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Report: Soggy Bottom Round Four

Posted: 15th March 2010 | Words & Pictures: Joolze Dymond

Event: 14th March 2010, Newnham Park, Devon

Full report from the 2010 Soggy Bottom Series' swansong

It's certainly been a captivating series with more ups and downs than a two humped camel and more water, seemingly, than a punt round Venice. Welcome to Soggy Bottom, the cross-country race series that has more than lived up to its name!

The Course

The weekend saw the culmination of the four-round series and as usual there was everything to play for, with many of the categories still wide open. Compared with the previous round, when the rain gods mischievously joined forces with some deceptive river crossings to provide one of the toughest courses that Soggies have seen, Round Four was almost like a stroll in the park.

Round Four proved to be a cheeky little number with sweet singletrack strung effortlessly around the valleys sides. The river looked unusually low. Two of the infamous river crossings were put in just for good measure and of course a sting in the tail was included with a punishing climb popped in midway for good measure.

Race One

Race one got under way promptly at 10am with the Grand Vets providing the ‘hares' to the youthful ‘greyhounds' that sprinted behind, with finally those all-important fun riders bringing up the rear. Garrett Hill started as he usually did, fast and furious, hoping to gap his rivals as quickly as possible.

Flickr Photostream by Joolze Dymond

Even on the opening section to the first river crossing Garrett had galloped away leaving his competitors choking in his dust as he hoped to scoop his third win to take the series title. However mountain biking, as we know, can be a very fickle mistress and over the four rounds each of the main Grand vet competitors has suffered from some kind of mechanical or fall to hamper their progress. Today it was Hill's turn. A double puncture saw him drop from first to an uncharacteristic fifth, leaving a delighted Steve Whitehouse to take the race win and with it the series win, with just a handful of points separating the top three. In the Youth race, Ed Walsh knew this course would play to his strengths with fast straights and one big climb. His first thoughts were to follow arch rival Bow Jango Cann's wheel and play a game of cat and mouse. However Cann's heavy social session the previous evening left him in no mood for a fight and Walsh quickly turned up the heat picking off the grand vets ahead to take both the race and series win. Cann was content to have some playtime on the bomb holes racking up a creditable second place along the way while taking some impressive air!

Juvenile, Ciaran Barker took a third win to underline his dominance of the series, taking a clean sweep of points. In a massive field of well over 30 fun riders it was Paul Broom who took the honours over the two-lap race leaving yet another Cann family member to pick up a second, this time it was Capability Jack, just holding off the advances of tandem pairing Jordon West and Kai Hansen, to secure his silver podium position, while Natalie Newton proved to be the fastest fun woman coming home, with a cushion of just under four mins to claim the win.

Midway through race one, the innocuous looking river crossings suddenly took on a more sinister turn. During the opening laps riders happily splashed through a trickle of cold but gentle water, by the final lap they were faced with an almost raging torrent that took more than a few riders by surprise, as the sluice gates of the near by quarry were opened! This unfortunate incident meant that for race two, the second water crossing was now out of bounds and the course rerouted to take the riders to the safer option- a bridge further down the course. This in turn made the circuit a wee bit shorter and a whole lot faster!

Race Two

First up to experience the modified course were the expert women headed by Maddie Horton, ever eager to keep arch rival Allie Holland as far away as possible. After her defeat to Holland in the opening round Horton has been on a mission to ensure that would never happen again and so far so good. Starting off fast Horton knew she was in for a tough ride as the dry, fast conditions suited Holland. However Holland never seems to have the best of luck and today was no different with a ride into a ditch coming early leaving her on the back foot. Meanwhile into this heady mix was a new face, that of XCRacer rider Mel Alexander, who did her best to close in on Holland. Horton by now had disappeared up the road, romping away with the race win, also securing the overall series win too. Holland managed to keep Alexander at bay to take second eventually.

Another new face in the expert women's race was Jane Cumming. This fast lady has been racing in the vets category for the series but decided that with three wins to her name that she'd like to up the ante and get mixed in with the younger girls for a real challenge. Moving from three laps up to five made no difference to Cumming who in fact has been adding extra laps onto her own races over the series. She finally finished just off the podium in fourth.

While Cumming's had sown up the overall Vet's series title, her decision to ride Expert for the final round left the door wide open for a new race winner and that honour went to Sarah Jones, with Sam Cann, taking home the Cann families third runners-up spot of the day.

