Soggy Bottom XC Series RD1 Report

With a temperature of minus 7 on the start line, it was no surprise that there was not the customary shedding of layers in the last few seconds. It isn't often you see racers riding in full arm and leg cover but even more unusual were the guys in balaclavas and the rider in the fun cat who was wearing jeans and boots. The weather had hit other events on the day and the downhill race in the north of the region was cancelled. We're not going to scoff, but it's pretty clear who won the man points on that day. So in the South-West, we all took our 'toughen up' pills and got on with it. Course designers took full advantage of the free reign they were given to design a course that took in some of the classic sections of Newnham Park, some man made sections and iconic natural moorland tracks with ill-advised stream crossings. Pre ride of the course showed it to be bone hard and fast, but once several hundred sets of tyres had polished it, the race became a challenge to stay rubber side down. Sheet ice berms are fun at the best of times and when the pressure of racing removes your ability to stay smooth on a bike it's only a matter of time before the inevitable arse-floor interface occurs. As more and more riders splashed through the many small stream crossings, the water on the other bank was spreading into a bigger and bigger patch of ice. Some of the slowest speeds ever recorded at a mountain bike race were seen there. Thankfully no serious injuries occurred, one junior rider who had foolishly attempted a knee deep river crossing and was later found to be having his frozen feet massaged by his long-suffering mother seemed to be the worst of it. 'Man up' was the sum total of the advice he was given. Thankfully, winter racing is a short affair and for most of the racers it was all over within 1½ hours. A quick bacon sandwich and coffee later and you could almost pretend that it had never happened, apart from the freezer burn on any exposed bits and the frozen mud on the bikes. Next Soggy Bottom race is on January 9th and promises to return to a more traditional Soggy route with the addition of a new long downhill singletrack section that the organisers are excited about and an inter-county track-stand competition with cake as a prize for the victors. Serious stuff, this racing. To view the full results visit: www.xcracer.com