Report
by:
Matthew Greensill
Pictures by: Simon
Slater Photography & Barbara
Sztyk
Both RRP Teams ready to
do battle - DH/Extreme Enduro & XC/24hr Teams
It was fantastic to hear that RapidRacerProducts
were sponsoring the Bordon Enduro, I knew it was a fantastic
chance to bring both disciplines together, RRP have a DH/Extreme
Enduro Team that do the nutts stuff, and a XC/24hr Team who
race cross country and 24 hour races, we have never raced at
the same venue before and we had no idea who would come out
on top.
Top DH/Extreme rider Aidan
Bishop contemplating his first ever 4 hour race
This
enduro was a 4 hour XC endurance race which I had heard a lot
of talk about, the course was billed as a technical course with
many twists and turns, full of superb singletrack and short
bursts up and down which suited me fine, you never had a second
to yourself as the course was so technical.
From the outset the event had a nice feel to it with the organisers
doing a great job, assisted by the additional help from mother
nature giving us a sunny clear autumn day. The big question
was, would the technical skills of the DH/Extreme riders be
enough to overhall the superior endurance fitness of the XC
riders on a technical course. At 10.30 the start was signalled
and I made a complete mess of my get away, both feet came un-clipped
but fortunately for me I managed to ride a wide line down the
start straight, team mate Aidan Bishop was my target and he
shot off miles in the lead and first into the first corner,
I eventually slotted in to the pack about 8th heading into the
first singletrack section.
Paul May (Gummy) and Stefan Gleed
From this point I began to make progress and thanks to a purposeful
"wide" line by my team mates Craig Bromley and Stefan
Gleed I was quickly up a couple of places and closing in on
eventual winner Tim Dunford, my team mate Aidan Bishop was stretching
away at the front from the off and I needed to real him in if
I was to have any chance of a good result. By the end of lap
1 Tim Dunford, Aidan Bishop and myself were all together as
we crossed the line to start lap 2, for the next lap and a half
we stayed together at a quick pace until Tim decided to push
ahead. He stormed up a couple of short sharp climbs and then
managed to drive away with a fast pace, this left me and Aidan
to try and stay in podium contention and keep the RRP flag flying!
The start of the team
battle, but who will prevail......
At approximately half distance Aidan and myself were given a
wake up call from Ant White who had been catching fast. I tried
to use Ant as a pace maker and managed to hang in his wake for
a short time before he forced onward and out of sight, this
fast pace however meant I had now finally crept away from Aidan
who was slipping into 4th.
Daz Corcoran - MALE Category
The remainder of the race was spent trying to use the fast pace
of the "fresh legged" 2 hour racers who set off 2
hours after the main categories, they were sithing through most
of the 4 hour riders so holding them in sight was a good strategy.
Their pace helped me stay ahead of the chasing Aidan Bishop
and allowed me to secure the podium in 3rd place. I was very
pleased with my performance and the team effort, we had some
respectable results:
Matt Greensill - 3rd place
podium MALE Category
Matt
Greensill 3rd MALE
Aidan Bishop 4th MALE
Craig Bromley 4th VETS
Barbara Sztyk 1st FEMAL FUN
Barbara Sztyk - 1st place FEMALE FUN
Big
thanks to Chris Denman and West
Drayton MBC for putting on such a fantastic event, there
was a great atmosphere and the course was superb.
Other
race pictures.....
Team boss Craig Bromley - early on before
exhaustion set in!
Paul and Alexis Mackie - MIXED TEAMS Category
