Harry Molloy: Chicksands 4X race November 2007

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Chicksands 4X race November 2007

I arrived on Saturday for some much needed practise having been on a downhill bike for the year. I was looking forward to trying my hard tail (a Spooky Bandwagon; bit retro but it served me well since the beggining). I treated my self to some new forks that I brought of a friend and put some light-weight high rollers on it for the weekend.

In Saturdays practise I was disappointed as I struggled to clear the triple. However I found out that many people were having the same problem and my tyre choice was maybe not the right one. After a few alterations I made it clean each time. I thought about giving the inside line into the triple and seeing Oggy clear it with ease made me go and give it a go. I tried a little too early, I came up short blowing my mech and taking a spoke out of my wheel. It was going to be dark soon so I rushed to the top to do some repairs. Dad sorted the wheel and I sorted the mech and chain. We put a slick tyre on the rear to help with getting the speed up. I went basically in the dark to roll down and check everything worked well. It was a lot faster with the slick tyre and all felt good.

Sunday came and I was keen to carry on where I left off Saturday. I tried all kinds of things in practise and managed to get the triple dialled from both lines. I was looking forward to racing!

My first moto I was beaten and came 2nd place. This wasn't the best and made me push hard at the next 2 motos more and I got 2 wins. This put me into the semi finals.

I was beaten out of the gate and in 2nd place. I kept close and saw him go for the outside line so this is where my practise of doing the triple from the inside was about to pay off. I took the inside and launched over the jump now in the lead. I almost knew that I was going to win...medics were around me and I hurt quite a lot. when I landed the triple my bike snapped in half and I went into the ground at some speed from quite a height. No result for me anymore! I hit my head quite hard and my arms are bruised and scraped but luckily nothing too bad.

Here are some pictures;