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A riders eye view of the 2nd night race

by John Hill-Venning/Paul Howard, 06 Dec 04.

John Hill-Venning finished 5th
in the Under 35s riding a singlespeed

As expected the drier conditions and the lure of an easy win brought out some big guns last night for the second Gorrick evening race. I found myself lining up on the front row with Jamie Newall and Jody Crawforth (apparently), both sporting some light-weight Lupine systems, Mmmmm...

From the start I was at the rear of a lead group of five and we immediately began to open a gap on the following pack. Unfortunately after about 1 mile my chain came off (despite having tensioned it before the race). The lead group rode away, never to be seen again, and Paul Howard then about 15 riders came past me before I got it back on. "Oh well" I thought. "It looks like this'll be a 'fun' race for me" — expecting to lose the chain several more times before the end of the race.

I then went about enjoying myself catching all the riders who'd passed me, practising smoother, swifter overtaking and generally lapping up the singletrack — and was glad not to have to suffer the contrast of those Lupines to my halogen light. After about one and a half laps I caught Paul Howard, which might have been encouraging, but I knew he was going too slow to have kept in touch with the lead guys (sorry Paul). [No offence taken John. Ed]

Dozens of riders appeared on my horizon over the next few laps, but I gained on them all too fast — I was just lapping them. It did at least give me the illusion of being fast. My final aim was to avoid the indignity of doing a lap less than the leader, so I kept my pace high and was glad to hear the PA announce "5 minutes to go" as I entered my last lap. I finished with a huge grin, and a provisional 5th place. My chain had stayed on too.

After hanging around getting cold for the light prize draw, we rode home through — and got a little bit lost in — a very spooky, misty Minley woods, eventually navigating our way home by the stars and a pylon.

John rides for Beyond Mountain Bikes.