BXC Rd 2 & Southern XC Rd2

So two more races done and dusted with varying degrees of success. First up was Rd2 of the national series @ Wasing nr Reading. I was looking forward to this as I had raced the course a few weeks earlier at the southern and felt it had potential to be a cracking course. Rain all week and driving up meant I turned up expecting a muddy course and so put some grippy Ignitor tyres on, bad move number 1! The course was somehow bone dry and dusty and these just dragged like a bugger all day! The race was pretty awful for me, as soon as we started I didn't feel right and was losing places far too easily, I felt detached from the racing and unable to get my body to respond as normal. 2nd lap in and my rear shock blew leaving me with no damping and a very bouncy back end. I was close to pulling out but I hate seeing a DNF so decided to continue and salvage what I could, not much is the answer as I ended up 38th. At first I was confused at how I could feel so bad sp I went through my pre race build up with someone else and they shed some light on some basic errors to improve on, it helps sometimes to get another opinion on a problem and so this proved.

With this new advice in my ears I headed to Rd2 of the southern XC series @ Pippingford park in East Sussex. Having ridden here before I knew what to expect, hills! This coupled with the hottest day of the year meant it was going to be hard! Due to traffic heading to the coast an hour 15 journey took over 2 hours so my warm up was riding to the line, far from ideal as I would be racing 'cold' and pretty much blind into what I was told was a pretty technical start to the lap, great! As it turned out the lap was pretty cool lots of singletrack which was very rough a few steep drops and of course lots of climbing. Lap 1 went without incident apart from brushing a tree (see pic!) Lap 2 and I flatted in the first piece of singletrack, tube thrown in and I was away again pretty certain I was last and just hoping to get some points by finishing. By the last lap I was pretty spent and was having to spin the climbs however other people were suffering too and I managed to pick up a place on the penultimate climb and hold it to the finish, 10th out of 15 not great but a step in the right direction.

Next up is a favourite of mine Margham Park in Wales, I'll see you there.

BMBS R1 - Sherwood Pines

I seem to be a little behind on my blogging! The winter has been a tough one, snow has made my local mountain biking spots inhabitable and ice & hail has made road training dangerous. That being said, I've trained hard and going into the first nationals of the year I was confident I could pick up where I left off last year.

In the past I've had a mixed opinion of races at Sherwood Pines. It's one of those courses where you can be the strongest rider, spend the whole race on the front, yet find yourself unable to shake your competitors. This year proved to be slightly different as the percentage of singletrack was much greater than previous years.

I set out to assess the competition early on and ideally aim to sit in second place and push on when the time was right. This of course went out the window the second the race started! I was gridded first as I had finished second overall last year but I didn't get a great start. I sat 6 or 7 back off the front and was thinking maybe I had got my training wrong and I was going to be way off the pace. We turned off the field and onto a fire road climb, at this point the people ahead of me seem to stall a little bit. I didn't want to be part of a big group and that type of climb is what my Carbon WCR is made for! I pushed on and kicked hard, I felt my legs instantley respond and at this point I knew I was going well!

At this point (As far as I know) I had Llewellyn Holmes and Luke Eggar behind me. Llewellyn made a move early on one of the fast descent only to hit a tree stump and fall heavily. Luke Eggar was setting a fast pace on some of the more technical sections but on the second lap I went hard again on the opening fire road to distance him. I felt comfortable sitting out front, doing just enough to stay out of touch of the chasers but still keeping enough in the tank to respond if required.

At the end of the second lap the race was falling into place with Douglas Shearer chasing hard and Matt Page working his way through the field. It was tough to be out in front on this course but I tried to stay as consistent as possible, taking no risks on the technical stuff and putting the hammer down on the climbs. In the end I took the win by a little over 30 seconds to Douglas and a further 25 seconds to Matt (Great rides by both of them).


I was over the moon with the result and I'm hoping that this season's nationals will continue as they've started.

Laters

P.S. The image is Joolze Dymond's handy work!

BXC Rd1 & Southern xc Rd1

So two races down and the 2010 season is well under way. Up first round 1 of the British XC series @ Sherwood, traditionally not a favourite of mine, I kind of enjoy the fast flowing trails here but always have shocking results! This time round it wasn't too bad 28th out of 50 starters isn't going to set the world alight but it wasn't a total disaster either. Mucho respect to Giles for clearing off at the front to pick up where he left off last season, on the top of the podium, great ride! As for me a mid pack start saw me caught up in the first lap bottlenecks (where I should have been more aggressive!) laps two and three saw my lap times settle down till half way through lap four my lack of winter miles caught up with me and I struggled round to complete lap 5. Still this can be improved and with the better weather the miles should come also.

Last weekend saw the 1st round of the Southern xc series at Wasing estate just outside Reading. The course had a similar feel to Crow Hill with lots of soft loamy singletrack winding its way through woodland, it also had plenty of bumps meaning a full sus was very welcome on the back! A field of 25 riders took to the start of the Expert field and I took my place at the back of the grid. An ok start saw me make up places which I continued todo throughout the first lap, after two laps I was sat in 12th and it was here I would stay. I managed to catch Mark Davies a couple of times only to make a mistake or get up with back markers where I would lose contact again. Midway through lap 4 I realised I was being caught by Stuart Harvey in 13th and I managed to get my head down till the finish and hold onto the place. Overall I really enjoyed the course and after the weekends racing it should be nicely bedded in for round 2 of the national series. I look forward to seeing you all there!

