Friday night racing - Northampton

Hi Guys and Girls,

Anyone fancy one of the last 3 rounds of the Friday Night Summer Series - this Friday is at Delpre Abbey in Northampton (one of the closest rounds except the MK Bowl).

'Mainly a grass park with wooded sections' racing for about an hour = 4-5 laps?? £8 to enter £1 for your number.

Here are the directions.

http://fnss2006.multiply.com/reviews

http://www.multimap.com/maps/#t=l&map=52.22556,-0.88961|15|4&loc=GB:52.22556:-0.88961:16|NN4%208AW|NN4%208AW

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not for me Fizz , but thanks for the heads up...

I'm interested. What time does the fun start?

Wow, I finish work about half a mile from there at 6pm on Friday night. If I can get the bike ready tonight I might well give that a go.

Steve

Right for those others of you who are curious apparently it all starts at 7:15pm. Probably aim to get there for 7ish :S (never done one of these before). If anyone else is looking for a ride there or a ride share (no point in taking an extra car if you can avoid it) from the Milton Keynes area let me know! Who else is going?

I'm going! Can literally roll there from work in 5mins, so it would be rude not to!

Steve

oo oo
I don't know whether to go or not
I've never been to something like this, maybe a bit green.
But I can go, is it worth me going ?
Could car share from MK

Of course it's worth it.

Suggest you give yourselves a little longer than 15 minutes to prep up though.

You best turn up for 6:30pm, register your details and have a look round the course. Kickoff is normally 7:15pm. You'll then ride for 45mins plus one lap... so everyone will ride for around 1 hour

See you all there then - the more the merrier!

Pinky, definately try it out - its one of the more friendly, easy going type of events.. though there will be some fast ones that will want to get past, you just have to keep going at your own best pace for a hour.

F-mo

Thanks for making the suggestion to go to the race last night Fizz. The race was good fun, tho it was a tad demoralizing when you came flying past smiling :S. I barely made it there in time going straight from work :S. Next time I'll have to sneak out early! Thoroughly recommend going to one of these races to anybody else.

Well done guys - glad you enjoyed it!

Some super slippy roots, but your local knowledge did you well. it was a bit like riding a less steep 'rollercoaster' through the woods even with it's own tabletop jump and little kicks, and then a long drag across open fields back to the start.

The results are up if you want a look at the lap times,
http://fnss2006.multiply.com/journal/item/122/Round_8_-_Delapre_Abbey_-_Results_

Super fast Rich was 8th,
Steve 32nd
Aran 40th.

SteveT - areyou alright? saw you crashed out on the side of the trail by a big stump.. what happened?


Apparently there were a few incidents where people had swaped signs around - here are a few comments about the race from the site.


replywilllard wrote today at 7:56 AM
Personally, I think that the social degeneration of Northampton due to loss of its primary industry and the resultant rise in mis-guided youths who find amusement in pointing arrows the wrong way is not entirely the organisers fault. I thought the course was fantastic and it is truly a revelation to me how slippy wet tree roots can get. My race was marred by falling backwards off my bike going through the ditch and crushing my ‘low hanging fruit’ against the saddle leaving me in true disbelief that so much pain could come from so little blood loss. On the plus side, as I spent 4 minutes writhing in agony at the track side, I found a nice golf ball and I got to see a few more veterans than normal. Many thanks to the organisers and especially the marshals and spectators with their encouraging words.

replypearcey wrote today at 9:09 AM
I must echo the sentiments of virtually everyone here. The course was great and I had my most enjoyable race of the season so far.
So, Treads - keep this circuit going and ignore any criticism...

Cheers
Mark (324)

Wow. What great fun that was!

Thanks for letting us know that one was on.

32nd out of 50 is ok. Would have been nice to have been in the top half tho. Is it just me or was the there some seriously good competition there?

Only finished 2 mins behind you Fizz, so pretty pleased with that. Oh, and still smiling from my overtake over that big log My theory was - if I cant be faster/fitter, then I've gotta be braver!

There were a lot of roadies there with a very high level of fitness, but slightly less impressive bike skills through the twisty slippery, and downhill stuff, so if you could keep pace with them through the hills, it was possible to get 'em on the way down!

Had no problems with course markings, except from when one was loose and became attached to my bike. After the practice lap it was pretty easy to find your way around even without markings.

Gotta say a big to the guy (from a certain 'cheesy' sounding road club) on the practice lap, who after taking a wrong turn going up the main hill, rode right through and destroyed the tape, so he could get back on the course. He could have just ducked under it

Hopefully next time I'll be able to get the good Cyclone name a little higher on the results table!