Beastway '06

[DirtDiva]

The very last race of the series was last night. 'Twas a team race. Cobbled together a team on the night (three girls and a bloke in ours), which seemed to be what a lot of other poeple were doing, so it didn't feel too disorganised really. I think they were giving points for wherever you each ended up in the overall finishing order and then they take the best three results from your team to figure out your ranking. They haven't actually got the results up yet, so I can't tell you how we did. [ETA: 45th out of 56 teams.]

Each member started two minutes after one another, so there were four starting waves. I was riding second for us. Being used to starting off with about ten women, I have to say that starting off with about fifty people at once was pretty intimidating. The first half lap was ridiculously slow because of congestion, then there were some dodgy overtaking manoeuvers as the faster blokes from the next wave caught up and got impatient (really quite irritating - usually folk at Beastway are pretty good about passing), then things settled into a more normal pattern. Felt really good out there riding. Only one climb I couldn't manage, although there were a few others I didn't always find the right gear for (managed to push the bike up everything more quickly than usual though, which was a bonus). For once the legs and the lungs were cooperating instead of bickering about who was the most tired. Didn't manage to finally make that fourth lap, but it was a shorter race than normal (to make more time for the end of season prize giving), so I can live without it. Also managed to finish just in time to beat the queue for tea and cakes.

The prize giving was cool. Mind you, I won stuff, so I would think that. Definitely worth showing up more often than the competition!

RIP Beastway.

[BikeMomma]

Awesome, DirtDiva.....what a great series! Sounds like a real blast of a time.

Now make way for the bulldozers..... They ought to put a plaque up in the future Olympic Village in Beastway's honor...... That would be cool.

Glad you had so much fun, and thanks for taking us along...
~BikeMomma

[Trekhawk]

Awesome, DirtDiva.....what a great series! Sounds like a real blast of a time.

Now make way for the bulldozers..... They ought to put a plaque up in the future Olympic Village in Beastway's honor...... That would be cool.

Glad you had so much fun, and thanks for taking us along...
~BikeMomma

Im with BikeMomma thanks for posting about your series.

How long have you had the new user name??? I love it. Im so slow on the uptake please tell me its not been an ae'on.

[DirtDiva]

I've had the new name since I hit 1000 posts - a few weeks ago, but not that long.

[Trekhawk]

I've had the new name since I hit 1000 posts - a few weeks ago, but not that long.

Thank goodness - good to know I havent completely lost the plot.

[bikerz]

The prize giving was cool. Mind you, I won stuff, so I would think that. Definitely worth showing up more often than the competition!

Well - what cool stuff did you win???

[DirtDiva]

Let's see...

* Five Torq bars;
* Beastway t-shirt;
* Beer mug with my name and category and position engraved on it;
* Water bottle from the sponsoring bike shop;
* £50 ( ) voucher from the sponsoring bike shop!

Oh, and a plastic bag to carry it all home in.

Not bad, eh?

[bikerz]

I think we need a picture of the beer mug in action down at your local!

Congrats!