Words: Alastair Keen
Photos: Dave Franciosy
Yes, it was a muddy one...!
If this were a cinema trailer it would read ‘In a small village in Kent a group of hardy mountain bikers battled wind, rain and mud to fight it out for 4X glory.’ However, more accurately, we spent a weekend sleeping in cars, hiding from the rain, slogging through mud, getting wet and trying not to slide about on our arses!
So Sunday saw round 2 of the British 4X series down at PORC in Kent and weather aside it was a really good one! Most had travelled down saturday but not many had braved camping with both me and Dave opting for kipping in the car!
The track hasn’t really changed over the years with the odd tweak here and there but generally consisting of a very short first straight jumping into a jump into a wideopen (boom!) left had corner with a couple of pump bumps on the inside and a tight exit straight into a right hand corner. Once you’ve navigated your way through here without colliding with other riders (or the floor if you’re trying an inside move) you’ve got a lot of pedaling to pick up speed along the longest, fastest straights in the business. This consists of a small double that had to be pedaled over in the mud, a wooden bridge (that you can jump in the dry) landing down a long steep bank that throws you into a small table that required some squashing followed by a long triple and a double. You’re flying down here and at the ends a big tight 180 berm that was pretty squirly in the mud and an even tighter inside berm that resulted in some die hard passing attempts a lot of which ended up in a heap on the floor. From here down it was 4 corners linked with the remains of some straights that had just turned to a quagmire which were manageable on the racing line but either side it was just goo!
Practice started pretty much on time but no one was really too hyped on riding so apart from the younger guys the first hour was fairly quiet. Having missed saturday I got on the go fairly quickly and first run down with normal tyres on I was more a passenger than a rider! Out came the Conti Baron Tyres and 2nd run I found some grip, with massive ruts in the mud it was still pretty hard to go in the right direction at times but the more people riding the better it got! I’d like to say who was looking quick at this point but most people were either brown or in waterproof gear so it wasnt too easy to tell who was who at speed!
At the end of practice there was an announcement that the compressor had broken that runs the gate so there would be a break while they went to buy one and racing would start at 1. This gave some time to clean bikes, get food and dry off a bit.
Next announcment went slightly differently, they were unable to get a new compressor and would be using a manual release with a random drop. At first everyone was a bit doubtful of this, but as we went through the day it definitely evened things up and made for even better racing!
The weather brightened up!
Race time came around, the weather brightened up and right from the start it was pretty action packed! With the combination of totally random gate and track conditions the corners were getting a lot of action…
First up were the Big Fun cats and they may be having fun but there’s some pretty talented riders in there who’ll be hitting the main categories pretty soon! In big fun Ash Brown on his new Nuke Proof was storming all day either leading from the front or coming from behind! Unfortunately while in second in his semi, he had a collision with a track marking post just feet from the finish leaving him out for the count and in a pretty bad state. This left Mr commentator Andrew Cooper of Redneck racing with a clear run in the final to take the win! Props to Joe Wells who was sitting at the back of the final so decided to throw a no foot can mid run for the crowd, lucky the man from BC wasn’t looking!
The seniors category is always one of the biggest and with some of these boys plenty fast enough to be in the elite field and the rest wanting to prove them selves it makes for exciting racing! Dave Richardson and Dave Roberts were the boys to beat here and they were making the others work for it! Massive well done to Matt Hillyard in 3rd, he spent a lot of last year out with a broken wrist and the year before was only a novice so he’s come a long was in a short time!
In the semi-old mans category Gareth Parr was really giving it some boost and every time I saw him he was in the lead with a massive grin on his face! Fox Willis of P Yates Cycles was loving the conditions and taking full advantage of his dh background getting 2nd in what could be his first 4x race?
Juniors are young quick and bounce more than us old boys so there was a lot of first corner action here and the dh boys from Pearce Cycles were getting stuck in to the challenging conditions with Zac Emmett taking 2nd ahead of Joe Mallison of 44 Racing. Jordon Lunn of Identiti has dominated this year though, after proclaiming he was done with 4x on Facebook just before round 1 I bet the others were wishing he had stuck with that!