All series a seething battle has been unfolding in the expert men's race with youngster Luke Eggar regularly getting his own way with three wins out of three, leaving rival Russell Turner thwarted in his efforts to usurp the young pretender. Today however was to be Turner's day, with each piece of the jigsaw finally falling into place. Eggar's policy of not bothering to warm up prior to a race certainly was his undoing on this incredibly fast circuit. As the whistle blew Turner was sprinting for the river crossing leaving Eggar following in his wake. The fast opening gambit by Turner certainly paid dividends as Eggar, try as he might, just couldn't get back on terms with the fast moving Certini rider. After six laps Turner finally got the coveted win, bolstering his confidence ready for the opening round of the national XC series. Eggar meanwhile was disappointed with his performance on the day but took the overall series win.

In the ultra competitive Vets race less than 60 seconds separated the top four riders and the series title was wide open with both Gary Andrews and Pete Dawe, each having a win and a second place to his name. Today's outcome was make or break! Lap 1 saw Dawe, Andrews and Simon Young come through neck-and-neck. By lap two Dawe had opened a slim margin over Andrews and continued over the remaining two laps to eke out a few more seconds to finally take the win and the series title with just 38 seconds advantage. Andrews narrowly held off teammate Young to take second place with Gerald Myles just seconds away from squeezing Young into fourth.

The men's masters race was just as frenetic as the veterans, with a few new faces to add to the mix to make proceedings even more interesting. Out in front from lap one where he likes to be was Phil Morris with a blistering opening lap of 13 minutes 37 seconds, quickly opening up a comfortable advantage from the word go. Close behind on lap one were Graham Sheldon and Ollie Taylor, but these opening efforts soon became overwhelmed by Mark Spratt and an injured Jay Horton. Despite ripping a tendon from his shoulder earlier in the week and facing nearly three months off his bike due to surgery, Horton wanted one last race...

Meanwhile out in front and definitely not easing off the gas, Morris quickly moved away from his rivals to take his third win and the series with it. Fellow Welshman Spratt took second with Horton just seconds behind in third just 10 seconds ahead of Taylor.

In a closely fought Master women's race Emily Curtain just headed off Liz Perry to claim her second win of the series, however Emma Sargent, finishing in third, had done more than enough to round up the series title.

Youngster Harry Smith has been dominating the sport category over the series. With three wins under his belt his claim on the series title was firmly underlined and today he wanted to make a clean sweep and make it four in a row. However a mechanical on the second lap with an unshipped chain saw a whole load of riders surge past as Smith struggled to fix the problem. With the chain sorted he then threw himself into the task of regaining the front, but the damage had been done and he found himself in an unusual third spot with newcomer Mathew Jones, trying out his racing legs for the first time this year ready for the National series taking the win.

Fran Bullock was the only lady in sport to have consistently ridden the whole series and despite an influx of new faces at each round she has always emerged victorious. Today was yet another good day in the office as she went on to claim win number four and underline her dominance of the series.

The last part of the series to be determined was the Battle of the Borders, with riders from Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Wales all fighting for a bite of cake. In the end it was Devon who once again dominated and went on to show their cake eating training had been put to good use as the cake was scoffed in record time!

Thanks to Martyn and the hardworking crew who provided an exciting range of races that pushed and pulled riders above and beyond their comfort zone all in the name of XC fun.

Newnham Park gets a bit of a breather now, but if you want to get a lot more XC action in the South West check out the Fully Sussed Race series starting early April - details here: www.fullysussed.co.uk

Rider Comments:

Harry Smith - Sport

"I got a mechanical on the second lap, my chain fell off just after the bridge and this massive load of people went past me and I was a bit confused as to which categories they were all in, so I chased them down and I know I overtook someone in sport, but I didn't know who else was there so just kept riding but didn't know where I was until I finished. When I heard him say "third", I was like oh, that's a bit strange. I was looking for the win as I really wanted to take all four rounds but you know. I don't recognise the guy that won, I think he came over from Wales. It's been a good series, even though I got hit by a car after round two, which knocked me about a bit but I came back to the third round and won it and that helped pick me up, so I did pretty well considering! This is the first time I've won any kind of series, so I'm quite chuffed. Now I'm looking forwards to taking on the National series. I move up to the junior category and I've been told it's gonna be hard there and that there are some pretty fast guys, so I'm not really looking forward to it, but it'll be a challenge!"

