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Photo - Paul Whibley:
Photo courtesy of Andy McGechan:
Email Andy: He may have a photo of you in his extensive files?
Whibs and Katherine are keeping us updated whenever they are able on their 2005 European campaign: Send Whibs Your Support:
Hi everyone
Well the season for me has started. This is my first race report for the year. We are finally getting sorted, got an apartment and library with internet. So things are getting there.
The first British Enduro race (BEC) was a nice sandy forest - kind of like Woodhill. I liked the track, tightish checks and some rough whooped out trails. One special test timed three times a day. The day before the race there was a heavy snowstorm and a lot of snow was still covering the ground on race day. For me the race got off to a slow start, with my foot that I injured a couple of weeks before, giving me some grief and making changing gears hard.
Mid race I decided to try a high seat foam and I found it helped alot. I could use my ankle, as my leg was at a slightly straighter angle when seated. So with the tall seat I was onit, making up for the slow first test time of 12th. By the end of the day I had pulled up to 6th. Day 2, I was hoping to improve over my 6th place. My foot was still playing on my mind but I managed to improve pushing up to 4th. If I look at the result I'm not so happy but if I look at the progress with riding and becoming more familiar with the bike, also my first race in nearly a month, I'm happy but not content.
The weekend just gone was Round 1 of the Fast Eddy Cross Country series. Another sand race, cool. I got a good start and came round the first corner in 2nd place. The first part of the lap was on an MX track. As we left the MX track and turned into the woods I lost my front end in some soft sand, loosing a lot of positions. We were running a big tank on the bike and the extra weight was causing some problems. To make matters worse I soon discovered that the biggest problem was the soft suspension. As I remounted and pushed hard to get back in touch with the leaders I discovered the suspension was way too soft to handle really whooped out sand at speed. I was getting bucked and swapping all over the place, having several near misses I was having to hang on really tight to stay on the bike. After two laps (each lap 8 mins) my arms were rocks. I cruised around for a few laps letting my arms relax before I made another charge. Eventually I pulled up to 3rd place, but Eddy in 1st and Voase (an ex MX rider) in 2nd, were well gone.
This was a different feeling for me. I was happy with 3rd position but I was not so happy with the bike suspension and I felt I should have been able to run closer to the leaders. Still there is some work to be done with the bike.
Katherine and I leave for Spain in three days. The first WEC is on the 3rd of April so we are going down a couple of days earlier to try and sort some stuff at the factory.
Until next time
Paul and Katherine
