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The ever popular Midlands Winter Series is well underway for 2007 with round 2 now done and dusted, or should I said “mudded” as it certainly wasn’t dusty. This well-known track, used for many years for the downhill national championships, had a new addition in the form of some steep off-camber corners from the start leading down onto the original track just before a fire-road crossing. A lot of rain in the week leading up to the race left this part of the track incredibly slippery during Saturday’s practice but by Sunday it had dried up considerably, and although still damp was significantly more grippy.
The race course
Once out of those corners, the “danger zone”, over a jump into the fire road, it was a 50m sprint into the next section, a long open section littered with rocks, the odd fly-off jump over a stump or fallen log and a really fast sweeping left hander into a perfectly smooth and sprintable straight. This was followed by the best part of the track, on entering the woods was a sizeable jump into some great flowing singletrack, a hop, skip and a jump all the way through. Just double up some of the lumps and bumps, plus hopping over roots and the like helped pick up some speed as you weaved your way between the trees. The singletrack spat you out of a sweet right hander, across another fire road and into the bottom woods section for more of the same, a fast right hand berm into a left, into a bomb hole, short straight into right to tight left, and what a killer that left was! The track flows its way down the hill with a few more tight turns and then the final strike for home, a straight into a really nice floaty jump, and sprint finish!!
This weekend saw the added bonus of appearances from 2x World Champion Fabien Barel, in what would be his first race since returning from injury, joined by 2006 World Cup Champion team-mate Tracy Moseley, to really give everyone a run for their money. Another new face was Julien Camellini, the latest addition to the Mojo Suspension team who is currently studying in the UK.
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Women’s category
Once again there was a great turn out of women riders this weekend, including regulars Suzy Osborn, Rachel Lewis, Monet Adams, me (Emily Horridge), as well as Tracy. Good also to see Kirsty Price back at the races after a period of absence.
There was a bit of a shake-up this weekend in the women’s categories when 14 year-old Monet took third fastest time of the day behind Tracy Moseley and Emily Horridge respectively. She was pretty happy to say the least and commented that there was a real improvement in the uplifts since the first round at Hopton, which meant she’d been able to get loads of practice in. She added that by the end of the weekend the track was running really well, saying “I really enjoyed riding it which I think was why I managed to pull the times I did out of the bag”. Great result for Monet and with her ever-improving riding she’s certainly one to watch.
Men’s category
The Elite men’s race was also a pretty exciting affair, with a couple of the world’s best Frenchmen to challenge the regulars on their home turf. None more so than Mountain Biking UK’s Marc Beaumont who only lives a few miles up the road. After first runs there was only 3 tenths of a second lay between first-placed Barel and Beaumont and the heat was really on Beaumont as he began his second run. As he pedalled flat out through the throngs of hardened winter racers lining the track, the shouts of encouragement went out but it wasn’t quite enough. Barel took the win by just a quarter of a second with a 2.17.816 to Beaumont’s 2.18.074, with Julien Camellini rounding out the podium with a 2.21.929.
Full results can be found at www.pearcecycles.co.uk and the final round on an all-new track at Hopton is a month away on 17-18th March.
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