May 5th, 2008
The Dirty Dozen
Chipps asked me yesterday how many SSUKs I’d done. I’d never given it a thought. I knew that I’d missed the first (Hinchwick Manor, Gloucestershire fact fans) and one in Wales, which it turns out meant that SSUK 08 would make it a dirty* dozen. Past experience at Drumlanrig Castle told me it would be a dirty dozen.
The Inbred pile is no fun anymore, not now that Brant has offered the Inbred in colours other than white, so it falls to the Trek 69er to provide a pile of identikit singlespeeds. Someone moved all the Spots this year too, but instead of looking for a black bike amongst many I just looked for the red brakes and found it in time to set off somewhere around halfway up the field.
The Drumlanrig singletrack has improved with age, and is now well bedded in. A ribbon of trail too narrow to allow comfortable passing runs through woods of moss and bluebells in colours of the purest green. In dry conditions it’s fast and frantic, with no room to pass, the rocks and roots easy to negotiate. With a night of rain to make everything slick it’s a proper test not just of fitness but finesse. Momentum is your friend in on a course like this. Pick a tree at the far side of the obstacle, straight line it over the roots before they have time to spit you sideways, then as soon as you have front wheel traction turn hard before hitting the tree. And repeat. I swear there isn’t a constant radius curve on the whole course. Of course if this technique fails you’re either picking your teeth out of the tree bark, or on your arse by the trail side with a queue of singlespeeders taking advantage to get past.
This kind of riding is tiring not just on the legs but the arms and concentration. People were already tiring towards the end of lap one of three, and I was mightily relieved on lap two as I rode** the final climb of the course to be passed by eventual winner Phil ‘The Horse’. My relief was such that I could even ignore his costume of early ’90s GT All Terra hippie dayglo shirt and fake denim cycling shorts.
SSUK is no longer tagged on to the side of other events, and has become a race in it’s own right. Never again will I reach the dizzy heights of fourth place (OK, out of four). I need a new niche.
Thanks to:
Sam for organisation, Rik for patches, Buccleuch Estates for the burgers.
* None so dirty as Cheddar 2001 though. Kirstys headset never recovered.
** for a given value of rode.
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May 7th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I have done one. I’m not sure what that means in terms of my commitment to 1×1…
May 8th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Even the Godfather of UK singlespeeding admites he only rides his twice a year.