Pearce Cycles Round 1 – Bringewood Race Report

It was the opening round of the massively popular Pearce Cycles Series in Bringewood this past weekend. Ben Nott headed out to nail some runs and put together his report of the weekend.

Al Warrell – 1st. Junior

The traditional first race of the season at Bringewood did not disappoint again. This iconic venue that has been used for longer than I can remember never fails to put a smile on riders faces with the fast flowing tracks filled with natural corners and the odd man made feature (Dave Pearce made features) to keep you on your toes. As this is the first race of the season everyone is excited to catch up with friends and see how effective the winters training, or winters eating, has been.

Suzanne Lacey – 1st. Elite Women

The weekend looked to be a stunner from the start with a forecast of sunny dry days which somehow has been the case for the last few years at this event, so hats off to the Pearce team for organising the weather again this year. As we always say these events run faultlessly, and this was no different. There was rumoured to be 380 riders at this race and it did feel busy, but this was no issue for the fleet of Land rovers with riders easily managing to get ten runs in. I had to pull out at a measly 8 runs because my little arms couldn’t hold on any more, which is fairly impressive that the uplift managed to outdo the riders.
Saturday was a routine days racing for the Pearce team with the only hold up being a bit of track maintenance to a dodgy road gap landing which has claimed a few victim’s. There were reports of juveniles having to be winched out of the breaking bumps they were that deep, but Dave and his crew were on it in minutes and had rides back on track in no time.

Morgan Tyrell – 1st. Juvenile men

These event have grown over the years, and this year was no different. The finish area was big enough to rival the BDS with a big Redbull tent with free drinks for all, and a big Specialized set up where riders could ride, test and try out the bikes and Ohlins suspension.
Sunday morning rolled round and campers were treated to clear sky’s freezing temperatures, but this delayed nothing and practiced started like clockwork at 8:30am, and riders were able to get up to 4 runs done in the two hours of practice.

Lewis Boyce – 1st. Senior

Race runs started with one of the biggest celebrities at the Pearce events, Harry Barret has been ripping up the Pearce tracks and chasing his brothers for years, and this year his is now old enough to race and grown enough to ride a real sized bike. This step up to the big bike has not slowed the little legend down and he took the Juvenile win with a smoking time of 2:27.

Dave List – 1st. Masters

With the new separate junior world cup more and more riders are getting world cup level support at a younger age and this shows with the winning times, Matt Walker won with an astonishing time of 2:08 which shows the Saracen team know what they are doing. Joe Parfitt, another well supported rider was not far behind for second and Nat Nott rounded out the podium for 3rd with a time that scared his support team.

Ant Gaskin – 1st. Vets

The junior category has been mixed up this year with many riders moving up, but one thing was the same, Alistair Warrell winning. He will be looking to keep his winning streak going this season, but second placed Charlie Hatton will want to get back to his winning ways, so a good competitive season is likely between those two.

Matt Walker – 1st. Youth Men

There was 118 senior men at the race this weekend which meant very very tight racing throughout, but it was another one for the young guys at the podium was made up of three young riders with first and second going to Lewis Boyce and Matt Barret who are both first year senior riders.
Dave List – is that all that I need to say for the masters category? I think he is on a 100% win rate at Bringewood but the tall man didn’t get it easy this weekend, he won by 0.8s over Neil White with a time of 2:15.8. So again it looks like it will be a close season at the top of the master’s category.
The female riders were out in force this weekend with at least one rider in each category, and good competition in the senior and master’s category with Lucy Drees and Becci Skelton taking the wins.

Shaun Richards – 1st. Expert

Expert was yet another category dominated by the young riders with 1st and 3rd place being taken by riders at their first race out of junior. Shaun Richards stole the show with a blistering time of 2:07 which was good for the expert win by 5s and put in 4th overall on the day. The rest of the podium was made up of Jonny (ze German) Howe on his xc bike and Will Weston for 3rd.

Becci Skelton – 1st. Masters Women

The Pearce races have always attracted a good number of Elite riders with Adam Brayton and Harry Molloy being regular world cup riders on the start list. This year was no different and we saw many riders there on new shiny bikes representing new teams with high hopes on the world stage. The final result saw Harry Heath take the win with a 2:05, followed extremely closely by Adam Brayton. Craig Evans managed 3rd in his first Elite race, so it looks like we have another world class rider rising out of Sheffield! Another shout out for young ripper Thomas Owens riding his way to 4th in Elite in his first ever Elite race.

Podium Finishers – Harry Heath, Adam Brayton and Craig Evans

Words By Ben Nott

Photos by Sarah Barrett Photography (Full selection of photos over at Roots and Rain)