With the Southern part of the UK snugly coated in a huge blanket of snow in early February, the decision was made to postpone the second round of the Saddle Skedaddle Gorrick Spring Series, with a view to running it the following week: weather permitting.

Never has a Valentines weekend been so eagerly anticipated, or the weather forecasts so closely studied. Come race day and the weather gods were relatively kind and the hundreds of keen riders poured into the popular Tunnel Hill venue, to be greeted by glimpses of the remaining snow and massive ice covered puddles.

The course on offer was typically classic Gorrick, one that has been worked on and tweaked over time to provide some of the best fast flowing singletrack you can have whilst in full pelt in a race. Despite the previous weather, the conditions were nigh on perfect with the sandy base draining most of the dampness on the 6 mile course. There were still one or two puddles of doom littered around the course for a spot of muddy gloopy fun – after all mountain biking wouldn’t be quite right if there was no mud.

Once again it was the younger element that kicked the proceedings off at very nearly the crack of dawn, with the youth, juvenile and under 12’s setting the pace for the rest of the categories as they streamed to the start of their respective races. As the day progressed there were some pretty fierce battles going on with more than one outcome settled by just a handful of seconds.

The closest of these had to be in the vets race, where the top three finishers had just 15 seconds separating them. Dean Morgan took the honours, with 8 seconds to spare from Andy Weaving who in turn squeezed Daran Blackwell into third by just 7 seconds after three hard fought laps.

Similarly in the grand vets Mark Boyton-Salts and Tim Stowe were neck and neck for the first two laps, until Boyton-Salts got the edge and managed to forge a victorious gap of 39 seconds over the remaining lap, leaving Stowe to pick up second place.

In the master’s race it was a resounding win for Singular rider Steve Webb, who found his big-wheeled single speed perfect to roll over the undulating terrain. He only started the race with a view to get some miles in but soon found himself in the thick of the action.

“This was my first race of the year and the first riding for the Singular team,” Webb said. “Gorrick races are renowned for their furious starts, so while I was really just there to get some miles in, the adrenaline started flowing and I found myself up with the fast boys from the start. The course was really well prepared, very single speed friendly, and the big-wheeled Singular rolled through the minor bumps beautifully.

“I found myself on the front mid-way through the first lap, not sure whether it’d hold. The second was steady, and the last was just trying to hang on and not fall off. I’ve been racing mountain bikes for 20 years and this is my first win – I hope not the last, it feels great.”

Earlier ‘cross rider Harry Franklin put his entire winter racing to good use by taking a comfortable win in the juvenile race.

In the women categories, the Dirt Diva’s made quite an impact with four of their ladies taking wins in their respective categories, whilst Big Ring racing’s Hollie Bettles continued her winning ways and once more bettered her Dad Lloyd by grabbing the youth female race. Kim Hurst cruised at high speed to take the women’s master race with a tight battle going on behind her for second, between Jo Munden and Liz Tapper. Liz didn’t have the best of starts but fought her way back to near contention as Jo started to lose pace after a fast start. However she managed to hold off the fast finishing Liz to hang onto second by just 19 seconds.

Once again the race of the day was the battle of the experts with a junior thrown in for good measure! On the start line was NPS champion and round one winner Gareth Montgomerie, along with cycle cross national champion Jody Crawforth, plus Chris Minter and Tim Dunford to name a few. As the race got underway it was junior Steven James who led the classy field out on the start of five long laps. James had a great ride in the first round and was determined to better his fifth spot, predicting before the start he’d finish third.

By the end of lap one the field had been whittled down to just Minter, Crawforth, Montgomerie with James at the head pulling them along. Lap two and Montgomerie was visiting the pits with a mechanical and was out of the running leaving the three front-runners to decide the outcome. Still James headed the group, not easing once, while the others seemed to be biding their time.

By lap four Crawforth started to fall away, the relentless punishment over the fast course coupled with a long ‘cross season finally taking their toll. To everyone who was watching it looked like the youngster James might actually take the win, and then finally on lap five Minter just found enough reserves to kick and made the jump leaving James rapidly losing ground. Minter went on to take the win, though he was sure that James was going to grab it back.

With Jon Pugh snapping at his heels James just managed to hang onto second spot, bettering his pre race prediction, while Crawforth rolled in for foruth behind Pugh.

The most rewarding ride of the day however had to be the one completed by Chris Absolom in the men’s Open race, who unknown to himself at the time was racing himself to 41st spot and a brilliant weekend break courtesy of the series sponsors Saddle Skedaddle, not bad for just over 1hr 36mins of work.

Round three, snow permitting, takes us to Crowthorne Wood, which is famous for not only being the original venue of the very first Gorrick but also the home of the now infamous ‘corkscrew’. Why not make a date to come and find out why it’s known as ‘The first and still one of the best’.

Details of round 3 and the other remaining rounds can be found at
www.gorrick.com