Chicken Skin Handbags
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Enduro 6, Trentham GardensThis is definitely a recommended event for all budding riders out there, one to keep on the calendar. Really it’s a mini Sleepless in the Saddle, a great warm up for the year ahead. The weekend started well. The team arrived on Saturday and found a nice little pitch in the middle of the camp. Pete took up the opportunity of entering the race on the Saturday afternoon. A little taster of things to come. He finished the race in a good 16th position. The rest of the day and night was spent relaxing around the BBQ. For this event the camp consisted of the usual crowd, Janet (head chef), Rach, Sam and Dennis (main sponsor). However, Duncan’s second appearance with the team brought some extra appreciated support in the form of Alex and Rach. The team just gets bigger and better. Sunday morning was a misty one. Mick arrived at around 7am to wake the rest of the camp. The teams were complete. Mick and Duncan would fly the Chicken Skin Handbags flag on one side of the pits whilst Dave and Pete would be on the other. Before the boys knew it they were lining up on the start line ready to run the Enduro6 gauntlet. The rules were well set out and really quite simple. Each team was allocated a pit area. The pit area was closed so no-one could enter or leave whilst the race was taking place. All tools, food and drink had to be in the pit during the race, no outside assistance was allowed. So whilst one rider was on the course the other had to wait in the pit. Pete and Mick had been nominated to do the first lap. This included a short run of about 500 metres (unlucky). The gun sounded and all 300 or so runners tried to run at the same time. Of course this pitted out to a little scuttle until there were a few gaps between people. Then followed some major congestion just round the first corner, where the course narrowed. All in all not the best run anyone could want. It was more of a mini gallop really. Pete came in first and set off on the bike. Mick was a couple of minutes behind. The first lap was very frustrating. Too many people and not enough room to pass by them. The course was very demanding and some great technical single track. Of course on the flip side of the coin if you want to go downhill you have to firstly go up hill. So the organisers built in two really tough climbs to destroy everyone. After an hour and a half Dave and Dunc had completed their first laps with big grins on their faces. Everything was going smoothly. That is until Pete’s second lap. He rolled up into the pits with a nice 6inch graze across his chest. Apparently in the technical rooty section he went head over heels and landed on a tree stump. Not a pleasant experience. After a lengthy consultation with the first aid team he was advised to not carry on. Feeling a bit short of breath he went to the hospital for a check up. Thankfully everything was OK. So this left Dave to complete the race on his own. He dug in and managed another 4 laps on top of the 3 already completed. A valiant effort to finish in the top 80 teams. Mick and Duncan had an uneventful race in comparison. Everything continued to go smoothly through out the race. Both finished completing 4 laps each and ending up in the top half of the field. 47th was an excellent result. Click here to see the total listing (03-05-2004) |
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