Pearce Round 3 - Bala
It's official, summer ended at roughly 3 PM on Saturday, July 4. We said goodbye to warm sunny days and dry trails, and the true English summer - rain and murk - began. And we all had the wrong tyres on.
Quite a few of us from the Squadron and Racer's Guild gathered in the corner of the camping field for the 3rd round of the Pearce series. Adam Halling and myself were racing our first...and maybe only...Pearce of the year, while Squadron boys Elliot Gill and Greg were both defending their 2nd place positions in the series. Andy was also in attendance on his repainted day-glo Orange, along with Doddy, the Hopkins and a few other stray RGers. We'd all come to ride one of Britain's favourite tracks: Bala.
Bala is fast and fun, and has a bit of everything. It's 3-4 minutes long depending on conditions, and it starts on chipped slate and proceeds over fast fireroads, wicked dirt berms, gnarly rooty sections, forest single track, and finishes in a grassy field. It all seems to flow seemlessly (apart from one knuckle busting full speed stop on loose slate) and give you a great buzz. At times your tires are just skipping off the tops of surfaces at top speed, and at other times you're pushing the very limits of cornering traction. It's almost impossible not to love. In the dry at least.
In the wet English summer weather, it becomes a slightly different beast. As we all discovered, riding this course in wet conditions on dry tires (when the heavens opened suddenly) is basically impossible. It's not that there wasn't much traction in certain sections, it was that there was none. Zero. Zilch. Which is actually quite fun in practice. You get awesome moments like below, followed by sliding on your back for 20 metres, which is kinda fun in itself!
With no running water, bikes that came back looking like below had to pay a visit to the nearby stream or get pump sprayed. That's Elliot's bike and overalls by the way. Ask Elliot about his overalls - he's in love with them. And Crunchy Nut. And Kettle Chips. So there are some speed secrets for you!
Things had dried out only slightly by Sunday, but it was basically still a course for spikes. Most of us had trouble staying upright even with spikes. Elliot and I were happy with our first runs, Elliot was sitting 2nd and I was in a surpise 8th, but apart from that, everyone was doing battle with a very tricky course. Andy had crashes on both his runs, and Greg struggled to keep it clean. Both were further back than where they'd hoped, but Elliot's solid first run meant another podium for him!
Squadron Results
Elliot G - 2nd Juvenile (4:04)
Greg H - 13th Juniors (3:43)
Andy H - 29th Seniors (3:47)
Aaron N - 14th Masters (3:53)
Other Racer's Guild dudes
Adam H - 13th Seniors (3:36)
Andy D - 17th Seniors (3:37)
Ben W - OK, so it wasn't his day...
Winning time was Marc Beaumont (Elite) with 2:55.7. Basically insane.
I don't have any more photos, but there are some good ones in the following galleries:
Quite a few of us from the Squadron and Racer's Guild gathered in the corner of the camping field for the 3rd round of the Pearce series. Adam Halling and myself were racing our first...and maybe only...Pearce of the year, while Squadron boys Elliot Gill and Greg were both defending their 2nd place positions in the series. Andy was also in attendance on his repainted day-glo Orange, along with Doddy, the Hopkins and a few other stray RGers. We'd all come to ride one of Britain's favourite tracks: Bala.
Bala is fast and fun, and has a bit of everything. It's 3-4 minutes long depending on conditions, and it starts on chipped slate and proceeds over fast fireroads, wicked dirt berms, gnarly rooty sections, forest single track, and finishes in a grassy field. It all seems to flow seemlessly (apart from one knuckle busting full speed stop on loose slate) and give you a great buzz. At times your tires are just skipping off the tops of surfaces at top speed, and at other times you're pushing the very limits of cornering traction. It's almost impossible not to love. In the dry at least.
In the wet English summer weather, it becomes a slightly different beast. As we all discovered, riding this course in wet conditions on dry tires (when the heavens opened suddenly) is basically impossible. It's not that there wasn't much traction in certain sections, it was that there was none. Zero. Zilch. Which is actually quite fun in practice. You get awesome moments like below, followed by sliding on your back for 20 metres, which is kinda fun in itself!
 |
| From Squadron Team Blog |
 |
| From Squadron Team Blog |
 |
| Juvenile 1st: Phil Atwell, 2nd: Elliot Gill, 3rd: Jevan Williams, From Squadron Team Blog |
Elliot G - 2nd Juvenile (4:04)
Greg H - 13th Juniors (3:43)
Andy H - 29th Seniors (3:47)
Aaron N - 14th Masters (3:53)
Other Racer's Guild dudes
Adam H - 13th Seniors (3:36)
Andy D - 17th Seniors (3:37)
Ben W - OK, so it wasn't his day...
Winning time was Marc Beaumont (Elite) with 2:55.7. Basically insane.
I don't have any more photos, but there are some good ones in the following galleries:
David Dower
Scott @ Eggraphy Practice and Race Day
posted by Aaron at
13:43
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