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Wednesday 28 October 2009

Overall Results

The results are out for the Hope Series 2, both for the final race (Race 3) and the overall series positions.

I managed to retain a respectable result even though I couldn't compete in Race 3, managing the keep 14th place overall. Matt managed an excellent 12th place in Race 3 and a great start.
Follow the link to get the pdf version of the results:

Overall Positions

Race 3 Positions

Last weekend saw the first ride after the back problems, which are now clearing up. Just a short ride and not a blistering pace, so a good re-start after 2 weeks off. Re-starting riding a little less frequent has given me chance to get the wheels into the wheel builders for a replacement for the broken spoke and needs a little truing.

Gears are the next issue that need sorting, I have a feeling a next cassette and chain might be required with the amount of gear slippage under heavy load even after aligning the gear changes...

Sunday 18 October 2009

Hope Series 2 Lee Quarry - Race 3



Injuries - I hate 'em.

A few days of serious back pain led to a trip to the Osteopath on Saturday, and with it any chance of starting Race 3 evaporated. I was completely gutted, especially having convinced Matt to join me and enter the last race.

Attending the race as a spectator really opened my eyes to the size of the Quarry, particularly how the track loops back and forth which provided lots of viewing from a central vantage point(and no wonder Cath was able to put good videos together with much of the action coming past her a number of times). I followed Matt and gave encouragement where I could, knowing the first race was simply going to be a shock to the system.

The layout of the track looked great. The back of the quarry right through to starting line was basically downhill (this I'm going to have to come back and try without it being race day). Unfortunately, the down side to this is the fact that the start-line up to the top of the quarry (which in most people's eyes is quite an evil climb) was included in every lap!

I'm glad I visited the race as a spectator, I managed to chat with the chap who allowed me to use his photos on the previous blog, but also nice to chat with a few racers who I'd spoken to at previous races.

I'll post the overall race series positions when they are available, but the race series after 2 races had me with 60 points from the 28th and 14th place finishes. That put me in 9th position for the Weekend Warriors overall. I don't expect to keep that position with the huge number of competitors from today, which is disappointing that I couldn't race today to try to maintain that good series result. After my first race just a few weeks ago, I'm really happy to be part of the top ten at this stage and maybe in the next series I'll be able do something similar.

I'm definitely going to enter the next race series at Lee Quarry, many thanks to the organisers again. Check out the
video of the last race, following Matt as he has a great ride.