Flowtastic at the Races

August is usually a busy month for Antony and I with our two biggest team races of the year, the Brighton Big Dog and the Torq 12-12.

Brighton Big Dog
The weather held out and although the rooty course was a bit slippy for the first coupla laps it soon dried out. I think that even though the course was considerably shorter this year it was one of my most memorable events with every one of us pulling out their fingers in one way or another (Mikes moment of glory, disputing his and Marks lap times with the judges and jumping from 48th to 27th). Always a good vibe at the Big Dog but I felt that we as a team/group of mates all had a good time too.

Torq 12-12
So we entered for the 4th consecutive year in the 12hr 4 man team category although this year the Vets category wasn't available (previous winners in the unsponsored division of this cat), so we had to go in the open cat and race against silly quick 20 year olds, not that it really mattered as we were never gonna win a podium in any category apart from maybe the have-a-go-shoulda-known-better cat! With Ray on sabbatical we filled his place with Tony B, brave move on his behalf as he's only recently recovered from a near appendix detonation and hasn't raced XC for a couple of years And was on a borrowed bike.....albeit a carbon fibre Intense Spider.

Antony was wing Commander as usual, with me his Flo Bro providing a kettle and T bags, Tread brought his little boy Henry along as well, think he enjoyed seeing his Dad racing, I know my son loved it the year before. Also from the "Dorking Cock's", Nick was in a 4 man team for Norwood Paragon (his other friends) and Kiwi Mike entered in the 6 hr Solo's with Becky and dogs as support crew. Every year we do this event we rave about how good the course is.

As an 8 mile loop it has very little climbing but lots and lots of very very fast, constant hammer down, undulating, narrow single track in soft loam and in this years case, extremely dusty soil, no rocks, lots of roots and serious fun. As a comparison with last weekends Big Dog Race we were lapping that course in low-mid 30mins over 5miles at the Torq and 8miler in low-mid 40mins, warp speed at times and more Flow than we're used to.