Feb 16 - Write Up and Results
A fantastic course and great track conditions thanks to the dry weather made for a great day on The Dark Side. It wouldn't be without surprises, with a few new faces giving the familiar fast guys a lot to chew on. Full results are on the stats page here.
The course itself was a labour of love for local digger Alex, who spent weeks uncovering old lines and building new ones to create probably the best line down Stile Cop that has ever been ridden. From a new start ramp, the course has a fast and loose right hander that sends you into the trees where the gradient turns nasty. The first of 5 esses has got some big, ugly roots right in the racing line. The esses test your ability to hold your line and look ahead before they spit you over the gas line road for a fast right curve with a nice jump half way through. Then you're diving into the tighter trees and soon at the small double into a perfectly manicured berm. It was the last part of the course that had people bashing trees, with a new chicane, small rock garden, and rooty last section before a nice jump. The very last flat right hander became looser and more drifty as the day wore on, and few people had the right gear coming out of it to sprint to the finish. The course is probably Cannock's best technical challenge when ridden fast.
Darrell U was stuck in the shop for the day, so would remaining fast guys Adam, Greg, and Chris be able to fend off some new faces? Here's how it went down from my seat at the finish line...
Adam and Tom set hot times right from the start. Their 1:04s immediately set the benchmark, mysteriously similar to Dirt's 1:04 track. But it wouldn't take long for the first surprise: a 1:01 from one unknown Dave Cotton had everyone scratching their chins. He came across the finish line and didn't seem to have any inkling that he'd just set a fast time. Suddenly, there were rumours of cut tape...certainly this guy couldn't have just taken 3 seconds out of the best racers! Time would tell...
Try as they might, no one could come close to the 1:01, casting further doubt on its validity. But Dave repeated with a 1:02 nearly an hour later. He was indeed the real deal, and no one would question his speed after that! Get that boy a sponsor! But would his time hold? It looked like it would until Swinno's ringer Mark Milward showed up on one very spanky greenish Commencal Furious. We knew he was fast when on his first run he slide out on the last corner, got tangled in the bike and still turned in a 1:03. He could certainly do it then. And what happened to Elliot on the V10? He showed up late, but on his third run pulled a stunning 1:00.8. But Mark was gunning for a sub one minute run. He would go on to set fast time for the day, a killer 1:00.5. Elliot would stay in 2nd position, Dave in 3rd, and Adam, last months fastest, in 4th. Not a good day for the bookies then, but a great day for the riders!
Surprisingly speedy: Dave Cotton silencing the doubters
Photo Credit: BAT
There were other great performances as well. Celebrity Barracuda Bob knocked a whopping 28 seconds off his first time, but was still slightly unhappy. The reason he's always at the back? He told me on the finish, "You know I'm not very lucky." Love it! It was a big course for the juniors, but riders like Ben Robson and Henry Simons were doing great, cutting seconds off their last runs. And we saw our first female rider Katie Radcliffe doing well - let's hope for more girls in the future. A few more and I'll give them their own class.
Regarding scoring, there have been requests for a "series points table" for all the results, which I will be working on. I will also be trying to get our repeat riders profiles up. Regarding the points, I have changed the system to allow more people to score points. Rather than 4 points being deducted for each second slower than the fastest time, it's now 2 points, meaning you will now score points if you're within 50 seconds of the fastest time. I've gone back and changed the previous points.
Finally, there was some serious heroics going on prior to the timed runs by a handful of riders who had the cojones to hit the freshly finished gap jump on Walleater. But I figure those guys and the great build day deserve a separate post, so look for a trail building update later this week! In the mean time, you can ogle pictures already in the forum.
Next trail day is March 30 - see you then!
The course itself was a labour of love for local digger Alex, who spent weeks uncovering old lines and building new ones to create probably the best line down Stile Cop that has ever been ridden. From a new start ramp, the course has a fast and loose right hander that sends you into the trees where the gradient turns nasty. The first of 5 esses has got some big, ugly roots right in the racing line. The esses test your ability to hold your line and look ahead before they spit you over the gas line road for a fast right curve with a nice jump half way through. Then you're diving into the tighter trees and soon at the small double into a perfectly manicured berm. It was the last part of the course that had people bashing trees, with a new chicane, small rock garden, and rooty last section before a nice jump. The very last flat right hander became looser and more drifty as the day wore on, and few people had the right gear coming out of it to sprint to the finish. The course is probably Cannock's best technical challenge when ridden fast.
Darrell U was stuck in the shop for the day, so would remaining fast guys Adam, Greg, and Chris be able to fend off some new faces? Here's how it went down from my seat at the finish line...
Adam and Tom set hot times right from the start. Their 1:04s immediately set the benchmark, mysteriously similar to Dirt's 1:04 track. But it wouldn't take long for the first surprise: a 1:01 from one unknown Dave Cotton had everyone scratching their chins. He came across the finish line and didn't seem to have any inkling that he'd just set a fast time. Suddenly, there were rumours of cut tape...certainly this guy couldn't have just taken 3 seconds out of the best racers! Time would tell...
Try as they might, no one could come close to the 1:01, casting further doubt on its validity. But Dave repeated with a 1:02 nearly an hour later. He was indeed the real deal, and no one would question his speed after that! Get that boy a sponsor! But would his time hold? It looked like it would until Swinno's ringer Mark Milward showed up on one very spanky greenish Commencal Furious. We knew he was fast when on his first run he slide out on the last corner, got tangled in the bike and still turned in a 1:03. He could certainly do it then. And what happened to Elliot on the V10? He showed up late, but on his third run pulled a stunning 1:00.8. But Mark was gunning for a sub one minute run. He would go on to set fast time for the day, a killer 1:00.5. Elliot would stay in 2nd position, Dave in 3rd, and Adam, last months fastest, in 4th. Not a good day for the bookies then, but a great day for the riders!
Surprisingly speedy: Dave Cotton silencing the doubters
Photo Credit: BAT
There were other great performances as well. Celebrity Barracuda Bob knocked a whopping 28 seconds off his first time, but was still slightly unhappy. The reason he's always at the back? He told me on the finish, "You know I'm not very lucky." Love it! It was a big course for the juniors, but riders like Ben Robson and Henry Simons were doing great, cutting seconds off their last runs. And we saw our first female rider Katie Radcliffe doing well - let's hope for more girls in the future. A few more and I'll give them their own class.
Regarding scoring, there have been requests for a "series points table" for all the results, which I will be working on. I will also be trying to get our repeat riders profiles up. Regarding the points, I have changed the system to allow more people to score points. Rather than 4 points being deducted for each second slower than the fastest time, it's now 2 points, meaning you will now score points if you're within 50 seconds of the fastest time. I've gone back and changed the previous points.
Finally, there was some serious heroics going on prior to the timed runs by a handful of riders who had the cojones to hit the freshly finished gap jump on Walleater. But I figure those guys and the great build day deserve a separate post, so look for a trail building update later this week! In the mean time, you can ogle pictures already in the forum.
Next trail day is March 30 - see you then!
posted by Aaron at
12:04
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