Trail Quest Round 2
| Bikedock Belles Trail Quest Round 2 | |
| Bikedock Belles: Trailquest Round 2 15 November 2009 Report by Andrea Having made a strong start to the Trailquest series last week, Bikedock Belles were out to keep the wheels turning (?! – and they nearly did!) in the 2nd of Dromara CC's events, which this time was headquartered at Daft Eddies, Whiterock. Once again the club put on a superb event, appealing to club cyclists, social cyclists and families alike – and they even provided fabulous weather for the second week in a row, showcasing the stunning beauty of the Down/Strangford. To top it all off, even the toilets in HQ were named after us! Our pre-race preparations were much more rigorous than they had been last week – and Julie even had time to paint her nails – but needless to say there was the usual pfaffing about with pedals and saddles beforehand. In retrospect we should have put a sofa saddle on Julie's bike instead of a road racing saddle – more on that later! Anyway, a quick glance at the map at our start time and it was clear that this was a very spread out course – and the decision was swiftly taken to head south from HQ, forget the west, and then head back up to north of HQ where we would assess our remaining time and therefore target the checkpoints to go for. Early into the course, we stumbled across a 2-man Dromara team studying the map and duly overtook them. They must have had faith in our female intuition and proceeded to follow us! In the name of staying ahead, we cycled two abreast on the narrow roads to block them – but they announced that they were more than happy to sit behind us. Ding dong! They were great craic and hopefully we'll hook up again at some stage in future events, as no doubt they got their money's worth too. They had the hilarity at one checkpoint where Andrea decided to wade through an expanse of water to find a registration number on the hull of a boat wreckage; they had Julie's talk of snot rockets (but thankfully missed Andrea's record breaking retraction); and they were even called back by Julie (yes, we were way in front again!) as they cycled blindly passed one checkpoint – what sports(wo)manship! Unfortunately nobody called us back when, too busy chattering about the finer points of life!, we blindly cycled passed the clue "tower and supporting pillars" and then spent 15 minutes climbing though undergrowth up to a tower – which turned out to be a chimney! – before going 200 metres back down the road to the tower that we initially pedaled right passed. So with this little hitch, later on with three hours gone we were debating a risky last 20 pointer. However Andrea's front tyre then punctured and never mind extra points, the race was on to change the tube and make it back to the finish in the 3 and ½ hours allotted or we risked losing half our total in penalty points. Things were not boding well when after 10 minutes we had still not managed to get the tyre off the wheel ! – and we had 20 minutes before we had to be back at HQ, which was 3 and ½ miles away ! So, in the spur of the moment, intuition and innovation kicked in, and Andrea said "right, we're ditching (that old theme!) my bike here in the hedge and we're backying/running the whole way back – we can do it!". Julie's face was a picture of incredulity! But it didn’t take much to twist her arm! – so off we headed with 15 minutes left on the clock – Julie with screaming quads as she pedaled her bike out of the saddle and Andrea sitting in Julie's saddle, holding on for dear life, with a screaming backside and hip flexors. Oh, and of course us both just screaming with adrenalin and excitement as we counted down the minutes! What a relief finally rounding the corner at the shoreline of Whiterock and approaching Daft Eddies and that finish – and we clocked out with a mere 5 seconds to spare! Joy unconfined! However we couldn't stick around to explain our good humour to other finishers - it was a quick race back to the car and to retrieve Andrea's bike from the hedge before somebody stole it. Not that we're questioning the morals of residents in the Strangford area! Bikedock Belles finished 15th out of a field of 37 teams on 15 November and the team is currently lying 7th in the league table for the series, and has been the only all-female team in the 2 events so far of the 6-race series. Thanks to all at Dromara CC for another fantastic event and Bikedock Belles look forward to race 3 of the 6-event series on 6th December. Come join us and see how superb Trailquest is for cyclists of all ages and abilities! Information on the next 4 events can be found at www.dromaracc.co.uk |   |