Gorrick Spring Series Retrospective

By Seth Kanaris, U14 Mudslinger

The mountain bike XC season is now in full swing, with the Gorrick Spring Series behind us, Southern XC in progress with the Crow Hill round in the New Forest coming up end of April, and of course the BC MTB XC National Series already underway with round 2 set to be a pretty epic one in Newnham Park near Plymouth.

I’ve only been racing XC for a short time now, with my first Gorrick series over a year ago at the start of 2014 – I remember it well. I came last in every race. I did not enjoy it. But… perhaps it’s persistence, maybe it’s encouragement, it could well be maturity – after completing the Gorrick Autumn series last year (I didn’t come last!), I was actually looking forward to the 2015 Spring Series. A big part of what makes these races so much fun is that I get to hang out and race with my friends from Summit MTB, but more importantly this series would be the warm-up for what I am hoping is going to be a good year for me in XC – and ultimately that one step closer to realising my goals. Plus, after all the promoting of mountain biking in general, I was really hoping we would see more Slipstreamers at the races, and taking on MTB. I haven’t been disappointed (although, we could do with more still!).

Now onto this recent Spring Series, which, in retrospect, actually went really well for me… After just missing the podium at fourth after my final race of the series, my points totalled up to place me a joint third in the series overall – results here! I was extremely gutted though (to say the least) because I stood around for hours to collect my trophy, only to find that the person I tied with clinched the podium spot and the trophy because he beat me in the last race! The fact that I could have easily secured a podium place had certain things been different, namely me not being sick at Porridgepot and my bike not falling apart at Saddleback, didn’t really cheer me up – however “what ifs” don’t do much, and on reflection I am ultimately pleased that I did as well as I did!

The younger group of Slipstreamers did really well too, and whilst there were no series placements for their age categories, they were consistent and pretty much the dominant force at every single race. George Fowkes went from strength to strength in each race going from 3rd to 2nd and to 1st; Cameron Still was on top form at 2nd in both his races; Ben Coppola and Ben Bisson raced all 4 and improved their positions throughout; and Alex Uphill also did brilliantly coming 1st in his second race. Other Slipstreamers who raced included Nathan George, Archie Fowkes and Oisin Murphy (who normally plays football on a Sunday but decided to try XC out!); and of course Lucy Allsop represented the girls, winning all of her races!

Now onto my reflection of each event…

Saddleback Hill, 18th Jan

My first race was when I finished 6^th at Saddleback Hill, and I won’t rant on about my bike smashing itself up mid-race again because I’ve already written an article that does just that. Overall, the course itself was pretty decent with some excellent technical bits and flowing singletrack, and I quite enjoyed it. For the first race of the series there was a great Slipstreamers turnout, and it was really nice to see so many riders there. Read all about Oisin’s experience here; and what Cameron had to say!

 

Crowthorne Wood, 8th Feb

Now Saddleback psyched me up for the Crowthorne race, which was the first one on my shiny new Trek Remedy! It’s amazing how a decent bike can make all the difference in handling and race efficiency – I finished 7^th this time (read all about it here), and whilst not my finest result, definitely one of my favourite races with all the cool descents and stunning views. Again, Slipstreamers came out tops in this one, and Alex wrote a piece here too.

 

Porridgepot Hill, 8th March

My third race was the week after the Southern series Black Park race, and that was at Porridgepot. Now, I really do like Porridgepot – it’s got some epic trails and manages to keep its cross-countryness with the odd climb here and there; and indeed, I was there a few weeks before enjoying the course on a social ride. However, the Gorrick team somehow managed to turn it into the most evil course I’ve ever ridden! Now, that might have been down to the fact that I had a terrible cough and felt like I was going to choke to death on my phlegm every 20 seconds (I physically had to stop at one point because I genuinely couldn’t breathe!), but I do also recall nearly vertical climbs after every corner (some of which were exceptionally long!) that sucked the life out of the good bits! I got a great start and was leading the chasing group for a bit (third onwards), but then I slowly began to die, dropped back 2 places, and ended up finishing 5th, truly broken. I raced in lycra that day, that must be it! Others were not so unfortunate and George, Ben,  Ben, Alex and Lucy all came in the top 5!

 

Frith Hill, 22nd March

After a venue change, we found ourselves at Frith Hill for the fourth and final race. I got an amazing start and was with the leader (until about the second corner), and I was then in 2nd for a good while. Then, however, I crashed by swerving to avoid clipping my bars on a tree, which resulted in me losing the front on some roots, and then I got overtaken into 3rd. I then got overtaken again by some other guy on a hill and I never saw him again! No matter how hard I pushed, I couldn’t see him and thus I finished 4th, which, in my mind, is the worst place to finish because you’re just one off the podium! But the course was by far my favourite of the four, and I actually had a really good race – fast, flowing and fun! George, Cameron, Ben and Ben also seemed to really enjoy themselves, with Slipstreamers taking the top 4 in the U11 race! Nice.

 

Series Verdict?

All in all, it was a great series to kick off the season, with enough challenge and technical challenge to satisfy the most hardcore of XC racers – much as I disliked Porridgepot, I prefer it to flat courses such as Black Park, so perhaps if I wasn’t ill I would have enjoyed it more! For me, personally I am obviously gutted for just missing out on series 3rd, but when I compare my performance to last year when I was finishing last in every race, against where I am now after training almost every day throughout the Winter, I am progressing. Gorrick’s warm-up series was a personal validation for me that what I’m doing is right in terms of training (or at least on the path towards it), so it was pretty great way to start the season off, and I’m looking forward to a good year ahead!

It’s amazing to see mountain biking getting a bigger reputation now than before – and it was particularly good to see so many Slipstreamers enjoying the races. If you haven’t raced XC before – just try it! There’s always something on, and you never know if you’ll enjoy it until you give it a go. And who knows – if enough of us do MTB… maybe one day we’ll have some Slipstreamers at Rampage because of it! 🙂