Race Debrief

Props to Declan Dawkins for
centre-marshalling and photos

Sorry I havent updated in a while: I've been working in Germany doing a waterwheel installation and opening. The local press were there and so a quick scavenge found this article!  And a shaky google translation here.
It were much fun and much Bavarian food was consumed.

Now on to Outlaw race debrief that I've wanted to post since the monday I arrived in netless Germany:

The XSS outlaw went well, it seems everyone had a rad day out, so cheers to everyone who came and raced it/made it awesome. Sorry it dragged on so long! In a town where we don't have easily closed hills and all our good ones are on heavily parked residential streets, the common is a safe although mundane place. Hopefully the shenanigans kept it spicy enough for most of the people.

       Sorry to all you groms out there who didn't get their own race - I still have the points so I may be able to work out the highest ranked grom from that, but mega thanks for turning out to watch or race - I think this was the largest turnout of any race, both in total (inc spectators) and in racers (36 or 38 signups-I forget).

Jon Braund distance jump

Nathan's huge varial boneless

 The ramps seemed generally well received, if quite intimidating for the numerous Soton, and some Isle of Wight, groms as well as more seasoned riders looking nervous about the roller. Bournemouth however shredded them as kickers - respect due there. The narrowness of the path made it more awkward to deploy ramps while maintaining access and due to the fact the park warden turned up as soon as we arrived and gave us the standard "it's your own fault" speech, I had my concerns about disruption/complaints.  Early freeride injuries from the chicane included a local getting concussion enough to need an A&E checkup (he was fine, thanks to the lid he was wearing) and some impressive scrapes added to my feeling that maybe ramps weren't the best idea for racing. In the end I stand by my decision to not have ramps in the race; we got more riders willing to compete, and we didn't piss off any authorities - I have a feeling they would not have been as kind if we'd blocked the path up.
       I would have liked to have run a ramp freeride, but the attention we'd received and everything taking longer than expected put me off deploying it on the path we'd raced on.

However! The ramps are not a one-use piece of kit, and I expect to roll them out/lend them out to anyone who wants a decent race out of them. If anyone has a closable path that can be done without injury/police hassle they're here for your use! Also, as they are (kinda) modular, i'll be adding to them over time.

If people want a rerun let me know - The race can be made official - it'd take me 9 weeks from confirmation of people wanting to do it to the event day. so let me know!  I've written another post for the blog outlining the event so as not to tl;dr this one. I'll post it tomorrow I guess!

Have fun!

Timmy