Gummy to the long trip to Italy to race the European Championships, see his race report below:

 

 

Val di sole Italy, venue for the European champs 2006, what a weekend! Turn up on a wet Thursday evening, to wake up Friday morning to bright sunshine. The weather was to be like that all weekend.

Me and my travelling companion Craig Sheffield from The Bike Cellar in Portsmouth was a little surprised to see mini buses and vans as transport instead of the normal gondola system normally used in European race events. Although they said a new gondola is planed for 2007 when they host the worlds champs, lets hope so.

As soon as we met up with the four boys from the Rave Racing team we went for practice.

 

The track
The track started off a bit flat but soon went into a steep rocky section, just try and hold on. Then nasty rooty shoots and corners, half way down they saw it fit to put in an up hill section only 10 meters but most didn’t see the point. The lower section had some fast flowing corners and rock drops with multiple lines, and finished with some very steep runs and then out into the field to finish.

 

Seeding
Well Saturday was not a good start to racing, three crashes later and 11th place in category was not the start I was hoping for. Joe word was fastest in category and in fact overall in masters, and Brendan fairclough was fastest in elite what a result that was.

 

Sunday Race Day
After yet another night of rain the track was supper slippery and the pressure was on for a good result, but confidence was low after a morning of yet more crashes.

 

I started out the run ok, but was slow down the steep section (but safe), by the half way point I was so tired but still needed to up the pace. In the rocky section I got it all wrong and the back wheel ended up overtaking the front, I was down.....and it bloody hurt. I suspected I'd broken my ribs and thought oh well to myself as I rode to the finish.

 

Results
I only finished 7th in class masters 1 (gutted)
Joe Ward was 1st in class masters 2 and 3rd over all (well dun boy)
Craig Sheffield and the Rave boys had even more problems than me:

Sheff 16th place masters1
Jason 16th masters 2
Keith 8th place master 2
Alex 12th place masters 2

What a weekend, the hardest track I've ever ridden anywhere, harder than Fort Bill but a lot of fun with the boys all the same.

Hope to be back on my bike, as soon as the broken rib from the last crash of the weekend is fixed.

All the best Paul May AKA gummy