Intrepid Geoff.
Fire-Eater!
 | | South Downs Way
I?m trying to get in contact with two Ratz members?
Liz from Didcot & a girl from Reading area but can?t
Remember her name!
Met them on the last Ratz social ride from Wallingford,
And they were both interested in doing the South Downs Way
If they read this or any one knows them get them to get in
Contact with me, email is in ?current users? in
?Membership,?
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| Sun Dec 26, 2004 13:31:07 | | | |
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Paul Sheppard
Proud Turner owner
 | | 7 stanes
Who'd be up for an entire week of riding around the 7 stanes?
7 stanes (featured in MBR a while back) are a series of Afan/Cwm Carn/Coed style man made trails on the Scottish borders. The project is for 7 trails, but not all of them are finished.
Open trials are:
Kiroughtree
Mabie
Innerlithen, Glentress (Tweed Valley)
Dalbeatie
Newcastleton
Lots of info on the 7 stanes website
The proposition would be a day per site, doing as much riding as time and our legs can provide. More then likely we'd be staying at B&B's or such like each night.
I'm up for doing it some time this year, but i guess most would prefer next year.
Suggestions, comments, ideas? | |
| Fri Aug 20, 2004 13:50:55 | | There are 10 replies... | |
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Paul Sheppard
Proud Turner owner
| | Cheddar challenge anyone?
Mountain high led an expedition there last year, but lets have a RAT affair this year...
There's a number of different competions you can enter, last year we did the pairs Cheddar Crunch (6 hour enduro, followed by a single time trial night lap), but you can also do a few others:
Triple crunch: 6 hour enduro Sat, time trial night lap, 6 hour enduro Sun
Cross Country race: in the catagory of your choice
Single speed race: for the nutters.
And don't forget to bring a costume for the fancy dress disco Sat night (or just come and drink beer).
1st-3rd October Cheddar Challenge website
Pics from last year | |
| Tue Sep 14, 2004 21:48:20 | | | |
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Ben Gladwyn
Membership Sec
 | | 2004 Club Championships Report
From Steve Jones:
Cross Country
Elite rider Chris Minter stormed the cross country race and held a convincing lead each lap despite going off course at one stage. Nick Onslow never looked out of contention for 2nd place and Luke Smith took 3rd place but was chased all the way by Steve Jones who managed to keep him in sight on the field sections at least. Dan Giffin was 5th and was chased hard by Paul Jones until the last lap when he had a big crash in the tunnel. Matthew hill took advantage of this and moved into 6th and Paul lost 7th place to Jay Spetch in the great sprint for the line. Nigel Grantham took 9th ahead of Kim Burrows in 10th, 11th was Jeff Spetch followed by Garrett Hill in the 'lantern rouge' position.
Downhill
The downhill was as expected a non event due to the lack of entrants, Dan Giffin being the only rider to turn up with a downhill bike. So we decided to use the fun event we had planned as the main race so anyone could have a go. The idea was to roll down the downhill course from Blobby?s Bank, round the berm over the jump, across the table top and then continue rolling up New Hill as far as you could get. Steve punctured and missed most of practice, then Paul punctured and he had to fix that as well. To prevent riders pedalling I had tied off their cranks to the chain stays which is a very strange sensation and with only 2 runs each you had to get used to it quick.
Garrett Hill rolled into the lead on his cross country bike for the first run with a high speed descent throwing him halfway up the final part of New Hill. However Dan let it go on his downhill bike on his 2nd run and must have kept off the brakes to keep up his speed and just passed Garrett?s, marker to take the win.
Hillclimb
Yet again we decided on a fun event that all could take part in and opted for a technical hill climb rather than a timed event. The objective being to see who could get the furthest up a challenging climb with an ever increasing gradient. The course went up the flinty track by the field and ended in the pit, initially it went over the hump and up the original drop in. Paul punctured again and missed most out on this section and just when he got going he snapped his chain. Steve cleaned this section after a few goes and thought he had the title in the bag but Mick Barton kept trying and eventually made it. So a decider was needed, either time the section or move onto something harder. We opted for the latter and moved on to the ?impossible? climb out of the pit.
