Basically, I'm keen to appear as though I never gave up racing, so I tend to do one or two races a year and this year it's just one - the Masters World Champs at Pra Loup in southern France. I've done this race for the last two years and the general vibe is 'old fellas shooting the breeze and socialising whilst in horrendous queues for a few practice runs spread over several days...' There are a few people who can't seem to shake the competitiveness, but most seem happy to be allowed out of the house/nursing home for a few days to ride in the southern France sunshine and crash through some dust.
Long time Mojo compadré Mark Mackarel (43) joined me on the trip and we hustled down through France just in time to set up the V-Dub onto the chocks in the dying light. We did such a bad job of it that the van fell off them in the middle of the night causing all kinds of 'those weren't two warm pillows - d'ya see the Bears game last night?' hilarity.
Upon waking up the morning after we realised that this wasn't the Masters World Champs 2009, it was a Pedalhounds race at Hawkestone circa 1997 but with nicer motors! The whole paddock was English/Scottish/Irish/Welsh and it seems the whole mountain bike fraternity from the 90s had bought unsuitably large motorhomes and had parked up in our field! The Irish contingent was so strong it looked liked an invasion force! Hundreds of 'em!
Walking the track on Tuesday reminded us why Pra Loup brings the old fellas (and fell'etes) back year after year, It's completely different to anything we ever ride in the UK or abroad. It's a fast, loose, open track with a soil that breaks down into 'dust' berms deep enough to swallow grown men whole! Fantastic! It starts at an 'altitude sickness' height of 2150m and works down to an 'altitude training' height of 1600m, all in 4 minutes, like I said - steep and fast!
Because of the numbers involved in a Euro based Masters World Champs, training is split into two groups and Mark and I were pleased to see that we had the 11 o'clock start rather than the 9 meaning we had time for a civillised breakfast before strolling up to get in the queue at 10.30. Unfortuately EVERYONE else in our training group had decided to do the full 'january sales' bit and had got into the queue last night! After standing in the scorching heat bitching and moaning for an hour and a quarter we got the top of the hill just in time to catch the first of the day's rain! What?! Hilariously, we'd joked the previous evening about the possibility of rain on an event where we hadn't had a drop for the previous two years and speculated how empty the queues would be when the swarthy southern european types retired to their apartments to stay out of the rain. What a result for two or three slippy runs we had the course pretty much to the Brits, Swedes and Germans and a much reduced queue.
After a day and half of practice I decided to liven things up by having a little crash.... I picked the wrong spot however, 'cos the drop where I decided to gently roll over the bars was a 15ft, almost vertical plunge down a rocky face and into a boulder field, I wouldn't have chosen to climb down there never mind throw myself off it tangled in a bike! MC Mackarel who was riding down in front looked back up and saw a flash of blue that was my bike 20ft up in the air! One of the Irish 'youngsters' Joe Ward saw the whole thing (but forgot his camera - boll**ks!) and commented to me later in the evening 'I thought you were dead'! Hey, like Snake Pliskin in Escape from New York I can bounce back... When I say 'bounce back' I mean with a smack on the arse that felt like a busted coccyx and no chance sitting down in a slouchy fashion for a few weeks.
With excuses duly filed (you don't race for 15 years without picking up these techniques), I rolled out the next day for a timed 'seeding' run on the rapidly drying track. I haven't been as nervous before a race run for years and the sight of Neil Wilson doing full, yoga stretches before his run did nothing but make me realise how stiff and sick I felt! after a pretty scrappy run on a battered track I had a 4.08 (was aiming for a sub 4) with a 14th at the split and a 14th at the finish line - nothing if not consistent...
I was looking for an extra 10 seconds for the day after, figuring I was capable of a 3.58. Knowing that I was only going to get a maximum of two runs in on the practice session on raceday morning I was up with the larks and in the queue. I managed two runs, finished off with a really good top section and a really good bottom section - which was unfortunately split by a crash in the middle section... Always good to go into your timed run on a crash!
I gave it all I had, but I didn't have enough 'cos I ended up even slower at 4.11 and rolled in 16th... Mark had a pretty good run but was also frustrated to end up 32nd, Oh well at least we've got a van to pack! That'll keep us busy before the customary DHer's dissection of the run whilst driving home...
All in all a fantastic week of road trip/DH action, topped off with a 1000 mile drive home in one hit. Next year's race is in Brazil which ain't high on my list of places to visit, but apparently the European Masters Champs is in Maribor next year! Hey I haven't retired yet!
TECHNICAL
Set-up wise we had quite a lot to test with suspension, frame and tyres. In previous years I'd tested various theories including loading up the bike with lead and slipping into the skinsuit and 'manning up' by removing the peak. This year with the stoopid skinsuit ban and a season working with Fabien Barel and his tech guy Paul Walton under our belts, we had plenty more to look at! The rear shock is a valved DHX-RC4 shock where I am trying to push the internal valving as stiff as I can get without getting pounded to death! We are also trying a few different oils to see which deals with heat and fade the best, given the 'usual' weather at Pra Loup that seemed like a good place... The cartridge was also a really heavily valved version with another different oil, the aim here was to try to eliminate the heating problems that a sealed cartridge can suffer from and aim for a decent 'mid-speed' compression feel without making the fork harsh... Elsewhere in the fork we had a few ideas to try with the aim of reducing the small amount of stiction which a 'massive' 40mm seal can display and again on the shock a few ideas to try to reduce initial stiction. I'd opted for the WTB Timberwolf tyres that I got from Fabien Barel (name-dropping I know, can't help it!) and to be honest, they have an insane amount of grip wet or dry - fantastic for the dusty off cambers. On top of all that, Superstar mechanic Peter Michaliyszin had built an 'idler' for the swingarm mount on the Orange 224EVO to reduce the amount of chain tug under compression. Plenty of things to try and a long, gnarly track to try them on!
ChrisP |
