Every Kind of Weather: Pearce Cycles #1 - Bringewood

Thanks to Dan Armishaw  ( www.djaphoto.co.uk ) for the photo!

2011's Pearce Cycles Summer Series was a wintery test of resolve, with tyre options ranging from "Do I run full spikes, or just canoe down?", and with the weather man painting a grim picture last thursday, most of us had resigned ourselves to the end of the winter drought being heralded by the start of Britain's finest race series.

However, Saturday at Bringewood was a dry affair, with deep piles of dust leading to problems during the day!
Local Elite racer and former RGsquadron team member Elliot Machin was seen out on his new Foes with his team on Saturday, and was apparently looking quick, but sketchy as normal.

The track was greasy at the top, bone dry and loamy in the middle and lightening quick at the bottom, requiring that riders pump through and give full effort for the duration. Quite smooth, but super physical.

Practice on Sunday started off a little bit damp and greasy, with a bit of rain starting towards the end. 

As racing kicked off, the sun came out and the track dried up nicely as the day went on.

Mick Whyte's first race run of the season arrived and he sailed down the course to a 2:38.9 and into third in Veterans.

One solid hour of Senior riders later, the sun made another reappearance and a the veterans hit the hill again, Mick recorded the fastest top split in his category, but a slower bottom split meant he slotted himself nicely into second before being pipped by Niall Ingram by six hundredths of a second who took some time out at the bottom also. 0.06 of a second over a 1.32km course is half a metre!

Third overall and only five seconds behind race winner Trevor Harvey means Mick's off to a flying start to his 2012 season!