Race Report

So the 26th May dawned and finally we were on our way to the first Spin Up In a Brewery,

 

With such a location, a huge prize fund, the best ale in the south, a great barbeque, topped off by the best possible weather, this was going to be an event to remember!

….

 

As we arrived on the Star Trading estate, the brewery was already a hive of activity. Dom and Matt wheeling bikes up the road from Upgrade. A small group was milling around supping beer, the last remnants of the morning brewery tour group. Our spot was in front of the massive Stainless brewing vats, with pipe works, gantries, and dark Star barrels creating an impressive background. Dom said he would rent a “couple” of lights to supplement our setup, we had no idea he had borrowed Blackpool illuminations! We set up and Matt and Dom set the “extra” lights up, one light failed to work for Matt, Dom stepped in, flicking the on–off switch to on and all was well. It wasn’t long before the amps and PA were set up, and SCS tunes were bouncing off the vats and walkways.….

 

We were ready just as the first of the roadmen started arriving. Cautiously eyeing the rigs, checking them over from a safe distance. Dimitri and Nicki (having ridden down from London) took the step to ‘just try them out’, so we strapped them in

and unwittingly they became our first race of the day. Dimitri took the win, Nicky claiming his flip flops were not stiff enough to get the power down….That was the last time we had to convince people to race, as the crowd swelled with more arrivals our sign on sheet steadily grew as people started to get the gist of it. … The 250m distance being just the distance to ‘have a crack ‘ .

 

Soon it was time for our first “spot” race of the day Joe, taking on his dad Tim(?), both in their Preston Park YCC team kit. Dad was not so confident and raced hard (no soft pedalling) but Joe prevailed to take a convincing win and for his effort he took

away the first goody box of Lezyne, Kinesis, Morvelo, BBB swag for the day…. This seemed to be the catalyst and quickly the sign on sheet filled up and we had racers keen to give it go, fast times were set, scores were settled and some people seemed surprised at how hard a 250m sprint could be…

 

Then Joshua, Tom, James & Co arrived, though they had left their shirts on the road somewhere… James stepped up racing Tom… mentioning that he had been training for the event , So we were expecting a benchmark time..., we were not wrong a

blistering time of 12.789 became the time to beat and one that would not be bettered all afternoon. He received a stunning pink Morvelo cycling top to cover up..

 

Some old friends of SCS arrived, with Dave Morris coming along with Laura, both setting good times with Laura setting the fastest time for a lady benchmark that stood till the very end of the evening. It wasn’t long before we came to our next spot prize race: Mountain Biker versus Roadie. The roadman took off a frenetic pace but the Simon Usher the MTBer was smoother and more consistent meaning although he lagged in the first 100m slowly but surely he clawed the lead back and overtaking to take the win and a massive prize of Morvelo, Kinesis, Lezyne, BBB & cycloc products, one very happy mountain biker…

 

We had fewer young racers than we expected. Roller racing veteran Marley raced Katie with Marley taking the win but was not quite quick enough for that elusive top spot… still fast enough for the quickest U16 girl. The ladies as well seemed slow to take up the fine art of roller racing with only eight ladies stepping up to take the challenge.

 

To spice things up in the middle of qualifying we ran a quick “fastest Roadie” mini comp. The first 4 to sign up with Craig (and answer his cryptic “are you a roadie?” questions) entered into a two race fastest time takes all. Gareth took the win over Phil

M, but it was Christian with a time of 15.0312 who walked away with another box of Morvelo Kinesis Lezyne & BBB goodies…. Through out the day we gave away Spot prizes from Lezyne, Kinesis, Morvelo & BBB t, and proceedings slowed while Dom from Kinesis threw t shirts out to the crowd.

 

Gareth and James raced each other in real showcase sprint.. Slowly edging away while keeping their eye on the dial.. edging closer, neither one wanting to make the jump, until Gareth exploded around the 175 mark and managed to hold off James. We reluctantly had to close sign on at 102 riders (though some sneaky souls signed on twice!!) and got on with the qualifying for the fastest 8. It started getting noisier as people moved indoors. We had a few dead heats, which were settled by cruelly running again straight away, but despite the heat and exertion no-one seemed to pass out and no-one was ill, excellent fuel that HopHead. ..

 

As the leaderboard filled up We had to enlist the help of Finn to run it so big thanks to him and his mum for sorting that out…(its not as easy as Clarkson makes it look!) we even had to post our magnetic tapes across the floor in front. At seven o clock we ran the last two qualifiers over the rigs (Jono and Rob) and after a brief rest we drew the last 8 and allowed everyone to rest a bit..

