Buildwas Race Report 16-07-2006

I Guess I’m kind of sitting here thinking that I owe Buildwas an apology or something?
It’s not that it’s suddenly become one of my favourite venues or something, It’s just that I’ve never really been very complimentary about the place. I’ve only raced there once before, and that was my first event after a 20 year lay-off, on a 525 KTM that had 2 hours on the bores, and was still over-geared despite being on the lowest gearing that came in the box of bits with the bike.
I don’t think I’ve been alone in this either. Not many people seem to have much of a word for the 4 x 4 playground that is Buildwas, which is probably why this was the first event of this year that wasn’t full by the end of the first week of entries. Well, surprise surprise, and this may come as a bit of a shock, but I actually ENJOYED the race! I know I shouldn’t have, It’s the same old track, has always been very dry, very dusty, and very hard ground, but as I looked at the clock and acknowledged that I could only get one more lap in, I found myself thinking “I’m not ready to finish yet”!!
In fairness I was probably one of only a few who was thinking this as the three and a half hours rolled over. Looking at the results afterwards. I couldn’t work out why so many of the guys that usually beat me were down on my lap count? Worth looking into I thought and found some interesting excuses!
Les Liney appeared to have found himself in the bog at the bottom of the woods. I’m not entirely sure how he got there but when I saw him at the break, he was plastered in muck and mud. Apparently he had to resort to all sorts of gymnastics to extricate first himself, and then the biker from the mire! It looks from the results that not only did he lose about a lap in lost time, he also picked up 9 points in penalties too. 413 Adam Clapham also came to a cropper in the bog, but with slightly more help on hand than Les, managed to extricate himself with the help of some other riders. He had met another rider using the same bit of track and as the two came together, toppled off the downhill side of the bike and into the mucky stuff.
Jason Callaby (55) explained his performance as getting caught up in someone else’s accident halfway through the morning session. Riding with mate Glenn Smith (56), approaching a nice jump, Glenn announced in time honoured fashion, “Watch this one mate” as he leaped from the jump ahead of Jason. Now I guess most of us have probably done this at some point, but to those of you that haven’t, the answer is simple, DON’T! As inevitably it ends in tears!! Glen’s attempt at style also ended in a pile, just big enough for Jason to see as the dust cleared, right where he was going to land!! It looks from the results that Glen’s race ended there, although I’ don’t know if that was because of damage to Glen, damage to the bike, or maybe a slight, erm, “Wardrobe malfunction????”
Jason struggled on but with a sticking front brake. He informs me that he now has a cool Wavy front disc, although sadly it waves from side to side due to the heat build up. Definitely NOT the day to have a brake stick on!!
Someone else who never made it past the morning session was Richard Holmes (424). Richard put in a very respectable 12 laps in the morning session, so why the no-show in the afternoon? Well it appears that Richard was missing a vital piece of kit on Sunday, yup, his Baby Cream!! Suffice to say that the baboon bum had paid a visit and it was far to painful to continue. We all know what it feels like, so get well soon Richard!
Sam Carver’s recent turn of speed was slowed by a big crash in the morning session. Sam scraped his Hip and Elbow, so was taped up again by the new medical team, and drip fed hot sweet tea, (Just what you need when it’s 90 degrees in the shade!!). Ray of course was very sympathetic and got him to carry on in the afternoon despite calling it a day himself!! Well done Sam. There we several new riders in the 130n starters, the youngest of which was Karl Herring, (321) son of number 24 Nigel. Karl was only 16 last month and managed a creditable 5 laps despite bumping into many new friends, (Trees, rocks, Marshals! Etc). I hope this hot and dusty introduction hasn’t put you off Karl? Hopefully Dad Nigel can get the bike ready in time for the next event.
Nice to see on the start line was Mick “the Marshal” Andrews on his Honda. Most of you will have seen Mick around, usually pre-riding the course and generally helping out. He’s done so much work for the club that he’s amassed enough vouchers to do half a season racing!. Sadly Mick’s first race was bought to an early close due to his chain jumping off. Despite refitting the wayward chain, the resultant kink and damage made it impossible to continue. Welcome to the fray Mick.
Roger Scott made hard work of the afternoon after setting a quick place in the morning. Apparently he ran out of energy by lunchtime and could hardly hang on to the bike in the afternoon, praying that it would be time to finish every time he passes the TBEC clock.
Actually this might be a good time to mention hydration and energy levels to some of the new, (and not so new!) riders. Many people were really struggling in the heat out there, and much of it can be avoided. I’m not about to launch into a lecture on hydration, and dehydration and all the associated subjects, and I’m certainly no expert, although I do have a lot of experience in what works for me because of all the sports I’ve been involved in over the years. The important thing is that I know what works for me, which is often different from what works for other people. I have a slow metabolism, so cramming bananas down me isn’t going to help much in the short term. I’ve experimented with many things, ALL Legal!!, and now I have it pretty much sorted. If you’re interested, the day before a race I eat pasta and chicken to “carbo-load” but not to excess. Raceday breakfast is porridge with a little sliced banana and fruit juice, (Slow release energy over many hours) .An hour before the race and at the lunch break I neck a sachet of Lucozade sport Gel, which, as it’s a gel, gets into my system much quicker than food. Hydration during the race is taken care of by drinking VITAGO which is a Swedish electrolyte drink recommended to me by my dentist (who runs mountain races!!) and is better for your teeth than the sugar-based drinks too, apparently!
You of course will have to experiment yourself to see what works, but generally stuffing Mars bars and burgers probably isn’t the right direction to take. There’s a mountain of info available on the web, so the info is there if you want it. Things have certainly moved on since I was a young judo competitor, where you were considered a bit of a lightweight if you wanted a drink before the 2 hour session was over.
One VERY important factor is hygiene though. For the second time in my racing career I was knocked over by a stomach bug that was probably down to not cleaning my camelback thoroughly. (Or Camel Front as Ray has christened mine!) I always wash it through and then sterilise everything with stuff they use for baby equipment. Trust me. You don’t want to be getting a dose of some of those bugs! (Great diet though!) I think I missed a bit in my mouthpiece, so all the effort was a complete waste of time. BEWARE!

