CHEC - Penwood July 2010

Ok so this report isn’t going to have all the bells and whistles like my normal reports. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a photographer for the day nor did I see anyone there with a camera (phones don’t count). Not only that, but there were some issues with the helmet cam footage as well – which I’ll talk about later. If all of that wasn’t enough, my back-up helmet cam film maker (Steve) had jumped ship and gone up to Enduroland instead. Scared off by tails of the ‘deep black bogs’ in Penwood from previous years no doubt. Cluck cluck!

These tails were not without substance I must admit as I’d felt them first hand two years previously (2008) and even then they were saying the year before that was worse by far. However last year (2009) the CHEC team made an effort not to make it too hard and although I wasn’t there (having been struck down with Vertigo) Tony took up the reins and wrote an interesting report which was devoid of the man eating bogs of Penwood!

So roll on 2010 and due to some unfortunate planning, the date for Penwood 2010 was set as the 11th of July – the same date as the world cup final and the Silverstone GP! Well if you picked any of those events over racing with chec then more fool you!
Now I’ve been threatening to re-start my fitness training this year for a while now but never got around to it until Penwood loomed as the next event. My mind wondered back to 2008 when I was absolutely shattered by the end of the race and even though there hasn’t been any rain in weeks I was still a bit apprehensive so I dusted the MTB down and got back into it - slowly. On a side note I’m still amazed how anyone can get upset when you cycle along a path in a field wide enough for a tank and they shout out things like “this is not a bike track” - grow up and get a life you sad people!

pic while out on the MTB - well i have to have SOME pictures in the report!

Anyway back to racing or more accurately the prep for the race. Having had a hard compound GT213 on the rear since the Sherbourne day out (Enduroland) I decided to swap it for something with a little more grip i.e. the GT216. I was worried that it would rain the day before the race and turn conditions snotty and that would leave me struggling. A quick trip up to Claudio’s head office and I picked up a GT216 ‘tubeless’ for the rear and a normal one for the front. I’d been meaning to fit some tube valves to help pop out the tyre on the rim for a while now, but as I haven’t been using tubes for years I didn’t have any. On the way home from work I popped into a tyre fitters and blagged a pair of car wheel rim valves. I opened the hole up slightly on the KTM rim and the valve fitted a treat. Once connected to a compressor it popped the tyre out onto the rim easy enough so I’ll be using these on all of my mousse equipped rims from now on. Next up was an oil change. Mmm the four 4L cans I’d bought from Hein Gericker a while back had now come to an end, but I really wasn’t keen to start forking out £40 plus for fully synth bike oil. Hello to 5W-50 Comma oil from a car dealers, time to put the oil myths to test. So all the negatives you’ll read about on the net ref using car oil in a bike. One: It’ll make the clutch slip (it didn’t). Two: the gears will break down the oil too fast and it’ll not work as well. Ok maybe in an engine that uses its oil for months at a time but the KTM only holds it for a few meetings ie 20 hours max, so I’m sure this won’t be an issue.
Race day. I picked up Tony at 7am and we headed off down the M4 to the event but had to take some diversions on the A404 due to roadwork’s and then again later on when the diver wasn’t listening to the GPS man in the nokia!
Getting to the event early is crucial at Penwood as the parking area is restricted to a forestry track, so latecomers can have a fair old trek to the pits. I bumped into Darren a few cars up when walking back from signing on and gave him a hand with sorting out the front wheel tightening up sequence. He’d also fitted a new set of tyres and mousses for the event - or would have - had he been able to get them to fit! Earlier in the week I got some “HOW THE F*** DO THESE GO ON” type emails with more and more exclamations in until they got taken to the local tyre fitter the next day!

the parking at Penwood

Tony himself was ripping up and down the local A road trying to get his tyre to pop out onto the bead but it had been left too long since it was fitted, so the tyre paste was now dry and it wouldn’t budge. It wasn’t too bad so I told him to just leave it and tighten up the fimlock and be done with it.
Once we were all settled in and ready to go we were told in the riders briefing that they had been forced to cut a new route through a rhododendron plantation as they weren’t allowed to cross a particular track that had been recently re-laid. This bit was supposedly going to be fairly tough in the beginning but would bed in with time.
Having been asleep and nearly missing the entry I was right at the back of the grid, no:95 with Tony in the 80’s one row ahead. This gave me some time to chill on the start line and also for the path to be bedded in slightly when your turn comes. Unfortunately it also means that if you are quick enough to catch the riders ahead then you have a lot of people to overtake. Normally this isn’t too much of an issue, in fact it is good for filming as it makes it more interesting. However I’d forgotten that Penwood is a fairly tight course with limited overtaking spots so I’d sort of shot myself in the foot somewhat.