Pete Dawe - Vet

"Very good series, what can I say, it all went according to plan, I just dropped one round. I had some fierce competition today from Gary (Andrews) and Simon (Young) but I managed to shake them off on the concrete climb, let's hope I can carry it through to the BMBS. Each round has been so different, the last round was very nearly horrendous, but to be honest I really enjoyed it, it's all part of mountain biking, but that round was hard work with a lot of running. Ending the series on a day like this is excellent, another enjoyable race. Hopefully I can carry this form on now to Sherwood where I know it'll be fast and furious, but a lot flatter!"

Russell Turner - Expert

"I'm definitely coming into form now, which is how I kind of planned it. The national series starts soon so looking forward to them - that was always going to be my main aim; I'm hoping I'll be there in the top five. I'm so pleased that I finally got a win here and it's something I can take forward now, I'm so happy that its finally gone my way! Despite the ever-changing conditions and course throughout the series I now I've remained fairly consistent, gradually getting a bit faster each round but today was brilliant. Great turn out and fantastic course!"

Matthew Jones - Sport

"I was pleased with that today, nice and dry and pretty fast, not bad for my first race of the year, really pleased to come away with the win. It's only two weeks now to the first National so I thought it would be good to get a race under my belt. Harry (Smith was in front of me until the top of the last climb, so it was a close race. I could see him in front of me all the way round and I managed to get him on the last lap."

Maddie Horton - Expert

"Yeah I thought riding Allie (Holland) into a ditch to start with was probably a safe bet, she didn't mind! Today I was a little bit nervous, it was dry like the first round and Allie rides really well in the dry. I knew in the last round that she hated the mud so I took advantage but today I was wondering what she was going to pull out the bag. The plan was once again go out fast and see where I was with it, with Mel (Alexander) being here as well was a good test for Sherwood. I wanted to beat Allie and go away feeling confident about Sherwood and that's what I've done so I'm happy. Yeah so got the three wins, the series and the cake too! What more could a girl want!"

Luke Eggar - Expert

"I'm pleased to have got the series, disappointed with how today went but I knew he (Russell Turner) was going to have me eventually! I got a bad start and couldn't get back to Russell. Normally we'd be on each other's tails all race but I just couldn't get to him and I lost all motivation. I never really get a good start as I don't warm up before hand and the first five mins of a race is so quick my legs struggle to get into rhythm. It's my own fault. I felt strong on the last lap so that was a good aspect of the race for me. Looking forward to Sherwood now that should be good."

Phil Morris - Master

"It was fast out there today the race was over in under an hour, which was good as it was very intense. The XC season starts properly now in the next couple of weeks and I'm feeling good, in fact I could have done a couple more laps at that sort of pace today. I did my usual start of taking off really fast and managed to get a gap pretty much straight away, which is always quite nice as you can ease off a little. It's a shame that Jay (Horton) was injured coming into the race otherwise we would have certainly have had another good battle out there as it was so dry. But that's the way it goes and I'm really chuffed to get the win and hopefully my season will continue he same sort of way. It's been an excellent series, I always love racing here it's my favourite racing location; if there's a race here I'll always be here."

Steve Whitehouse - Grand Vet

"That was a cracking race today, Garrett (Hill) was in the thick of the action as per usual, but then he punctured so that gave me the chance to push on and just managed to hang on. Throughout the series we've all been pretty close but we've all suffered our fair share of mechanicals and falls, so today was my day for a trouble free race! I think I might have just nicked the overall title too, I'm not too sure but I think I've just done enough! It has been a brilliant series, fantastically varied courses and some brilliant competition, its always been close between Colin, David, Garrett and myself, we all suffered mechanicals along the way so the series could have gone any way in the end, I think if it has gone my way I was just lucky enough to have benefitted."

Ed Walsh - Youth

"It was much less hillier than we have had here, there was one nasty climb in the middle but overall it was so much faster, it suited my sort of riding style. I could get the power down on the flat stuff and in the end managed to get enough of a lead to take the win pretty comfortably. It was pretty close for the overall with Bow, if he'd have won today he could have got the series, it was that close. I had planned to follow Bow until the last lap where I was going to pull past him, as I know my endurance is much better. However he slowed right down on the first lap so I just cruised past him and carried on going. I caught all the Grand Vets and rode away from them, there was one who tried to stay with me but I just pushed on to get away."