Elliot M, Andy H and myself decided to cap the season with the Descent-Gear Unclipped race at Moelfre. We were joined by a flock of folks from Racer's Guild for what will be a very memorable weekend! Check out the Racer's Guild site to see how the rest did.
We had a few mechanical issues on Saturday, as despite not being too rocky, Moelfre is an abusive track. It's very high speed and the suspension does a lot of work handling the high speed stuff as well as a few massive bottom outs. The rear end on Andy's bike decided enough was enough and went bang. Eight blown spokes was the obvious problem, but when Andy took off the wheel and the freehub fell on the floor - well that was another problem - in the shape of a snapped axle. I, of course, was on the case, and put together a master plan which would end up wasting most of Andy's morning Sunday morning. I'd found a guy who might be able to get the part, and if not, he'd loan him a spare wheel. We ended up with the spare wheel, a lovely DT Swiss number which didn't like Maxxis tires one bit. It took two guys to stretch the beads into submission, and they pinched two tubes in the process! When the rotor and cassette were finally on, Andy slipped it into the swingarm only to realize, much to his dismay, that it was a 150 mm hub, not 135 mm as we had all assumed. So that was the morning wasted, as well as a paragraph of words, so let's get on with the racing!
I was enjoying the weekend and feeling confident having had loads of clean practice runs, but such cleanliness would elude me for both race runs. Still, among the slower Masters I managed 8th place with a 2:41. The important thing is that I beat Richie! (Barely.) Photo by Jeron Holy. From Squadron Moelfre 2009
Another shot of Elliot during practice. Photo by Jeron Holy. From Squadron Moelfre 2009
Andy decided to race on his broken axle and pulled a very solid 2:29 out of the bag. I was well impressed and didn't know if Elliot could beat it. Andy is a strong pedaller, and I know he was on it the whole way down the hill. But a season of racing the NPS has turned Elliot into a truly formidable racer. Elliot would take 8 seconds out of Andy with a staggering 2:21, which would land him 3rd in Seniors and faster than all the Experts!
Andy's run put him in 12th place in Seniors, but it was certainly not slow - he would have been 3rd in Expert. It just so happens that Seniors is ultra competitive with guys about to move into the Expert category in 2010 - including our Elliot - an awesome achievement!
I got lucky with the camera and managed to click this beauty of Elliot gapping into one of the last drops on the course. There was only maybe two other guys jumping this line, everyone else was going around. It was one of those lines that I didn't even see, let along contemplate attempting! Elliot hits it super clean and throws in some style along the way as he aims to land on the rocky face of the drop…massive! From Squadron Moelfre 2009
Is that George W Bush? Nope, it's Elliot Machin, 3rd place in the Seniors class. From Squadron Moelfre 2009
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