When just over 17 years ago the very first Gorrick XC race got underway, little did the organisers think that all these years later Crowthorne Woods would still be attracting hundreds of keen mountain bikers and the Gorrick series would be a firm favourite event for riders from all over the UK.

It’s easy to see the charm of Gorricks: you roll up, enter your race, blast around some classically fun trails and cap it off with a hot cuppa and bacon sarnies chatting to your mates about your race, cheering on others as they zoom past. It’s a hassle free fun packed way to get a burst of racing into your legs.

And so round three of the ever popular Saddle Skedaddle Spring Series got underway, with well over 600 hundred riders buzzing around the arena and the course, soaking up the warmth of some rare spring sun. As race after race got underway it was great to see regular faces along with plenty of new, with the new season XC racing soon to get underway there were plenty of point hunters out looking to stretch their legs after a long cold winter. Even the women’s ranks looked sizably bigger which is brilliant.

As well as being famous as the venue for the very first Gorrick, Crowthorne is also well known for such trail classics as ‘ The Corkscrew’, a roller coaster of fun, ‘Battle of Waterloo’ and ‘Pete’s Plunge’ and not forgetting the evil start which expects you to go from standstill to race pace on an incline on loose gravel – wicked indeed, but a taster of what was in store.

The youngsters once again had the privilege of kicking things off, with the Juveniles, youth and under 12’s all taking to the trails just after 9.00am. In the Youth category Hugo Humphreys riding his first round of the series took control of the race early on and despite a slight confusion at the end of his first lap where he lost the track a bit, he was soon back on course securing the victory on his second lap with Martin Turton taking another 2nd spot after holding off rival Taylor Johnson by just 15 secs. Juvenile rider Harry Franklin led his club Herne Hill Youth CC to a 1-2, but was nearly thwarted when BOB rider Joe Broadband narrowly missed out on second to Elliot Phillip by a mere 6secs. Rachel Denman was the lucky young lady who had to battle her way through the youth and juvenile boys to take the win in the youth girl’s category completing her lap in just over 26mins.

Bursting up the deceptively steep start straight next were the super masters, headed by the ever-exuberant Jamie Newall. With 4 laps to battle it out it was going to be a closely run race, especially as lap after lap a clear pack of riders, containing Newall, Darren Shepherd, Sylvain Garde, Mark Hutt and Nick Onslow, were shadowing each other, with barely a tyres tread separating them. After his fast start Newall fell off the pace leaving by lap 3, Shepherd, Garde, Hutt and Onslow to decide the final outcome between them. It was Onslow who just had the edge, bettering his second spot in round 1 taking the win by a cat’s whisker, from Mark Hutt. Just 4 secs separated the first 4 finishers.

Lee Gollop went one better again in the masters race taking his first win after finishing 2nd at the last two rounds he obviously relished the dry and very nearly dusty trails of Crowthorne. It was another close race though with singlespeeder and round 2 winner Steve Webb chasing hard, coming past Ollie Taylor to take eventual 2nd just 42secs down on Gollop and just 10secs to spare over Taylor. The other ‘winner’ in the masters was of course Jason Blann, whose 14th spot was rewarded with a holiday thanks to series sponsors Saddle Skedaddle.

There were some big hitters in the vets race, including Jef Sharpe fresh from near domination of the Whyte Winter Enduro Vets 2hr races, plus current XC national vet champ Mark Chadbourne, Roland Tilley and Steve Jones, to name but a few. Chadbourne soon showed his prowess as he led out a blisteringly hot 18min 31sec lap opening up a good 40secs on that first lap. Round 1 winner Steve Jones limped out yet again on the first lap with a blown tyre, leaving Jef Sharp and Robin Smith working hard to chase down the fast flying Chadbourne. After 3 laps Chadbourne had extended his lead to 1min 43sec leaving Sharp and Smith to fight out the minor places, with just seconds to separate them it was Sharp who just nudged out Smith for 2nd.

Mark Boyton-Salts topped up his series points in the Grand vets with another 2nd spot but couldn’t match Dave McMullen who just edged him out of 1st spot by another close margin, just 25sec. In what looked like a replay of the last round, Denis Boltwood took his second win of the Super Grand vets series, leaving Andy Smith and John Watkins to take 2nd and 3rd respectively, just the same as the last round.

