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Caersws Cup - Round One
Caersws, Nr Newtown
Jim - 18th March 2008
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I've never been to Caersws when its been dry. I always hear talk of dust that was inches thick, sliding out on berms of dust, dust in the eyes.. but where is it?! This last week all it's done is rain. And we're not talking a bit of drizzle here, heading toward Welshpool I'd say thats a pretty accurate description of biblical. Looking down the valley you can see the tops of fences and hedgerows amid the lake which has taken over the scenery, and looks a little out of place where the lush green fields used to be..
Caersws looks like it's been pretty hard hit, the course extremely muddy and puddles of standing water wherever it could gather long enough. By the end of the racing the finish field was covered in mud, and stories of comedy crashes and sliding on your arse down the track made their way up the hill during the day.
It all started way up on the top section, its a bit surreal, all these berms and jumps carved out of the open section right at the top, then it soon drops into familiar territory with tight rutted corners and off camber straights just wanting to throw you off line and into the trees. Soon enough its over the drop and alongside the uplift route, a short respite until you drop back into the woods and into the single rut that will lead you out, sure enough some missed and flailing legs desperately trying to dab enough to get free from the section.
It then took a steep route down onto the fireroad, a long pedal down the track, over the first jump then either the step up was the fast line, or choosing the safe route around and loosing a lot of speed to roll up. Back into the woods once again, over the fireroad crossing and into the final section; used in nearly every race at Caersws the offcamber roots and tricky 180 corner spat out many a rider, its then just down into the field and foot out flat out as you control the slide on a bed of super slippy mud and across the finish line hopefully in one piece.
A pretty classic Caersws track, very steep in places and off camber, but with a few berms and jumps to keep the sanity in place.
Ralph Jones took the win for the first round of the series, closely followed by Scott Beaumont in 2nd and Ben Baker in third. Ross Kenyon took a commanding win in hardtail, taking 1st place by 24 seconds. Good to see Sam Dale back on a bike again after a run of nasty injuries, he turned up to take the win for Cannondale ahead of Yeti/Reverse's Nathan Vials, not only that but he took the overall win, despite only being in Junior with a 2.27, 4 seconds ahead of the fastest Elite.
Mojo/Orange's Aimee Dix had the fastest womans time with a 3.08, 40 seconds behind winner Ralph Jones but lets not forget, these are not seasoned pro's, theyve been on the racing scene for only a few years now compared to the older guys, and have a lot more to give yet!
All the results are available here and should you want more details on the rest of the Caersws Cup, including the next round in May check out the official website. There's also a full gallery of race photos right here.
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