Here is a post from Sue.


Whaddon write up.

Sunday 10th July 7:00 a.m. in the morning! What a daft time to be sitting on the start line for a 12 hour hare & hounds. This was the event myself and the other three ladies of the first ever TBEC (Trail Bike Enduro Club) ladies only team had been working ourselves up to.

Team meeting Saturday after scrutinering it was decided that the first person out would have to either be the eldest member of the team, or the member of the team with the most experience, given that I meet both these criteria the task of being ready on the start line at 7 o’clock on a Sunday morning feel to me! Next time there’s a team meeting I’ll make sure I attend (assuming that is I’m told there’s going to be one!)

Okay, team line up. Bev on a DT125. This was her first event. Anne on a Serrow, also her first event. Amanda, on a WR250 who has competed in 3 events, but who was suffering with an elbow injury received whilst separating her two dogs! And myself, on a KDX 220 with 6 events under my belt, all in the past five months. Ages ranging from Bev, a young spritely mum type person, to myself who’s old enough to be a grandmother (and to know better!)

Sunday morning dawned extremely foggy, visibility almost from the caravan to the van! Right, no worries, if you can’t see it, it can’t hurt you? Rider briefing and the menfolk were told by the Clerk of the Course that they could use the full length mirror provided for the ladies team and also there would be manicures available after the event (ha, ha!). So anyway, there I am sitting astride my trusty stead thinking “what the hell am I doing here?”

And we’re off – the first part of the course was across the top field, wide open and fast moving across lush wet grass! Only problem here, looked down to check where to tip into 90 degree left hand bend, looked up to check entry point of next “gate” only to find I couldn’t see it (please refer to comment about fog) and having been one of the first out there were no tyre tracks in the grass! Sited the gate at the top of the field, right hand bend followed by a straight across bumpy bits! Across another field, with bumpy bits, and a little bit of boggy stuff. Back down the hill, turn right, back up the hill, loop round a rather sorry looking tree, then back down the hill again. Walking pace (blue taped area) along really hard baked ruts! Turn left and follow aforementioned ruts which I think were made of concrete? Turn right and up a very bumpy slope – and so on and so forth.! One extremely slippery wooden bridge to cross, made slippery by the mud from the quagmire that was just in front of it, and one dry wooden bridge a bit further on, somewhere between the two were a load more concreted in ruts. One boggy bit at the bottom of a motocross track, up onto same motocross track – the track was extremely dry and dusty which was probably a bit like desert riding, in fact if you got overtaken (which I did have quite a bit of experience of) you were riding in a sandstorm and couldn’t see more than two foot in front!, loop back off the track and up the hill to the pits!

Sadly, on her first lap Anne came a cropper when her front wheel slipped from underneath her. She spent an hour laid at the side of the track being tended by an ambulance crew who thought she’d broken her right elbow and collar bone and dislocated her shoulder. Now not that I should complain, but this lost us a total of two hours riding time due to the fact that we had to wait for the timing transponder to be brought back to the pits and the rules are that if a rider has to drop out for any reason they are not “swiped” in so their lap is lost, so in effect Anne’s lap was timed at two hours. If she didn’t want to ride, she only had to say! All joking aside we were all very relieved when later that day Anne returned from hospital with her arm in a sling having only dislocated her elbow – although still very painful!

The rest of us didn’t do too badly given our lack of experience! Bev being a complete novice who hasn’t even passed her motorbike (road) test and has only been green laning locally in Hertfordshire and has occasionally been a travelling marshal, did a very impressive nine laps averaging 25 minutes per lap. Amanda, being a fast lady who in the past considered riding for a ladies road racing team, did ten laps averaging 20 minutes per lap. And myself being a “vastly experienced” enduro racer also did ten laps averaging 20 minutes per lap. Okay, so most of the menfolk (and Fiona another lady rider who’s extremely fast!) were probably averaging 15 minute laps, but going slow does have it’s advantages. As I explained to one chap who commented that early on there was very little grip and he’d been sliding all over the place, “I thought there was plenty of grip, maybe you were trying to put too much power down?” Not sure he understood where I was coming from!

A good event and we all, apart from Anne, thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and are already planning next years event! Lots of comments at the end like, “I really must get my fitness levels up”.



Heres me looking like I know what im doing (almost)

On Annes return she tells Amanda it makes it so much easier to pat my head and rub my tummy at the same time.

The start. If you look carefully you can see the trees in the fog.

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In slow out fast