North West MTB #2: Farmer Johns

Three Cannock Racers Guild regulars made the trip ‘oop North’ for the North West MTB rnd 2 event at Farmer John’s; Squadron rider Mick Whyte, Racers Guild Leader and biggest proponent Harry Clark and all round good guy Lee Pettitt.

We’d all seen videos and heard it was flat at the top, and it was, but conditions were brilliant and it made for a BMX type top section down to the infamous ‘Hut Jump’ and then it was typical DH'; rocky, bermy then steep and rooty.  The top was peddly and there were several flat out sprints into features that really sapped the legs. The berms are well sweet though.

We all had loads of runs on Saturday and mused over tyre choice.  Lighter and faster or heavy and safe?  These choices are personal. I went with a single ply 2.5”Roller on the rear and double ply 2.5” Minion on the front for race day.

Come race day the conditions remained great and the wind had even dropped a bit too.

Veterans first; Lee and me were seeded second to last and last?  Probably because Lee won the North West champs here last year and i have a few points on BC (or because it was alphabetical and my surname begins with W!).

Lee knocked out a 1min27.3 and placed 7th on his first and I knocked out 1min25.3 and squeezed into 3rd.  Not too bad but we both felt we had more to offer as we had made small mistakes along the way.

Masters were after us so we watched Harry down the steep techy section and he looked smooth enough, exhibiting plenty of the coaches technical tips, and clocked up a 1min28.2 which for a while saw him stay in the top 3 but his early seeding meant he got moved down a little to a still respectable 6th.  Remember though, Harry is at the top age for masters and is racing blokes nearly 8 years his junior, ahem.

There was plenty of locals at the event and the mind games were aplenty before the second runs.  Us Cannock boys gave as good as we got and we scored some for the away team.

Lee and me had a little chat right before our second run and to quote him ‘we’ve gotta smash this one Mick’! True to his word Lee banged out a solid run and finished 5th with a shade under 1min24.5.  He was stoked to have moved up 2 places and knock a local off that spot.  My run was better than my first from the go and i finished with a 1min23.19.  I was in top spot and managed to just hold it by a 10th of a second from the second placed rider!  I was stoked.

We got into a decent spot to watch Harry down on his second run and got some of the spectators primed with a special cheer for his arrival.  Once again he looked smooth into the rooty steep stuff and as he passed us he got a very loud and very vocal ‘Potato!’ to cheer him on.  He finished with a 1min25.3 and moved up a place to finish 5th.

 

Farmer John’s is a grass roots venue and it was hard work but good fun and us three Cannock locals were well chuffed with our three top 5 placings out of 193 racers.