The Track & First Session

We set off from the transponder pickups an two riders that had lined up with me on the back row shot off into the distance never to be seen again. The first part of the track was an open section of cleared woodland with plenty of roots and tree stumps to catch you out. The first part had some good changes in height and then it flattened out until it reached the road. A short straight run on a dirt track lead to some fast left/right flicks on a smaller track and then things slowed down a bit as we got into the track proper. The first obstacle of note was a large log that you had to ride over. It was a lot bigger than those that had previously been used in other events but smaller logs had been placed in front of it to give you a step up of sorts. Well that was the plan anyway but by the time I got there these smaller logs had all been rolled out by other bikes and there was a bit of a ‘log jam’ (!) with at least the ten riders in front of me milling around. Being the first lap the ‘take it easy’ mantra normally goes out the window as soon as the transponder bleeps, so I was slightly more focussed on making up ground (some would call it red mist or tunnel vision). Anyway I spotted a gap through the undergrowth and pushed my way to the front. Lining up 90’ to the log I fired the bike up and over and luckily made it over fine – I’d made up at least ten spots in one go! A few more twists and turns and the newly cut ‘rhododendron trap’ loomed. While not as difficult as it could have been (raining maybe) it was still fairly tricky as we were riding purely on fallen branches, sticky up roots and logs – with the odd uprooted stump thrown in for good measure! As with most enduro obstacles, momentum is your friend and I managed ok but there were lots of fallers and I was breathing harder on the other side from the effort.

Getting out of this bit I think we got to some fairly open parts of the woods with some nice sinkholes to ride through and jump out of. These were linked with some slightly bermed corners where I could use some of my speed before re-entering the tight and twisty woods once more. Not having any video footage to fall back on I’m not sure of the sequence of the track so if I get it wrong don’t email telling me I got it wrong! So next up was a tight single track through another rhododendron plantation, with several tight turns in it that caught many a rider out, causing them to overshoot the bends. This then led to a rutted bit that I remember as being particularly wet and boggy back in 2008 with loads of holdups. This year however it was bone dry and would barely register on anyone’s memory the next day – oh how times change! Following on from the dry non-bog (no idea where the main bog was/is) we continued on a very narrow track through young trees until reaching the conifer woods. Once into the conifer wood the light took some getting used to as the first few bends were plunged into almost total darkness after the sunlight outside. One mega bomb hole (or sink hole to give it its correct name) greeted us once we got into the woods proper and amazingly I didn’t see anyone crash in the dip itself but several did on the way out once at the top.

After that we continued winding our way through the woods with a few undulations here & there and some tricky bits thrown in, but nothing too difficult. The biggest problem since the main rhododendron trap was getting past slower riders. In the first few laps they are of course concentrating on their own race and finding a safe spot to get by isn’t always easy. Being so dry the one or two straights that there were didn’t always offer a good overtaking spot as the dust could be a problem. Going off line is only for the brave – who knows what is waiting in the grass? A small branch waiting at an angle to grab the front wheel and flick you off? Or maybe a small stump cut off a few inches from the ground, also just waiting to latch onto your front wheel and send you skywards (but only for a short while and then mother earth gets jealous and grabs you back). The last two sections of the track were fairly open, the first being a deciduous wood and lastly a return to the cleared (scorched earth) part of the woods where we had the pits.

Second lap and now there were some logs in front of ‘the big one’ so it was a lot easier to get over. The first rhododendron section was still a bit of an issue but once past that there wasn’t anything too strenuous so it was just a case of plugging away and trying to pass riders when you could. I’d overtaken Tony at the very first log melee and I think I passed Darren in the rhododendron section where he was having a bit of an issue (see his mini report at the end in ‘second opinion’). Once into the midway part of the track it was still difficult to pass riders but by the third lap I think things had calmed down a lot and by then most riders tried to make room whenever they could. Twice I gritted my teeth and went for it on the straight by the burnt out car to make a pass and another time on the last longish straight just before the right turn back into the woods. On another lap a rider I caught up tried his best to keep me behind by nailing it up this bit but couldn’t stop in time for the bend and overshot, stalling his bike and dropping it all at the same time!

On about the fourth or fifth lap I’m sure I passed Darren again and he looked to be having a hard time in the heat. I’m not sure but I think he was picking the bike up again. After about four attempts and four successfull clearings of the ‘big log’ I cocked up and managed to lunch myself and the bike sideways once over the log, and we came crashing down. Filled with adrenaline I quickly picked it up and it fired almost straight away. I was on my way again with barely 20 sec lost. It wasn’t till the end of the race that I noticed the seat was torn and then only cos Tony pointed it out.

With one hour gone I clocked in again and then it hit home I needed to see what my lap times were so I could plan the timing of the last lap. Having clocked in at ten minutes past the hour (on the stopwatch) it was easy enough to work it out as I just had to subtract ten minutes from the next reading on the stopwatch. I sort of figured it out at 16 minutes and in my heat befuddled brain I tried to work out the times. After a while I came to the concussion that I could get in two more laps if I didn’t make any mistakes. The next two laps were my fastest of the day and luckily there weren’t any tumbles or mistakes so I clocked in with seven laps under my belt and couple of minutes to spare.

