Hamsterley, fast and furious DH

posted by Harry, Monday, November 16, 2009

One of the big step downs in the top section... rain, rain, rain.

For the first time this year i finally got myself sorted and actually raced, for some reason i picked the one race i new, on the weather front, was bound to be a disaster!
I picked that race as the track over at Hamsterley forest is always really good. Technical, packed with rocks and roots, but really fast and really fun at the same time, also all the guys who work up there to prepare the courses and make the races happen are really nice guys and gals and the weekends are always a lot of fun.

So we pull up on practice day, (me, Pat Mills and Dale Russell) in the rain, ride all practice day, in the rain, pack up on practice day, in the rain and drive home on practice day, in the rain. So no surprises there, even with the weather however the track was really good.
Id like to add at this point of the blog that on the way to hamsterley on the saturday, my exaughst practically fell off this led to a lot of complications on the saturday night, but thats a story for a motoring blog.
race day was wet, hazy and cold. Due to some difficulties with the timing equipment, there was a lot of waiting around as well, which didn’t make the day go any faster. But everyone was in good spirits and we did have a good day.
In the first race run (when we finally got to do it) Dale had a big crash trying to do one of his signature, huge-massive-stupid-no-one-but-dale-could-ever-pull-it-off lines, and i think i would have been quicker if i had walked down, iv got no excuses for that i was just going mega slow.
second race run came along and i was having a belter of a run, hit all my lines, carried good speed and managed to crash for no apparent reason on the last corner, got tangled in my bike and ended up in 55th place. Which was a pisser to say the least, but these things happen. Dale had “a disaster run” but this is dale, and he still ended up 6th overall.
Was a good weekend and was a good chance for me to have a proper ride of my ironhorse.
There’s plenty more races before next year so ill try and stay on my bike next time,
And for a final thought, why hasn’t anyone sponsored Dale yet?
Harry, Out.