|
|
Midlands Championships 2005
Hopton, Nr Craven Arms
James - 19th September 2005
Back to racing archive
Hopton was the venue for the Midlands Championships this year, and although it does sometimes get a slating for being flat.. the additions to the course this year made it very interesting!
As usual you start up top, ramp down into the woods, round a really sweet berms into the 'dark woods', over a jump, flat out pedalling this section.. you can get some crazy speed for the next section here. Over the fireroad, over a couple of small jumps, round the corner and pedalling to get enough speed to hit the next section, difficult line choice here because you're putting all your faith into your rubber and just hoping they'll grip on those slippy and off camber roots, round a few corners littered with roots and the final couple of turns are nice and swoopy, no need to brake here cos they'll hold you.
Adam Morgan at the start
Into the recently-felled open section. Or the section of a million lines, whichever suits you. This is covered in tree stumps and taped wide to confuse you even more, the fastest line is rarely the inside one! Some were choosing to ride over piles of branches, and there were a few very low-riders at the drop (ever wondered what an IronHorse Sunday looks like fully bottomed out?!).
The course now changes, instead of going off gently to the right, it now tears off down to the left, very rooty and again plenty of lines. Steve Parr and team have done themselves proud with the next few sections, it swoops up and down the wide ditch around the trees and looks more like a slalom course in places!
dark woods!
It then crosses the fireroad into a very slippy section with some steep drops that took a few riders by surprise! You then cross the fireroad and go steep down off the road, turn right round the bend, up, down then into a difficult jump, its the kind of thing that kicks the back into the air and you over the bars if you arent careful! Some had nasty crashes here, others very near misses with trees. Then its round a loooong berm, over a very sweet little tabletop, over the usual Hopton stepdown. The last berm on the course was looking really nice, very dusty and some amazing moto style drifts around it (have you seen the picture of Gracia sliding round that berm in New World Disorder 4? Thats what it was like), then you drop quickly into the finish arena, over the tabletop and sprint to the finish. All in all a good course!
Railing the berm..
The racing seemed slow on Sunday, there were breaks all the time, and at one point 7 riders came down in half an hour. Apparently the guys were having troubles with the timing, lets hope its fixed for the Winter Series.
Typically the uplift went without any problems, the Pearce Cycles guys have it down to a t.
The racing was pretty quick, Dave Smith from Pearce Cycles coming down in 2.46 to justify his #1 plate. Richard Cheetham was half a second behind, with Tom Braithwaite 0.8 of a second behind, a close podium!
Just part of the open section
Robert Smith took a storming victory in Expert, coming 3.4 seconds ahead of Tom Deacon and James Marples who took 2nd and 3rd respectively.
We were pleased to see Dan Yeomans take 1st in Hardtail, he was smooth as a greased fart and deserved the win. George James and Jayden Waddington taking 2nd and 3rd.
With no Fairclough (this is the midlands!) the Junior field was wide open, Matt Simmonds took the win with Lee Pincher and Darrell Upton behind.
We need more women riders! Aimee Dix on her own in the category again!
Gareth Brewin won juvenile, with Stefan Thomas and Edward Smith behind. Good to see such a big field of young riders!
A big Masters field showed up, Colin Williams took the win with High Peak Cycles team mate Jamie Armitage close behind, Descent-World's Si Paton taking 3rd place.
Master Women Louisa Raven took first, with Suzy Osborn not far behind.
Huge Senior field as always, Will Rowlands took first, with Dave Price and Adam Morgan of Pearce Cycles close behind. Again 0.8 of a second seperating them!
In Senior Women Kirsty Price took the win over Hannah Wilson, again only two in the field! Is DH really that scary?
No Grand Vets this time, but Dai Jones took the win on what looked like a new V10, all in blue kit? Must be the edge needed, as theres an 11 second gap between him and Chris Roberts in 2nd, with Dave Carr close behind Chris.
Slick
A big Youth field this time too, Joseph Smith took the win with a time that wouldnt look too shabby in Elite with Sam Dale a second behind and Damian Groves behind him.
Big thanks go out to Pearce Cycles for all their effort, the FC for letting us race, all the marshals, uplift drivers, first aid people and anyone who had anything to do with putting the event on!
Some of you may not be aware of the difficulties in hosting an event at Hopton. When you visit Hopton turn the stereo off as you get into the village (ie, when you get over the railway bridge) and respect the locals, as we may lose Hopton as a venue! It is only the minority who are threatening it for the rest of us!
Full results at Pearce Cycles. I have some shots of youth & junior. Get in touch on the forums with your race number and i'll see what I can do!
|
|
|
|