The Wideopen boys discussing tactics
Now on to the big category of the day, the Elites!
First up the ladies and with 4 experienced world cup 4x riders, most of whom have been having a go at dh, and a freshly converted dh master battling it out this was a close one! Joey Gough took the win with the bmx edge on the gate and seeming to have a bit more power on the long straight. Emily Horridge was rocking a cut dh spike up front and a trusty Conti Mountain King on the back so was planning on making some moves and move she did putting her dh experience to use on the loose insides and really battling with Joey all the way down in the final swapping the lead between them all over the place! Suzanne Lacy was right on their arses all the way down with Cara Murray trailing after losing pace in the first corner scuffle, Jess Greaves rounded out the podium taking the B final win by a country mile.
Now the big guns (and me), the men’s elite field! With 11 seasoned elites, 3 fresh fast kids and 4 of last years top seniors it was a pretty stacked category and everyone was hungry for the win. The random gate and tight first corner really had its biggest effect here causing some real surprise results and showing a bit of cunning goes a long way! As usual the 4 main men to watch were going to be Scott Beaumont, Scott Roberts, Lewis Lacy and Nate Parsons, but they weren’t getting it all their own way with Nate going out in quarters and all of them fighting for the lead through the day. Young guns Alex Metcalf and Isaac Mundy were killing it all day taking it to the big boys every chance they got! The Slam 69 boys were having totally different days, National champ Limbo couldn’t catch a break all day with 2 crashes whereas Rich lane was giving it all he had to take 6th overall. Last years senior star Tom Gethin retired early after an over zesty blocking move left him no where to go but off course and into a big crash. Finally for the star of the day, me haha! After injury put me out of round 1 this was my first elite race and damn was it hard! Moto 1 I did a great job of following the others down the track, Moto 2 went a bit better however. I got drawn against 3 of the quickest boys going, Beaumont, Roberts and the ever creative Duncan Ferris and being in gate 4 I wasn’t holding out much hope, the gate dropped and they went, knowing full well I couldn’t keep up on speed I decided try going round the back of them and diving down the very inside of the first corner and it worked, the Scotts came out in the lead side by side but I was right next to them and was slightly stunned but they pulled away as soon as the pedals started turning leaving me trailing and Duncan breathing down my neck. The entire main straight I was doing my best to sit in the middle of the racing line waiting for the pass but it didn’t come untill the big 180 corner, I went outside and Duncan dived round the inside berm getting a massive lead but was carrying a bit too much speed for the chewed up berm and washed out on the exit!
Final Moto was a good one, I got drawn with Mark Milward and my old senior rival Luke ‘limbo’ Limbrick. I was in gate 1 Mark in 2 and limbo in 3, the gate dropped and I edged a few inches on the others and moved over on them to set me up better for the corner, little known to me at this point the other came together and went down, coming out of the first corner I was pedalling my ass off to hear the shouts from the crowd “keeny what the hell are you doing” I look back and the others were no where to be seen, I was grinning and playing on the jumps the entire way down to my first Elite Moto win! Stoked! Quarters were next and I had a hard one, Will Evans, Mundy and Milward again, I was in gate 3 and as soon as it dropped I gave it every little bit I had and was leading down to the corner but not enough to get an advantage and Will and Isaac were just too close so too late I tried swinging wide and getting round them but too little too late and I got stalled on Wills back wheel, despite my best efforts to catchup i’d lost too much ground and came 4th.
Back to the action and the main final, Beaumont led from the off with Roberts hot on his heels, Isaac was holding 3rd with Lacey trying desperately to get by but Mundy was blocking him left right and centre, and that’s how it finished.
All in all some of the best racing I’ve seen and big props to Chris Roberts and his team for making the most of terrible conditions to put on an awesome race!
Big thanks to our sponsors, particularly this weekend Continental for keeping me upright and Fox for all the kit that kept us dry and clean!
