Team BM Sunday Slackers, ready for action – Mike, Alan (aka FLaP) and Alex

Mike

Alex

Round 1 – But it’s my first time!

Can you remember the first time? The anticipation and the nerves? The advice from people who had already done it, about how to prepare for the event, what to wear, what to eat and how much to drink to ensure adequate hydration during this period of exertion? The advice about how to practice prior to the event, maybe a “pre-ride” to get a feeling for what’s to come and to prepare for any difficult sections which might require delicate handling?

Then there’s the pace. Set off too quickly and you risk blowing up before the end. Set off too slowly and you could end up all alone. Ideally you want to finish with the others but remember this is the first time and things rarely go according to how you thought they would.

The day before the event you are just a bag of nerves. What will it be like? Will I make a fool of myself? Will I get laughed at if I turn up wearing the wrong thing, or put in a bad performance? We have all seen the pictures of the professionals, and no doubt some of us have videos and DVDs of famous events and we would like to try to emulate our heroes.

And so it was on Sunday 29 January 2006 that I entered my first ever mountain bike race at the tender age of 34. The race was the first in the Gorrick Spring series, and the only bike available was a recently converted Inbred single-speed. Not exactly standard race bike, I thought. But the first thing that I noticed was that there were all sorts of bikes there, from your light as air, thoroughbred hardtails to jump bikes and even a downhill bike with a full-faced rider. Plus there were people of all ages, from youth to grand veterans. All very reassuring.

Registration was straightforward. I’d pre-registered for this event so all I had to do was pick up my number, tie it onto the front of the bike and turn up at the start at the required time. As it was my first time I had entered into the fun event. This meant two laps of an approximately 4.5 mile course – easy, I thought.

Come start time, I was at the back of the grid talking to a few guys including BM’s own Padowan Hobbit. We agreed that we weren’t going to race as it was our first time and we just “wanted to see what it was like”. But as soon as the start horn went something inside me clicked and I just wanted to overtake people. This urge increased as we started going through the first bits of singletrack in a slow-moving queue. I knew I could do these sections quicker… through sections which I knew I could do quicker.

At the first open section I turned the pedals over quicker to try to pass a few people. Come to some ascents and I found it easier to get off and run (er, walk) the bike up. Others seemed to be doing this so I deemed it to be acceptable behaviour.

At the end of the first lap, coming through the timing section I could hear my name and position being announced over the tannoy – 54th. Right ,that gave me something to try to improve on the second lap. During lap two the field had become more spread out, so there was none of the slowing and stopping for the technical bits. I was quicker, because I knew what was coming and I had that urge to improve.

In the end I came in 46th and knackered. Standing there at the end watching the other riders from the other categories carry on, being encouraged by the small crowd, I had a feeling of immense satisfaction, inbetween trying to get my breath back. I had completed my first race, I felt good. Despite all my thoughts about the race beforehand it had gone quickly – one hour and nine minutes, approximately. I’d ridden as hard as I could, and now I felt it.

After I’d caught my breath I knew that I liked this racing lark. It was a chance to ride my bike, of course. But it was also the chance to pit myself against other riders and new courses, an opportunity to improve my skills and my fitness. My thoughts on the drive home wandered to when the next race was. Should I put gears on the bike? Should I buy a new bike with lockout suspension and carbon this and aluminium that – of course I should, I’m an XC racer now, aren’t I?

Round 2 – arise Team Bikemagic Sunday Slackers!

During some research (um, slacking) on BM the idea was put forward to ride the next round of the series as a team, and the name Team BM Sunday Slackers was put forward and subsequently agreed. In the team there is Alex Woodhead, Mike (that really is a big rotor on the front) and myself. The next race was on Sunday 19 February at Crowthorne Wood, Bracknell.

Meeting up with the other guys was not a problem, especially when one of the guys is wearing very loud Hawaiian shorts and has a massive floating brake rotor on the front of his hardtail! This was Mike. We met up with Alex at the registration and decided to pre-ride course. This seemed like a wise precaution – there’d been a lot of talk of a section called “The Corkscrew”, which sounded as if it was so difficult that there were still riders stuck there from previous races.

As a by-now hugely experienced racer, I can begin to share some of my wisdom. It is, as a rule, probably best not to try to pre-ride the course at full race speed. This just knackers you out before you’ve even started. We came across what we thought were about three corkscrew areas, but we knew exactly which was the one that everyone was talking about when both Mike and myself came off! Or at least we thought we did – we were later told that this was not the complete section of “The Corkscrew”.

After the pre-ride we lined up safely towards the back of the start. More hard-won advice – when lining up at the start, arrange to have the bike facing the right direction, have at least one foot on the appropriate pedal and, ideally, your arse on the seat. It’s fair to say that I didn’t have a good start. Fortunately the pride of the team was saved by Mike and Alex, who got off to a good start and disappeared off in front of me.

The race itself was pretty quick and before I knew it I was back at the start ready for the next lap. Only one root/tire/leg interface occurred and I had cleared the corkscrew section. I finished in 38th position, had overtaken some people and generally had a good race. There were a couple of really muddy section which seemed to suck the energy out of me and had me thinking about what tyres for…

After the pre-ride Alex wasn’t sure if he was going to do the race, but he did manage one lap and I think really enjoyed it. After a good first lap Mike unfortunately suffered a puncture on the second, and this put a dent in his time.

Post race, we were all pretty happy and have vowed to meet up for the next one. It will be slightly easier as we’ll know what to expect. We hope. So if you’ve been thinking of how your first time would be, give it a go – you’ll only know what it’s like if you try…