertson 01:43:18
3 Ben Thomas 01:45:49
4 Patrick Cobb 01:49:29
5 Chris Lane 01:54:17
6 John Whittington 01:54:36
7 Scott Chappell 01:56:21
8 Henry Turgoose 01:57:06
9 Christian Aucote 01:57:44
10 Nick Coley 02:00:05
11 Jason Hucklesby 02:02:25
12 Nick Evans 02:33:35
13 Fabien Rodier 01:22:15
14 George Budd 00:55:55
15 Lee Gollop 01:02:39

Master - Men
1 Richard Wood 01:41:07
2 Paul Hopkins 01:46:12
3 Mark Hutt 01:47:34
4 Tom Smith 01:52:29
5 Jamie Norfolk 01:53:43
6 Nick Onslow 01:54:01
7 Stuart Jones 01:55:23
8 Stuart King 01:56:32
9 Andrew Parsons 01:58:27
10 Stefano De Tomaso 02:00:16
11 Robert Rowe 02:04:36
12 James Sutton 01:48:21
13 Graham Warby 00:57:55
14 Nigel Grantham 00:57:56
15 Andy Plewes 00:58:09
16 Chris Hunt 00:58:17
17 Matthew Knight 01:17:01
18 Rob Purcell 00:27:40
19 Marc Clothier 00:40:00

Sport - Men
1 Simon Allard 01:20:53
2 Niall Frost 01:21:52
3 Jon Cruikshank 01:23:25
4 Daniel Eastment 01:24:46
5 Alex Day 01:28:12
6 Chris Pedder 01:28:31
7 Serge Hunt 01:28:44
8 Karl Norfolk 01:30:07
9 Ben Turgoose 01:30:34
10 Mark Baines 01:31:39
11 Glen Whittington 01:32:50
12 Philip Lenney 01:33:42
13 Andrew Arendt 01:34:45
14 Gareth Hayes 01:35:50
15 Martin Lenney 01:37:27
16 Stuart Harvey 01:38:35
17 Andy Hibberd 01:42:22
18 Christopher White 01:43:46
19 Rob Hedges 01:50:55
20 Ewan Latham 01:51:42
21 Brodie Gardias 01:52:34
22 Vince Aragones 01:56:36
23 Chris Wright 02:07:30
24 Adam Buckland 00:33:02
25 David Taylor 00:33:16

Elite - Women
1 Nadine Spearing 02:31:39

Expert - Women
1 Abi Greenaway 01:46:26
2 Hilana Marais 01:49:33
3 Rachel Fenton 01:55:21
4 Fiona Blagg 01:25:32

Master - Women
1 Mandy Hibberd 01:54:23
2 Emma Craddock 02:04:14