Spring - Don't you just love it? The warm kiss of early season sunshine, the gentle showers, the sounds and colours of nature coming to life... or, if you were at Duncton for the South Downs Fat Tyre; the relentless, battering gales and driving, horizontal rain. Oh well, let's just call it character forming...
Almost 200 people turned out to ride regardless and it was a case of the Usual Suspects in most categories; so congratulations to Rick Featherstone (single male), Matt Kemp & Giles Hudson (mens team), Nick Calkin (single vets), Nick Dean (super vets) and Annie Marson (single woman) for doing admirably exactly what we have come to expect from them. That's not to say that the Fat Tyres have been uncompetitive this year, competition for the runners up placings has often been fierce and the Vets Team and Mixed Team cats have been much harder to predict. So when the series results so far come out in the next week(ish) they should still make for interesting reading.
And speaking of runners up... a mention must go to John Platt and Mike Davies who made a brave (if sneaky) assault on Matt & Giles domination of the Mens Team event. John and Mike signed on initially as solos, but within minutes of the Kemp/Hudson machine hitting the trails, they joined forces and switched to the Team category to launch a stealth attack on their rivals. Matt and Giles didn't even realise the gauntlet had been thrown down until they spotted the pair riding together on the trail, but they still went on to record a fairly comfortable victory. So, nice try guys - close as they say, but no cigar!
Don't forget we have something special coming up for the next round - a new base and a whole new set of trails at the Hogs Back Brewery (home of our very own Trail Ale). And if you think you need some kind of reward for just braving the hideous conditions at Duncton, well how does the chance to ride some Navigators in hot summer sunshines sound? Make a note of the following dates
June 13th - July 18th - August 8th - September 12th
because the Summer Fat Tyre Series makes a welcome return this year. More details and final locations will be online soon.
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