The sun was definitely on the side of the Pedalhounds series
this weekend as

a large number of people turned out for the 3rd round of the Pedalhounds

Southern Downhill cup held at PORC last weekend. Always a popular venue PORC

has great spectating opprotunity as well as alot of other riding to be had

other than the actual race itself.



To say the course was dusty is a major understatement – it was more like a

beach. Not that I’m criticising mind, this just pays tribute to the

excellent drainage of the Kent hills, and makes for a welcome change from

the usual mud laden racing to which we Brits become accustomed. The course

could have been better in my opinion, there are so many options at PORC for

a racecourse it would be a hard job to decide which to pick, at just over a

minute though I felt the course could have been longer.



The start was off one of the famous PORC start ramps, no planks of wood and

pallets here, the PORC start ramps are a good 15′ high. Straight of the ramp

it was into a bermed left hander, before the rather unpleasant right hander

before the log bridge. One over the log bridge a dive into the bombhole spat

you out into the twistiest section of the course, and also the dustiest.

Despite the berms many people fought for traction round the corners of the

favourite spectating areas, with many an ungraceful exit accompanied by a

dust cloud. Out of the middle section it was into the woods, the hardest

corner of the course was a tricky left hand drop which had no easy line, no

matter how you hit it. From there on in it was a full on pedal through the

final sections to the finish line.



The closeness of the winning times backs up most riders theories on the

course being really a test of pedalling ability rather than total skill, Jim

Davage advocating this point by retiring from his 2nd and 3rd runs after

slips which would cost only a second or two, but there was no way to make

these seconds back up. Despite this I think it was a good weekends racing,

perahps largely because of the facilities at PORC and the great weather.



The results were unsurprising, but hard fought all the same. ukDH rider Neil

Harris (Addidas Eye Protection/ukDH) had a good day (although not as good as

he would like) placing second in the seniors, just pushed out by local David

fairservice (MBI/PORC). Much shuffling in the Elite men left James Allaway

(Santa Cruz) the overal winner with the fastest time of the day at 1:04.37.

Our friend Anja Rees-Jones (Rock Moutain) had a good day in the Women’s

race, winning by a 7 sec margin. Lewis White (Owens Cycles) took first in

the Youth Category, and Lee White (also Owens Cycles) took the Junior

honours. Local Ian Daniels (MBI/PORC) won the Masters with an impressive

1:04.99. Paul Hunt of Pedalhounds took the vets in a time of 1:08.15.



For full results check out –

http://www.mikrotime.co.uk/mtb/ph2000/porc001.html



A full run down on this race, series and all UK race series will be

available on the ukdownhill.org.uk website when it relaunches later this

month…. Watch this space.