Jez goes racing in Thetford

15 Feb 1995

Race Writeups - Thetford Feb 95
This is a brief write-up of a Thetford race I did in 
February, whilst the road squad was doing somthing 
painful at Ely?

While some of you were being successfully energetic at 
Ely, Jez was falling off lots in Thetford Forest.

Mountain biker proves Einstein's Law of Relativity!
The more scientific of you may remember that Einstein 
showed that, as velocity increases mass also increases 
and lengths shorten. Sundays experiment provided 
crucial evidence to back you this proposition. The at rest 
length of each lap was supposedly 6.5 miles. The first lap 
was run at a silly heart rate (185+ bpm all the way 
around, I kid you not) and consequently the lap distance 
at these relativistic speeds shortened to a mere observed 
not very many miles. In the second lap, the velocity 
dropped to only sensible and the observed lap distance 
expanded to the expected 6.5 miles. The third lap I was 
in too much pain to care.

Having not ridden off road for far too long and having had 
slicks on that bike all month I discovered that I'd 
forgotten how to do corners, resulting in much stacking 
and hitting trees. I even, embarassingly, totally lost it on 
the third corner while practising. The course was a mix of 
fast flat dirt roads were my roadie training came to the 
fore as I romped past people, and narrow twisty forest 
single track where I said "ouch" as I frequently decked 
out. The course was wonderfull, it even had some of 
those "going-up-and-down-things", what're they called, 
oh yes I remeber, HILLS!

The start was a laugh, fifty maniacs all sprinting for a 
good line. This big bod in front of me had a pedal unclip, 
leading to him travelling an impressive distance on the 
front wheel, while leaning over the handlebars. It couldn't 
last, he decked right in front of the rest of us. Being kind, 
nice, gentle cyclists that we are, no-one rode over his 
head. Several people rode over his body. It was only 
then that I realised that the poor sod was a guy who I 
used to ride with at Bath. And he got 7th, despite having 
tyre tracks across his back. Anyway, we reminisced after 
the race about races and bruises both past and present. 
Small world, but I wouldn't like to paint it.

Out of ~40 finishers, I got 14th, which Im personnally 
chuffed with. My placing might not have been helped by 
the 30 miles I did to get there (I got the train back). It was 
a great day and an excellent race so all I can say is we'll 
have lots more next year.

Jez