However everyone else wanted a go and Matthew Hill was better at this one the first and quickly set the mark to beat. It was proving just possible to get the front wheel to the top but at the same time the back wheel either hit a root of a bump and you lost grip. A determined battle ensued and Jay Spetch also looked like a contender to make it but this hill beat us all. Matt got the highest and Steve eventually gave up after flipping the bike at the top and nearly landing on his back in the bottom of the pit.
Race results
Trailquest
The Trailquest was thoroughly enjoyed by the few who took part and as expected even seasoned trail riders came back praising the course. Some added that they had never been down some of the tracks and they thought they knew all the trails round Checkendon. It?s a shame more people didn?t give it a go. Mark and Chris won and only missed 3 check points and scored 430 but they were 2 minutes late losing 10 points leaving a grand score of 420.
Trailquest results
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| Tue Aug 24, 2004 11:49:36 | | There are 3 replies... | |
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Dan Giffin
 | | SITS
Ok, so whats happening? Am I driving, if so am I taking anyone?
When are we leaving? Cant do till about 5 on friday.
Did we decide on the serious 24 hour or the slightly drunken one? | |
| Mon Aug 9, 2004 7:23:59 | | There are 3 replies... | |
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Ben Gladwyn
Membership Sec
| | Rampage publicity
Mike Davis at BikeMagic has kindly published details of the Rampage. Hopefully it will catch enough people's attention for the event on the 18th, at least.
I've also submitted details to Singletrack. Any suggestions for other sites I could use to publicise the event?
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| Tue Aug 3, 2004 10:51:51 | | There are 2 replies... | |
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Paul Sheppard
Proud Turner owner
| | Early doors
So who's up for doing some of the larger events comming up this year?
Mark me down for:
Saab Salmon Mountain Mayhem 24hr Race
Shimano Sleepless in the Saddle 24hr Race
Prolly do a couple of the Merida (kona) 100's
Fat Tyre Festival (Coed-Y-Brenin) possibly
Gotta have some teams for the Cheddar Challenge
other suggestions? | |
| Mon Jan 5, 2004 18:37:11 | | There are 54 replies... | |
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Paul Sheppard
Proud Turner owner
| | Anyone wanna buy some merchandise?
Found these printers (in the US) which print up single items at a time and ship them out. Leeds MBC put me on to them, and some of them were wearing the items and they looked good. Shipping is charged at $7 for the first item then $4 for each item after that, but the prices are generally pretty good given the exchange rate at the moment. Be careful not to order stuff over ?18 ($33) so's you don't get hit by import duty.
Anyway, the RAT Shop is open for buisness! | |
| Tue Jun 22, 2004 22:34:27 | | There are 1 replies... | |
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Paul Sheppard
Proud Turner owner
| | Jerseys
View the replys to see further details on the jersey ideas, including descriptions of whats available and prices.
Note we need at least 30 takers to get this off the ground (which can be a mix and match of ANY of the tops on offer). | |
| Fri Sep 12, 2003 0:26:48 | | There are 6 replies... | |
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Paul Sheppard
Proud Turner owner
| | Next years races
Right peeps, lets get fit and lets start winning races and rasing the profile of RATz.
For the Gorrick spring series it looks likely we'll have:
Brian Clements in the Grand Verterans
Rachel Davis in the Novice Woman
Dan Giffin and myself in the Mens sport
and
Ben Gladwyn in the Masters Catagory.
Damn that'll look impressive.
The dates for the Gorricks are:
1 Feb - Yateley Heath Wood, Fleet Road, Yateley, Hampshire
22 Feb - Heath Warren Wood, Bramshill Road, Eversley, Hampshire
14 Mar - Crowthorne Wood, Bracknell Road, Crowthorne, Berkshire
4 Apr - Black Wood, Winchester Road (A33), Micheldever, Hampshire
9 May - Surrey Hill, Bracknell Road, Bagshot, Surrey
See the gorrick website for more details
So I wanna see a good turn out, bright eyed and bushy tailed :) | |
| Mon May 10, 2004 12:22:46 | | There are 25 replies... | |
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