1-2-1 Event at Hamsterley Hits All The Right Spots

The growing popularity of mountain bike events seems to be giving birth to ever more creative ideas from event organisers. Endurance races in their various forms seem to get tweaked from every angle creating all kinds of freakish twists on a basic idea, even so far as Endurance Downhill on Fort William's world cup course. New events incorporating innovative ideas can be used to capture the imagination of the many. One such event took place recently at County Durham's Hamsterley Forest, one of North East England's most versatile mountain biking venues. The idea was simple yet inspiring; One venue, two races and one bike. The concept came from first time event organiser Dave Nicholson who dreamt of an event that would not only inspire people to come to Hamsterley and see what the forest has to offer but would also reach out to those riders who have a non specific mountain bike they use for all types of riding. Dave's vision for his 1-2-1 event was clear. There would be a cross country style race on the first day with a BBQ in the evening followed by a DH race on day two with points being awarded in both races. Dave wanted an event that was accessible for riders with varying skill and ability levels that was fun with a friendly atmosphere. Video by David Flynn Thanks to a £50k grant from CDENT (The County Durham Environmental Trust.) the Hamsterely Trail Blazers who build and maintain a lot of the forest's mountain bike trails were able to employ veteran trail designer Pete Lang to help them design and build some brand new sections of trail in time for the event. The money meant the Trail Blazers were able to put down a huge amount of high quality man made trail in around 3 or 4 months which would normally take considerably longer. Planning had started back in October 2009 and when race day came everything was in place for an awesome event. The first race was the cross country inspired event with competitors completing up to four laps of what I would describe as a red grade cross country trail that included some trickier black grade sections. The course consisted of a mixture of natural single track and fast man made trail linked together with fire road climbs. How many laps you completed was decided by your age and gender with some categories allocated three laps and others four. Dave and the Trail Blazers had chosen what they felt were some of the most enjoyable trails to be found in the forest for the xc course which climbed up one side of the valley, descended back down past the start point before climbing up the opposite side of the valley where it once again descended back down to the event village to complete the lap. It was quite a compact route with one lap being about 4.5 miles. The natural sections were made that bit trickier by some heavy rain earlier in the week. One particularly fast section built by Dave and his crew had to be abandoned and the course re-routed as the natural trail surface was deemed unable to handle the race traffic. The newly built Transmission section was smooth and fast flowing with rocky drops, berms and jumps all the way down. Transmission was followed by the very different narrow natural single track known by local riders as the Rabbit Run. From there the descent switched to another newly built section of trail called Accelerator for a short spell of high speed swooping madness before diving back into the darkness of the lower Rabbit Run which was noticeably muddier and more rooty than higher up. The beginning of the lap was equally interesting taking in a short but exciting section of Hamsterley's black grade xc trail and a very steep section of natural single track. I found the ups to be bearable and the descents a challenging thrill of manic adrenalin and big smiles. The second day saw a race down some of the easier sections of Hamsterley's superb downhill course. The Descend Hamsterley Club are responsible for the forest's outstanding downhill and four cross tracks which are located on the South side of the valley. The DH run was more than a challenge for most with plenty of people falling victim to one particularly root infested corner. Riders started from the roll-in of the four cross course and were launched over the first of the track's jumps before disappearing into a narrow piece of single track off to the right. This narrow trail had a soft soil surface and was littered with roots and small rocks. The gradient was fairly tame to begin with but became steeper once the track crossed a fire road and steeper again as it encountered a rocky feature just prior to the root covered turn. There was an easier option to the right on the approach to this corner which had been cut out to aid those who felt the root fest was a little too much of a challenge for them. This easier route was a lot slower but allowed riders to attack the roots from a slightly different angle with less chance of the front end washing out. Most people had a go at the more difficult line which proved extremely unforgiving for those not quite getting it right. This steep root filled corner flung riders across a fire road where