 

Before we switched the distance to 500’s.. Finn was keen to race and Marley volunteered to race again, it was a close run thing and Marley, resplendent in her Leopard Trek kit, was narrowly edged out by Finn …such a great race both riders

went away with an SCS t-shirt and Marley kept her crown as fastest U16 girl of the day…

 

So on to the top 8….

 

James, Simon, Tom C, Drew, Tom V, Chris, Bryan and Andy

 

James up first keen to stick on the Red bike as a Man Utd fan, taking on Brian and despite Brian’s enormous effort James was simply too fast and eased in for the win. 

 

A calm collected Simon took on Andy. If there was a prize for the noisiest supporters it would have been Andy’s gang. Roaring him on to fine 27.076 to edge Simon out by 0.2 seconds.

 

Tom C beat a tiring Drew and Tom V took on Chris Pickering to see who would take the last semi final spot. Chris’s out of saddle effort was pure power, but a standing 500m at that cadence was too much and soon circles turned into squares as Tom V slipped through with the fastest 500 time.

 

In the Semis, James eased up comfortably as he knocked out Andy, The second Semi saw Tom V persevere in the battle of the Toms with a very smooth display to see his way into the final..

 

So our Finals were set : Minor final Andy v Tom C : James v Tom V to face off in

the final.

 

Our host Dom took the microphone to explain the mammoth prize fund that was amassed in front of the riders, it sounded like the gadget show giveaway as the generous list just went on and on and on. There was no point in holding back now as the battle for third place and a share of the spoils was hotly contested. It was hard to hear anything above the crowd’s noise.

Tom C managed to hold Andy off and take the victory for third prize and an amazing prize bundle again from Dark Star, Kinesis, Morvelo, BBB, Lezyne and others.

 

We needed to give the finalists a bit of a breather as we had a surprise in store for them, so we needed another race….who could we find…Dom from Kinesis and Oli from Morvelo seemed a good shout, especially as James from Dark Star had hidden at the top of a gantry with a commanding view. (next year James next year)…

 

Try as we might we could not convince them to race over 500m so we went back to 250m, last year at Rolla Riot Oli took the spoils, and fresh from his 3rd place at the Hunt and a few days at the track he again looked favourite….the race went with the

form book and Oli took the win, though modesty an politeness shall dictate that the times are not shown on any records (nothing to do with Craig thinking Rob had them and Rob thinking Craig had them!)..

 

So the grand final for the Kinesis Maxlight XC130 frame in stunning Green…both riders wanted Red so a coin toss settled this first battle in Tom’s favour…once strapped in we discussed the distance with the now baying crowd. Was 500m a bit

short? We suggested 1km and the crowd reaction led us to believe that this was a good idea, the faces of James and Tom didn’t look so keen but we went with the majority and cranked it up to 1000m…

 

The final was a very close affair with the lead exchanging several times. It was only after 750 , as the noise of the crowd (the loudest we have ever heard) spurred them on, Toms smooth style just got an edge. And as the gap opened, James knew his

number was up. Tom came through to a hugely popular win…much to the delight of his friends and family, a great race and a gallant hand shake at the end…

 

James ( Darkstar) presented James ( rider) with the runner up and Dom handed to superb Kinesis XC130 top prize to a beaming Tim. Photos were taken of the two finalists and that wrapped up the racing with just one more spot/grudge race to sort out. Phil (Morvelo) took on Katy as we had been unable to coax them to race at The Hunt. As we had seen Phil’s ability on a bike at the Hunt we decided to level it up, so a small bike was put on with the saddle slammed and we banned him from standing up, just a shame hardly anyone saw it. He still took the win though in a time we can barely remember, but Katy though did set an excellent time of 15.770 which made her fastest lady of the day.

 

The coach left to return riders to Brighton, and as the brewery went quiet we started to pack the van ready for the trip home.

Thoroughly worn out, we stopped for a quick sample of Darkstar in the Partridge before heading off, with the Ace of Spades and Andys support crew ringing in our ears.

 

A big thank you to everyone who rode making this such a great event. And of course thank you to James at Darkstar, Dom at Kinesis, Oli at Morvelo.

