Race Report: The Hopton Gravity Stages, UK
The Pearce Cycles Gravity Stage, as it is known, is a one-off race held in the heart of Shropshire at Hopton, the place of many a Old Skool DH race. Held for the first time last year, it was a real grueler of a pedal-fest, as we arrived for Saturday’s practice we were hoping for more leg forgiving stages this year! There were to be four stages, of which 1 and 3 shared the same bottom half and 2 and 4 were the same track. Riders had traveled from far and wide to race this near sell-out event, held by the ever-professional long term DH event organizers, Pearce Cycles. Obviously it was a local one for us, so the usual friendly banter between local shop teams was present, with the ‘who’s going to do what’ type conversations going down.
Although we never pushed hard on the pedally bits in practice, it was obvious it was going to be a toughy again, with long fire-road climbs and even a steep uphill loamy trail, breaking the 5+ minutes sections up. New sections had been expertly dug in by Dave Pearce, riding so well, with hardly any compacted stone adorning the full day’s riding. Saturday saw the weather keep things moist and a tad slick, but the downhill sections were real fun, with plenty a scary section thrown in for good measure.
Sunday saw some riders, who’d arrived that day, take a quick blast of what they needed to learn in the morning, followed by the start of racing around 11am. The heavens had opened the eve before and through all of the mornings practice, so things got even more messy, but (as I learned to my peril on the Saturday) it is definitely not a spike tyre course! On course and riding just for fun and training was Tracy Moseley, great to see the world’s number one at such a small local event, showing she is still keen as mustard just to ride her bike. In the men’s Elite, Team GT’s Marc Beaumont (last year’s winner) was not present, so it was all to play for.
Stage 1 and 3 went off in different directions from the same start, tracks were well ridden-in practice DH uplift type, with roots, berms and all natural soil. Just after they met was a real root-fest, where line choice was essential, following which was the shockingly pedally uphill fire-road, made even harder by the slight wet stodge produced by the wet weather, any rider who could stand up and blast all of this was more of a machine than I! After what seemed like a life time of sat down spinning, the final section consisted of faster, more trail center-type stuff, with another horrible climb in place and finally an amazing loamy flowing DH blast through the trees to finish. After my first run I was so hanging from trying, that at the bottom I literally couldn’t talk for about 5 minutes and it took virtually all of the nice easy half hour transition for my lungs and legs to calm down, it was so savage!
Stage 2 and 4 were the same and after the lung and leg burn of stages 1 and 3, we were hoping that these would be a little less taxing, well hope was all we could do, as 2 and 4 turned out to be the hardest ones of the four stages. The top started off with some slick, trail-center type flat, stone turns, then it dropped into an amazing steep, bermed-up, natural collection of corners, testing ones nerve. At the end of the steep turns, the pain began! Up and down along single-track stuff, taking your energy away, a fast downhill shoot to the nastiest of nasty, massively long and steep uphill soft wet slog, where many a rider ended up off the bike and actually running, through lack of leg power or traction. The final part took it on to meet the bottom end of one of the DH runs, two big doubles, which hardly any riders cleared and a bit of gnar to the finish, I actually felt sick at the end of these stages.
Racing was all done by around 3pm and many a rider looked exhausted, with lots of tales of spills and time lost through rider errors. The Hardtail Category saw Aaron Tolley take the win for Swinnerton Cycles, after totaling his Enduro Bike wheel the previous day, Clee Cycles Steve Chapman took 2nd and Robin Spence of Plush Hill Cycles took 3rd spot. Rockguardz (sporting a selection of their new carbon rims) had their rider Matt Walker who took the honors in the Youth, followed by Team Skene’s Lewis Cardwell and MTB Spain’s Joe Cassell. In the Grand Vets Kevan Sherry had 1st with Dave Racing’s Dave Wills 2nd and Shakey Racing’s Paul Sakespeare 3rd. Vets saw a lot of the big dogs from top 10 in the UKGE, so competition was fierce. Blazing Bikes Richi Lewis took the overall win, even after a crash (stage 1) which saw him in a cast for a damaged thumb two days later. Jamie Smith was in second, Bad Ass Bike’s Andy Sadler 3rd with yours truly taking my 2nd 4th of the season after a mechanical and two crashes.
Masters was also fiercely fought, with local Trailhead rider Andy Woodvine in 1st ahead of Hafren CC’s and top ex-motocross and moto-enduro rider Jamie Powell then Twelve50 Bike’s David Read in 3rd. Props to Grand Vet Woman Fiona Thomson for the win and in Master Women Emma Wareham took 1st in front of Hellen Wainwright then Caroline Heathcote. Also in Senior Women there was Emma Knight and Junior Women had Rosie Crumpton both in top spots. Obviously Tracy Moseley took the Elite Women’s title, with Twelve50 Bikes Cheri Mills 2nd then Sally Evamy 3rd. Junior Men saw Peter Lloyd smash the competition, showing how much training he’s been doing for his new Whyte Bikes/SRAM team, with a poorly SPS rider Vini Chrighton-Poli in 2nd and MDE Bike’s James Keen in 3rd. Drover Cycle’s Lewis Day won Seniors with Evolution Bike’s Ed Roberts in 2nd and Nick Edwards 3rd. Finally it was the Elites, UK WTB Enduro team’s Robert Williams got top spot ahead of another Whyte Bikes/SRAM rider Martyn Brookes then the haircut that is Paul Aston 3rd.
Well what can be said about this event in hindsight? As ever, the Pearce Cycles organized things to perfection. The downhill sections of the track were just fantastic, with some great new stuff thrown in too, really testing. But the fact that it was much harder and pedallier than any UKGE, with sections so steep and energy sapping that full XC racers had a massive overall advantage, things will need to be changed for next year for fear of putting Enduro riders off. I spoke to Lindsey Pearce after the event and voiced my concerns, I was really pleased with her reply. Lindsey said she would love for some of us locals to get involved next time in planning the tracks, as Enduro was not their forte and she feels they are totally open to input and suggestion from other riders for future events, watch this space!
Big thanks to Pearce Cycles
Words: Jim Buchanan Pics: Doc Ward
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