they disappeared into the trees and were faced with a very different section. The surface here was still natural though more compacted with many line options available. Nearing the finish there was a very tight left hand switch back followed by much steeper right hand switch back that generated enough speed to launch riders into the air using the kicker of a step down. A left hand berm was followed by the shortest of sprints across the finish line. The course was a thrilling 2-3 minute introduction to the world of downhill racing that left me hungry for more. The two races were scored slightly differently with the cross country race being divided into age and gender categories and the downhill split by gender only. Doing well in the xc event did not guarantee a high overall placing. Competitors would have to place well in both races to stand a chance of doing well overall. The idea being the best all-round riders would find them selves at the top of the table. Entrants had to use the same bike for both races. Only changes to the tyres and pedals were accepted. Katie and I went along to fly the flag for MoreDirt. We were both a bit surprised at how steep and technical parts of the cross country course were. On my first lap I was kicking myself for talking Katie into entering. With Katie being fairly new to mountain biking I began to worry she wouldn't be able to handle the challenging course. I looked out for her each time I passed the start/finish line fully expecting to see her there having put her own personal safety ahead of completing the race. I eventually met up with my wife at the finish line to find her still all in one piece but with a nasty egg shaped lump on her shin. Katie filled me in on her adventure. It turned out she'd crashed on the first descent of lap one and taken out a guy who'd come up behind her. Katie spent the rest of that lap considering quitting but convinced herself to have a go at lap two. By lap three Katie had settled herself down a bit and managed to ride the whole lap without crashing or dismounting. The big smile on her face showed just how proud she was of what she'd achieved. I'd been buzzing from riding flat out and scaring myself stupid but, by the beginning of lap four I was totally exhausted. Reduced to crawling along in first gear on the climbs; I wasn't even catching riders who were pushing. I managed to stay on the bike on the descents and made it across the finish line with barely enough energy left to stand up. Katie and I agreed she should skip the Downhill event on this occasion but she promised herself she'd be back. I managed to get in two practice runs before my timed runs began. My first practice felt like it was my fastest run of the day. Disaster struck right from the start of my first timed run. The bike didn't feel right and I realised my tyre had been punctured and was totally flat right from the start line. I decided to continue the run and winced as the rear rim clattered across the rocks and roots. The corners at the bottom were outrageously sketchy with the rear of the bike drifting wildly. Puncture repaired; I hiked back to the top for my final run. This time I quickly caught a slower rider ahead of me which probably cost me a second or so as I waited for a chance to pass. Further down I didn't hit the two switch backs with any real conviction and was left slightly disappointed by my efforts. I did fairly well though; placing roughly in the middle of the field on both events. The overall winners for male and female were Joe and Hannah Barnes riding for MTB CUT. Prizes were handed out for podium places in the various categories too. I asked Dave Nicholson how he felt the event went: "Yeah, we're really pleased. The whole thing was supposed to be about having fun. That's why we added the BBQ on the Saturday evening. It was a success and a great weekend with loads of really nice people. I'm hoping to run two similar events in 2011. Another one at Hamsterley around September time with a totally different DH course. This time with some more easy routes around the tricky stuff so we can keep the same kind of challenging course without putting off people who may not have the technical ability needed to hit the fastest lines. Also a totally new venue in the Yorkshire Dales near the Richmond area is on the cards for April May time 2011 but that is still in the planning stages right now and we need to secure permission for a number of things." I'm already excited to about the idea of more to come from Dave Nicholson and one2one racing. Dave hopes other race organisers will try out his event format so he can enter one of their races. After all, Dave came up with the idea for a race he'd love to take part in himself. It would be a shame if he were one of the people never to have a bash at it. Thanks to Ben Sadler who supplied some great photos of the event. www.bensadlerphotography.com To view the full results head over to www.hamsterley-trailblazers.co.uk or visit 1-2-1 on Facebook. Did you take part in the one2one event at Hamsterley? What do you think of this innovative event format? Post your comments below. Article by: John Dunn