Bright’on Big Dog
Well it has been dubbed the best event of the year! It sells out months before; the Solo places are as rare as issue One of The Ride Journal! Yes that’s right Brighton Big Dog.
I play a small part in the organisation but what I really want to do at 12 oclock is race and enjoy one of the best technical race courses on the MTB enduro circuit.
The morning of the race has come and all I have to think about is getting the XC pro in the car and over to Stanmer to help with the final few bits before the race starts. I make a call and all seems to be organised and running smooth.
I’m racing as a 3, Mens Team Category Phil the Horse, Lea and me. The Category Morvelo won in 2009 which helped us get noticed by Upgrade Bikes and a stepping stone to the Kinesis Morvelo Project.
The race started well and Phil put in a solid start, putting us at the business end of the race 2mins faster than 2nd place. This is where we stayed, after a full rotation the lead grew to 9minutes.
The team was in good spirits and for once I’m not wearing a watch and wasn’t paying to much attention to timings. I didn’t properly check time laps till we had completed 6laps, KMP 18mins in front. A surprise as I’d binned it on my second lap and lea’s racebike* was an unknown and literally built the night before. Also Phil is the first to admit hasn’t been on the bike as much as normal.
*lea’s KM810 was locked in Dom’s Shed as we have been testing the Maxlight29 we know 29 is good on the Stanmer course – fast, techy and loads of Roots. We turned it in to a 22lb race machine, I know the course very well and there are quite a few places that a 29r will let you sit and pedal where it just isn’t possible on a 26, I’m sure 30-40 seconds a lap quicker!! So would have been cool to do a comparison but it wasn’t the place to change bits to make it fit me each lap. I’ll be patient but not too patient I hope DOM!
We are flying! My first lap was smooth and fast, it turns out fastest in the our category, the second a bit more eventful as I mentioned I crashed, locking the front and washing out as I caught some slower riders. I then had to follow the same riders up a techy singletrack climb but for the rest of the lap I calmed down and made sure no more mistakes.
One more rotation to go with an ever extending lead around 20 minutes but the unsaid is going through everyone mind “puncture” or in my case “chain break”. So head down and keep it smooth no need to thrash it.
The XCpro3 works very well on this course, the big dog course is a 50/50 course. 50% skill and 50% fitness. Proved on my first lap, as I tore in to a couple of strong young lads and comfortably left them, then when the climbs came they got back on my wheel only for me to leave them again on the final technical sections. XCpro3 compliments this techy course and was my bike of choice on the day. The KM810 is 9 speed and set up for flat fast courses where as the XCpro has a full compliment of gears, and Stanmer cries out for the big ring on the fire roads and through the fast singletrack.
A very memorable event and as its very local to me its great to have the support of Friends and Family, amazing to have my lovely Lady Gemma and my kiddies at the race, long may it continue and keep the sun shining on the Big Dog – woof.
We finished the race 24 minutes up on 2nd and enjoyed every moment of it, could possibly be the best BBD to date. The party was great to, a Brighton Pub till the early hours with a bunch of bike geeks can’t be bad.
Big thanks to David at Clif for the Nutrition and a selection of new Clif Gels, the electrolite bloks kept the cramps away.
ZeroRH photocromatic glasses perfect for going from the sun to dark woody sections these worked so well.
Kask Helmets just fit great and look cool to.
FrazerKMP