Now i know Sharon is getting a mention all over the guestbook, but I’m going to mention her here as well. At the lunchbreak I bumped into her and she was in two minds about carrying on as she was finding it so hard. We had a quick chat and I’m pleased to say that she carried on. (Maybe it was because I told her that others in her class were struggling too and I could see she was in for a medal?!) Well I’m pleased to see that she won Bronze, but really., I think it should be a gold. I’m going to get contentious now as I believe that Sharon was riding the first REAL trail bike home. Personally I don’t think that KTM 200GS’s are trail bikes! C’mon guys these are pukka enduro tools!! I’m sure that there are many opinions out there so feel free to sign up to the guest book and let me hear them!! Actually, maybe I’ll just convert my 525 to twin shock and enter that class instead!! Let the debate begin!!!!!!
For those of you racing at Butts Quarry, you will be competing for the new Carrots Cup, a memorial trophy for Pete Winfield. Although not known to many of us at the club as he was due to join this year, Pete sadly died during a trail riding incident a short while ago. In memory of Pete, his family and friends have donated a trophy to the club in his honour, and the next event will be the first running of the Pete Winfield Cup. Pete was from the Nottingham area so Butts seems an appropriate location for the award.

A final couple of lighter moments to finish.
The riders briefing at Buildwas was also used for Chairman Dave Roberts to present the DR Cup to the 12 hour overall winners. Now of course it could be that Dave has named it after himself, although I’m sure that he wouldn’t have immediately thought of that. This has left much speculation as to what “DR” stands for. My belief is that because of all the recent publicity surrounding Dave’s Toilet Taxi each day, (and veiled threats of retribution for publishing the “Photo of the meeting” from Buildwas) “DR” actually stand for “Daily Routine”!! Feel free to add you own ideas!
Lastly, I must commend the bravery of the guys that were seen cooling off their jerry cans under the water taps at Buildwas. Apparently the cans were looking a little stressed because of the heat build up and were full of petrol! Nice one boys, I’d have been legging it off the other way!

Don’t forget to mail me with all you anecdotes, or even just to embarrass your mates!, and thanks to those that already do!

See you at Butts although I’ll be writing the race report from a marshal’s perspective!
 

Dan #15 (May contain Nuts)