B12

Down to bristol on friday evening. The plane was relatively painless, and we were kindly delivered to chez mel and shaggy by mel's dad. After a feed of curry courtesy of the legendary mel cooking skillz, we had a few beers, some good chat and some hearty laughs. Phil and gareth jones were there and tymo was manning the tent area at the race venue - ashton court.

After 4 hours sleep we hit the ground running and packed the beasts of burden whilst sipping espresso in the warmth of the morning sun. Ace.

By the time we hit the venue, the race was pretty close to starting. After a quick strawberry fruli, Tymo kicked off and with short laps of 30 mins, we were scheduling doubles. We waited for tymo to come round but after the field sped through with no sign of him, we realised something was up. Turns out that due to clipping the scaffolding structure of the fly-over bridge, tymos finger consisted of several more bones than was strictly required...damn! i rushed to get ready and headed out as the unfortunate tym was taken to hospital to be put back together. Needless to say, the course rocked. Roots, swoops, rocks, short power climbs and sweeping loose corners. All good: the pink beast came into its...there's something about 50mm of offset...



Handing over to phil, gareth then shaggy, we battered around the course for the first 9 laps, and the heat began to rise. The huge cooler was put to work, and a constant supply of frosty beverages kept us working hard. Mel tended the bbq and friends visited, matt carr and ian leitch ripped around in the solo cat and heckles were in full effect. All good.





6 hours in: having lost a lap due to tyms injury and shaggy snapping a skewer, we felt that we probably needed to decrease the pressure slightly. The pugsley was drafted into service, and we enjoyed a few chilled laps before the end of the race. With the focus on the Bbq, beer, friends, laughs and chat, we were stoked to hear emily and team mate made the podium, and freaked out when we heard we had too! 3rd in the singlespeed team class...

The celebrations continued into the wee hours and when we finally awoke the sun continued to beat down. We watched the 6 hour race kick off and enjoyed the last of the meat and beer. The world can be so good sometimes.



Extra double meaty thanks to mel and shaggy, and the team, with gareth stepping in to tyms not insignificantly well shod and speedy shoes.