 

Just the facts ma'am

 

Photos & Thanks

We're just starting to add in some photos from the day here. Also a massive thanks to all who made this first year event such a success - the people who came along, the other sponsors Lezyne, BBB Cycling and Maxxis, the helpers and volunteers and the weather for playing ball. About 250 people came along, rode out, enjoyed the sun, raced some bikes, drank some beer, tucked into a BBQ. Seeing so many people enjoying themselves and with the wealth of happy vibes and comments we are getting back, we're planning on making this a yearly event. Plans already underway for 2013!

update 22/05/12

Ride Outs: We now have the details of all the Ride Outs over on the surprisingly named Ride Out page. The rides will be a social speed but please check the routes carefully in case you decide to bomb ahead or trundle behind. Also please bring any tools, puncture repair stuff and water etc you may need as there will be no provision for this.

Tickets: Also to let everyone know there aren't any physical tickets issued. Simply print out and bring along your email confirmation. We have a full list of all those that have entered just in case you can't find it.

Bike Parking: There will be bike parking at the event. See the Ride Out page for more details

Change of clothes? We can also take some casual clothes (or roller racing winning skinsuit if you prefer) up for you to the brewery. Again please see the Ride Out page for more details.

Anything else just contact us at Morvelo

Bikes, Beers and BBQ.

Dark Star Brew Co. and The Kinesis Morvélo Project (The KMP) are pleased to announce the launch of this brand new event. Dark Star are long term sponsors of The KMP and this joint cycle team between Kinesis Bikes UK and Morvélo Bicycle Apparel embodies the thrill of racing without taking life too seriously. So we decided that we should combine forces again to bring together all those that love to ride, race, drink and eat. All under one roof.

When?
Saturday May 26th - 3pm until 8pm

Where?
Dark Star Brewery , 22 Star Road, Partridge Green, W. Sussex, RH13 8RA

How much?
£5 (including a FREE ticket to The London Bike Show worth £18!)

Taking place on the hallowed ground of the Dark Star Brewery in Sussex, this will be a unique event.

ENTER NOW

If you need no further explanation then you can Enter Here. Either way here's a guide.

1pm - The Ride Out

There will be an optional ride out from Brighton. Exact location and routes will be confirmed soon but there will be two options, both on- road and off-road, to cater for your wide ranging tastes. Nothing too serious but every cyclist knows how much better a drink and BBQ tastes after a bike ride. There will be an option to put a bag in a van with some clean clothes so that you won't repulse others when you arrive at the brewery.

3pm - Spin Up In A Brewery starts

Upon arrival and as part of your entry fee, you will be given a free pint of Dark Star. This will be a special beer brewed exclusively for the event! There will be secure bike parking if you have cycled over and plenty of car parking if you have driven. Although we might have to have some sort of roller race forfeit for all those drivers!

Roller Racing

Then you'll be encouraged to step-up and have a go at some roller racing - brought to you by South Coast Sprints. If you're not sure what this is check out the photos and videos from last years Rolla Riot. Not matter how fit or unfit you are, it's addictive and there will be impromptu competitions and prizes going on throughout the day. Also their will be some kids bike so all those from 10 yrs old and up will get a chance to race. A Top Gear style leaderboard for both adults and children will show who has bragging rights.

BBQ, Beers and Bike Stuff

In between thrashing your mates at roller racing there will be a delicious BBQ going all day with fresh, local ingredients cooked up by the local Dark Star pub. It wouldn't be a proper trip to a brewery if there wasn't a fine selection of award winning ales for you to try and buy, so good job there is. There will also be a range of soft drinks and wine if for some crazy reason beer isn't to your tastes. Morvélo Bicycle Apparel will be showing off their latest range and will be offering an exclusive 20% discount to everyone. Also showing off their products will be Kinesis Bikes UK (who are based just next door to the brewery) and some of the other great sponsors of The Kinesis Morvélo Project such as Lezyne, Reynolds, Xfusion, Green Oil and Clif Bar, so there will be plenty to see and do.

The Finals

This is where the fastest 8 riders will race head to head in an eliminator to see who becomes the champ. Of course the best part of this is the heckling. Ahem, we mean supporting. Seeing people pedal as fast as they can whilst you shout as much as you can is a sport in its own right.

8pm - Finish

All good things must come to an end. But not necessarily right now. If you want to keep the party going then we'll be heading to The Partridge Dark Star pub around the corner. Alternatively you could ride back home as it will be fairly light still or for those that have over indulged there will be a coach back to the Evening Star in Brighton.

Surely Saturday's don't get much better than that.