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SCU MTB XC Round 1 - Riverside,
Irvine
"Something is always better than nothing". There
you have it. With Foot and Mouth Disease rendering a large
majority
of the countryside a no go area mountainbikers across the
country should count themselves lucky to have access to any
piece of land, let alone to a cross country course. So it
was no surprise to find a travelling contingent from both
North and South of the Border had made the great trek to
Riverside,
Irvine for the opening round of the SCUMtb 2001 series. OK
so it was former industrial land and the course was more
of
a school cross country course, (i.e. one for running on!)
lacking in hills etc, but, to borrow another expression,
"you
have to count your blessings".
Of course these comments only come in reflection, after a
warm bath and a good feeding session. Round One, as ever,
came as a physical jolt for, despite the apparently innocuous
nature of the course, this was no easy going spin in the dust.
What would have been an ultra fast course, with long straights
for pack chases, the odd drop off and some twisty tree grabbing
was heartily saturated by rain for two whole days prior to
racing. Gloriously thick mud soon coated the course, freshly
prepared bikes soon became tired, mud festooned old hacks
and drop offs turned nasty and rutted with footprints. Running
became the name of the game, well for everyone except the
flyweight Elite people who seemed to float over the muck.
Laps were reduced for all classes as times quickly stretched
outwards, in Sport class I was maintaining a consistent forty-five
minute lap, including time for cramps and bike cleaning. This
was a course for hardtails with disc brakes and large clearance
frames. Those on PACE forks really suffered from mud blockage,
whilst lighter tyres would also have been a wise option.
Round One was hard and few people were left smiling at the
end of the day with mud everywhere and only a deep, murky
puddle for washing in. But as the Portaloo's were carted off,
the burger van packed up and the presentations made it was
nice to see the same faces and a few new ones hang around.
Cross country mtb racing is not dead or dying, do not believe
what you read, because if it were no-one would have spent
a rainy April day on the Scottish west coast running / standing
around in a former industrial site. We do this sport because
we enjoy the challenge and Irvine was certainly that.
Thanks must go to everyone at SCUMtb and the others who worked
hard to organise this event. Cheers for bringing us something,
when we so easily could have had nothing.
Sam Long.
The laps were quite short, and in the dry, the speeds would
have been mental fast, but it rained, and unfortunately the
course became a quagmire. The actual categories wre won by
the best runners, not neccesarily the best riders, due to
the boggy conditions, but that might be a good thing. The
race itself was very painful to all of the riders, from the
the Elites right down to the fun, a major change from the
Pitmeddan-esque courses that only seem to challenge the least
experienced riders. This level playing field made gave the
event a better atmosphere.
Special thanks too: David Hayes (for his bottle duties)
Janet (Nimmo's boss) for kindly pointing my belly out to me.
The SCU for providing such a nice puddle to wash my bike in.
David Brennan.
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