On Sunday 13 April we had the second round in the Mud Sweat and Gears mountain bike series at Carver Barracks in Cambridgeshire. We had another good representation of the club with riders in the U12′s, Juvenile, Junior and Open Female, Open Male and Veteran Male.
We arrived to an open airfield course, not quite sure what we were going to get, thinking that maybe it would be a bit of a course of attrition without much technical riding. We soon found that not to be the case and were treated to some nasty steep climbs and some very steep and technical descents. With the weather staying good for us, we tackled the course, with one descent we named the ‘death descent’ which had a tricky log fairly near the top, which kicked the back wheel up so you descended pretty much in mid-air until you touched down near the bottom before you were greeted with a jump over some pallets. This caused quite a few spills and sorted out the roadies from the mountain bikers, with the chicken run being used extensively. We all had a great day, with some of our riders facing their fears and riding really well. The results are as follows:
- Under 12 Girls = Bea Pauley – had a great ride, just missing out on the top podium spot with a fantastic 2nd place with Sapphire Curtis – doing really well and claiming 5th place.
- Juvenile Female and Youth Female (grouped together) = Sam Harding – Rode a very good race, tackling all of the ascents and descents with great riding skills and determination, just missing out on the podium with a strong 4th place overall.
- Youth Female = Molly Williams – Struggled with a slow puncture throughout the ride, but she still battled on in her determined way, riding the technical sections with great skill, taking 1st place and being the fourth fastest lady of the day, well done to Molly.
- Open Female = Amanda Hollands – Battled her fears really well and rode the technical sections with great spirit and determination, coming in a very respectable 6th.
- Open Male = Mick Curtis rode well over the technical course, improving his skills and coming in 92nd overall in a very large field of riders. John Williams (Molly’s Dad) rode a very good race and was looking good to do a good time, but stopped to help another rider who had fallen to administer first aid before getting going again and finishing 94th overall, well done to both of you.
- Veteran Male = Myself (James Bamford) had persuaded Mike Hoy to join me in the vets category, suggesting it might be good for us to ride as a team, and see if we could work together and put in a good time. It started to work through the initial technical section where we pretty much popped out of the woods into the gruelling flat section across the runway together. But I soon found that Mike was much stronger than me along the flat, so waved him on so as not to hold him up. We carried on riding our own races, but unfortunately on the 3rd lap Mike got bad cramp at the top of a steep climb holding him up for some time before he managed to get back on and spin it out to finish the race just behind my 38th place in 39th place, looks like I still need to do more training to keep up with Mike though even though I pipped him at the post!
It was great to see St Ives CC so well represented again, well done to everyone who competed, enjoy the photo’s. The next Mud Sweat Gears race in the series is on the 18th May at Codham Park, hope to see you there. Enjoy the photo’s.