Tony chills out during the lunch break

Lunch

Back at the car we chilled out in the shade and chatted to two other riders, one of which had run his race as he’d managed to smash the LHS radiator on his bike, water was just pouring out the bottom when he attempted to fill it – he was not a happy camper – more so that he’d miss the second session than anything else!
Getting as much fluids in as I could the lunch break went past really quickly and soon it was time to line up again. Once again the other two guys on the line with me shot off into the distance and I wasn’t even going to attempt sticking with them as they were clearly in a whole other class!

our neighbor in the car park who suffered a broken radiator

Afternoon Session

Feeling the heat a little I pressed on and now everyone knew the course the field was a bit more spread out and people were easier to overtake (mostly). I came across Tony quite early on in the second lap just before the big log and overtook him as he made some room. A little later on I passed him again and I was a little confused at first and then I thought the bugger had been cutting the course, but later in the event I realised there was another rider with the same bike and clothes cos I overtook him again! Just as well I’ve got the helmet cam running I said to myself – I’ll be able to review the evidence later on. Ooops, the helmet cam? Well yes that would the helmet, camera and larger camelpack sitting in the back of the car then? Yep I’d only gone and forgotten to put it on, doh! Great, no pictures and now no video either, stupid!
I also wondered why the log section was so clear of riders as I’d been clearing it for four laps and no one else was there, until I noticed that riders were bypassing it! I was cursing like mad under my helmet and considered pulling over to tell a marshal but that would lose me more time so I stuck to my riding. The next lap I though “sod it I’ll bypass it too” – only to find the course had been altered during the break to cut out the log bit, I’d been crossing it for no reason!
About mid race I was just finishing off a lap and was crossing the last cleared section just before the run up to the transponders. The next moment I was in agony as I caught my left foot on a tree stump and felt the foot/boot fold as it was crushed against the bike. On it’s own this would have been bad enough but I’ve been struggling with this foot all year having injured it back in March. I was convinced that I’d broken it this time and felt a little sick as I pulled up to clock in another lap. But I’ve found that the best way to dealt with these things is to completely ignore them and carry on as normal, the adrenaline and endorphins normally kick in then and you can finish the race. Anyway once the race is over you can take pain killers to make it go away!
Somehow I must have been sleeping a bit as Tony caught me back up at one point and that fuelled me up, enough to allow me to pull away once more. Several laps in I managed to dump the bike in the rhododendron obstacle course, I was feeling the heat and getting tired, making mistakes.
A little later I noticed a rider behind me, no. 80 (vincent austin) had caught me up as I’d been sleeping once more (either that or he’d lapped the whole field!). Either way I decided to ease over to allow him past and then sat behind him until we got to the transponders and I got away first. I think we swapped places again on the following lap but then I got my head down and put on a burst of speed to break clear by a few seconds. However looking at the data now he clocked in earlier than me at the end so he obviously overtook me again on the last lap and his laptime was quite a bit faster then mine (by ten seconds).
So the race was over. The bike had taken a bit of a beating. The seat was torn and I’d managed to rip the RHS rad scoop mounting off. Not only that but the rear brake peddle was flopping lose as the adjusting screw bracket had cracked and it had loosened the bolt. Still it wasn’t all in vain as I managed to score one of my best results to date by getting 6th place overall! Tony also had a good result, one of his best as well, and came home in 12th overall. Vincent had a great afternoon session but his morning time let him down slightly so he finished three places below me in 9th.

Darren: Second Opinion

Sunday came around way too fast and I was still bolting the front wheel back on at 7am! (Everyone knows my mechanical skills are non-existent!). However I was soon loaded up and enroute for my first outing since Lane End in April and I was feeling pretty nervous.
Getting to the venue quite early and was relieved to see the burger van already there – so straight over for a coffee (no burgers due to diet!). During “signed on” I managed to forget my helmet for scrutineering, so back to van again.
First lap and I managed to drop it early on (avoiding rear ending someone!) and I just couldn’t get the bike started again (elec start wasn’t working due to a duff battery). So after roughly 2000 kicks, 1 helmet thrown into the bushes and 1 metal toe guard ripped off my boots I awaited a marshall who managed to get the bike started with 5 kicks – how I don’t know but he mentioned something about flooding the engine! All I know is a big thank you to whoever you were!
I found the going quite tough in places to be honest and tree stumps are definitely not on my xmas list anymore. And what with the heat as well...it was going to be a long day indeed.
Lunch came and went way too quickly and before I knew it I was pulling in at 3pm completely wasted.
All in all a great day though and looking forward to the next race!

If you enjoyed this report and would like to be notified of new reports or web site updates then join the mailing list. To sign up to the list just click HERE>> and send me an email.