In the master’s women’s race it was business as usual for Kim Hurst as she took her 3rd win of the series, with Jo Munden taking her 3rd second. It’s interesting to see however that where Kim is not slowing down, Jo is definitely speeding up and that gap between these two ladies is narrowing very quickly! Kim’s dominating 8min gap on the first round has now been whittled down to just 88secs, should be some close racing come round five all being well. Nicky Hughes made short work of the women’s vet race taking a comfortable win in a packed field.

With a massive 88 riders the fun class was pretty competitive. Over two fast laps it was Stephen Tebbett, who took the win punching out pretty consistent times, whist Robert Bowerman continued his rise up the finishing stakes, but was narrowly defeated into 3rd by a fast finishing Dmitri Felbinger.

Elli Sykes must be delighted with a win at last in the Fun women’s race, which was another pretty close affair, with just 11 secs to spare over 2nd placed Rachel Welsh. Natalia Wase made it 3 wins out of 3 in the women’s Open, as did Roger Fowkes in the men’s Open, despite a stiff challenge by Daniel Bryant and Simon Culliford. Fowkes managed to get away on the final lap to take the win leaving Bryant to take 2nd and Culliford 3rd.

After a disastrous outing at round 2nd youngster Max Sykes looked to be in much better form and clearly enjoying the conditions as he romped his way to victory in the sport race. Round 2 winner Martin Delves was on the chase ably assisted by World Cup rider Burry Stander’s older brother Duane. Sykes had it in the bag opening up a 74 sec lead leaving Stander out sprinting Delves to take second.

Sports woman rider Maxine Filby continued her run of good form taking her second win in the series. In the expert women’s race singlespeeder, Anja McDonald tackling her first XC race after a winter of ‘cross managed to turn her gear on the cruel uphill start to quickly establish a lead. 4 laps later and the win was hers:

Gemma Collins had a much better race than her husband taking 2nd while Lydia Gould after spending a winter getting the miles in on road struggling to get to grips with the whole fat tyre thing soon settled into her rhythm to take 3rd.

The expert men provided yet another race complete with thrills, spills and unrelenting tension as they churned out frighteningly fast 17 min laps.
Dave Collins making his first XC appearance this year was keen to make or break the race and blasted from the start leaving a quickly splintering group fragmenting behind. Adrian Lansley another ‘first timer’ was the only other rider to match Collins sub 17 min opening lap, while youngster Steven James was keen to stay in the mix after 2 previous astounding races with the big boys.

However despite the fast start neither Collins or Lansley wanted to be the one pulling the other round, and so a game of cat and mouse developed, allowing chasing riders to gain the coats tails of the two leading riders. By lap 4 Lansley and Collins had James along for the ride again. Collins attacked leaving James behind and then by lap 5 Chris Minter closed the gap to the two leading riders, promptly attacking as he joined head of the race. This was all that Lansley needed joining his teammate on the front, with Collins, dangling from a piece of ever stretching elastic that finally broke. Over this final lap Lansley worked with Minter quickly opened an unbridgable gap from the tiring Collins. With just under 1hr and 30 mins of racing and Lansley achieved his goal of the day, taking the win with Minter taking 2nd, while Collins just holding off James came into 3rd.

Finally the last race to be decided on the day was the ‘University Challenge’ and no this wasn’t a bunch of students answering questions about mountain biking, this was part of the age-old tradition of Cambridge versus Oxford. Usually we associate this tradition with the now infamous boat race, but I’m told that this battle of the universities encompasses many sports, even tiddly winks apparently.

We were delighted to have the winner of that competition taking part on behalf of Cambridge and he turned in another good point scoring position of second, with ex-BC talent team rider Shaun Hurrell riding only his second race for quite a while, taking the win. In fact on paper it seemed to be a whitewash for the Cambridge team with their riders taking the first 6 spots of the race. However I’m also told that this doesn’t necessarily means Cambridge won the competition, as there is a complicated points scoring system in place…. But to the average layman, it looked like Cambridge came out on top!

So once again Crowthrone lived up to it’s moniker of the original and the best, with many riders making the journey to use this classic course as a springboard for their launch full pelt into the XC race season. Meanwhile the Gorrick Series carries on, full pelt itself into the next round which is just round the corner, 29th March Porridgepot Hill.

Details of round 4 and the other remaining rounds can be found at
www.gorrick.com