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Specialised Winter Series Rd3. Hopton (18th Febuary 2001)

The track was brilliant, it stared on a fireroad for a few meters then turned off into a rhythm section of bombhole/tables round a curve, very little airtime and very hard to keep smooth, back across the fireroad and into the woods. One of the first obstacles in the woods was a log that looked, in the darkness, like a berm but after trying to ride it I discovered it was indeed just a log with 2.1-inch gap underneath.
After the "berm" was quite a long and wide root section with those bagged trees all over. Not particularly steep so carrying speed was important. And by roots I really mean roots, there was a bit of soil in between but nothing worth writing about. This section was full a people, absolutely packed with riders looking for lines and watching others. This dropped down through a few actual berms then onto the fire road.
Riders were soon off the fireroad down on the left round an other dodgy berm (deeply rutted) then back up to a fireroad, a bit of a slog if you hadn't managed to carry your speed through. This next bit was soooooooo much fun, blast down the fireroad then up onto the bus-stop corner, you had to move to the left of the fire road then with perfect timing turn and aim for the rut up then round and drop back onto the road, there were only two of these before the next section.
Down the fireroad a little more then turn off up-onto a relatively flat open section strait through some less dense forest, a blast for me but Fat Boy Warner would be so mad he'd have started taking BCF reps. hostage! This section got a lot harder towards the end as it got steeper and very twisty and rooty. A 180 degree corner across a vertical slope was a little strange then across a fireroad that had tractors crossing all day in a seemingly unsafe kind of way. The next section was down a very steep section through dense Christmas trees and a bombhole then through a bit more general steepness and technicalness to the big drop.

a little sticky with roots and stumps (theres a huge stump in that bombhole too) - Speed

Situated next to the lift queue it provided lots of entertainment as riders chose to keep it nice and low or like many pro elites, and the local Pearce Team blast off and land on a steep down-slope situated some 15feet away down about 7feet, some Pearce riders even took the piss with some sweet MX style over.



Two methods of droping demonstrated

The finish was a little dodgy, after the drop it was a soft 90 degree left-hander then up through some whoops to finish.

By race time earlier ice conditions (that had Bringewood veterans suffering flashbacks) had cleared and most people had a sort of plan for the first wooded section. As first runs got under way the track muddied up in places, it was thick post-frost mud that slowed you down in some places, offered grip in some and was slippy in others.
Race info on Pro Elites.

As for me, a strange combination of varying quality and sized ruts on the very first right-hander off the fireroad had me on my ass in a tree a mere 2 seconds into my run and in front of hundreds of riders and spectators. Taking it slowly through the first woods then nice and fast though the fireroad and flat wooded section. Unfortunately I crashed badly onto my head on one of the steeper sections and had to finish feeling very unwell. My second run had a less comical start but not altogether that much faster, brilliantly blasted through the fireroad/wood section but lost it into the rootier bit when a marshal's whistle made me jump and lose concentration. Stayed quite fast and smooth through the remainder, arms too tired to drop safely then the final outside line that Id been riding all day had collapsed and I was left slipping off the track with the finish in sight, a badly slipped pedal on my restart left me really annoyed with myself by the end but still a great days riding.
And as for my mates, Mark Readyhough got a respectable time on his first run then really went for it on his second and is hoping for a good place when the results are posed online. Tom Holland seemed to be having a good day even if a little too careful on that first section. Finally Rob on his GT hardtail had ambulance attention after trying the drop, losing control ploughing into a tree, luckily it had a mattress tied on and his escaped with only a bruised ego (there were lost of people crowded into this section watching too) and cool story.

Thanks to the Organisers and people at Pearce Cycles, Mr Readyhough for driving through 5-meter visibility pea-soup, the other riders who are without exception cool and laid back, god for a nice hill, the guy who snapped his crank off as i watched the drop and made shure I never even tryed it, the guy on the Brooklyn Machine Works (12" rear travel) for having something nice to look at and the burger man. C u all at the Super Series when it's warmer!

Results
... ... … when they're released.

By Mark Hemmings (contact)