R & R (Rest & racing)

So five weeks and no racing has meant my time on the bike has been a little hit and miss. I needed a rest after the mtb season so since Plymouth I've only done a couple of decent rides total, the rest of my weekends have been spent doing diy and watching Moto GP or Belgian Cross on the net!

That was until last weekend when the cross bug hit again and I found myself on the start line at round 6 of the London league, having only competed in round 1 I wasn't gridded and found myself on the 8th row, yes 8th row! Cross is getting ridiculously popular round here now with fields of over 100 riders lining up this season. Anyway I knew my chances of a good result were pretty poor starting from here so decided to have fun and make it a hard training ride. The first lap was eventful with me running past one crash and going straight over a second which happened right in front of me! End of lap 1 and I'm still outside the top 50, gonna be interesting from here!

I got my head down and worked my way through the field, the wet and muddy conditions suiting me as there wasn't too many parts where flat out speed was needed but a bit of skill and finesse helped.

After an hour and 20minutes (organiser later apologised for making it so long!) I had finished 17th out of 80 starters not too shabby with my start position and lack of riding recently. I really enjoyed being back in the thick of the action again but had forgotten how much cross actually hurts and how much I love it!

Now its a few more weeks off before a local mtb race and then some more cross. Until then its back to watching cross on the net and laughing at the foreign commentary!

Until next time...

North West Cyclo Cross - Clayton Vale

Right, I'm going to try to keep this short! This past Saturday I was... lets say tricked, in to doing a horrible thing, Cyclo Cross (You know who you are)!

Prior to Saturday I had done half a CX race in my lifetime and if I had never done another "CROSS" race it would of suited me just fine. Small problem being the fact that I see the winter approaching and being the optimistic idiot I am, I say to myself, "Cyclo Cross, that will keep my legs ticking over this winter". As the weather gets colder I retreat on my original optimism and decide it's a waste of time and I don't want to have anything to do with it. A great system I think you'll all agree!

Here's the great "In Theory" argument behind Cyclo Cross. The temperature drops to minus 87, the rain/ice starts hitting you in the face and you realise the easy out that CX can give you in the winter months. Why do 15 hours in the freezing cold where the most entertaining thing to do is count how many fingers and toes you can still feel? When you can do a little mid-week turbo-training and turn up at the weekend and flog yourself senseless for an hour and a lap! I get it, however, what people don't tell you is just how unpleasant Cyclo Cross is!

Long story short, at 2:30pm (times may vary, check your local listings), I'm sitting on one of my old hack bikes built up to look like a cyclo cross bike (Others are putting their spare carbon tubs into the pits). A million people line up in a field, a bloke blows a whistle and then the un-natural specimen that is CX, begins!

As it turns out, my first (full) cross race, was also my first win at a cross race. I out sprinted my nearest rival to win by a bike length. You might think I'd be spurred on to do more of these things, nope. I admit, in a couple of weeks time, I may have forgotten the unpleasantness. I may be thinking, "I won last time, that was fun", and then on Monday evening I'll be sat in front of my computer writing another blog entry about how much I hated it.

So basically, this blog entry is a warning to myself and if my future self is reading this blog and thinking about CX, STOP IT!

Laters

Seasons over!

Phew! seasons over and thank f*ck for that. I'm knackered after a long season since started racing around march time. I really started to feel it since Canada and all the mental from a very stressful stretch doing 60 hour+ weeks at work.

Midlands series rd3
After a break of about 1 month of no racing at all my form had pretty much left me and my weight was already piling on. The last Midlands series race was on at Sherwood pines and i felt fairly motivated as a top five position guaranteed a series podium. Luckily only 5 entered the Elite race unluckily it was mix of 3 other good Elite riders whom i have beaten a few times this season and have beaten me a few times too. The race set off at a mental speed with Chris Andrews at the front. I hang at the back and fell off a little towards the end of that lap preserving my energy for the rest of the remaining 5 laps. surely enough Nigel Martin peeled off and joined me to then catch Chris. Meanwhile Rob Friel was riding strongly on his own off the front. Entering the last lap Nigel and me were still together. I knew i had gained some ground through some tight singletrack on previous laps so put a spurt on which then caused Nigel to collide with a tree behind. Unmaliciously i took advantage and created a gap of 1.5 mins or so which i kept to the line to finish 2nd. A few quick calculations by Rob who realised were tied on points for the series win actually resulted in Rob getting the win because of some anomily. Happy with my result in my first Elite season.

NPS plymouth Rd5
A rushed journey and a panicked week of work and trying to get my bike sorted i turned up to the race having forgotten my rear wheel. having brought a spare pair i wasn't too worried although the freehub was knackered. I had no choice. On the start line i was still yawning and not greatly motivated. My luck so far in the NPS has been dire but i was determined to finish the season on a high. We set off and i settled into a mid pack position riding comfortably and steadily with Andrew Cockburn and John Wittington. Having not having time to peride the whole lap i discovered some parts of the Newnham course i hadn't ridden before. It was quite a draining and fast lap without much respite. Halfway through the second lap and disaster struck. Spotting Joolze in a camera position i tried to show off a little. Landing a small jump very, very hard my rear end gave way snapping the seat and chainstay. Race over! and a long walk back to see Claire whom had been going crazy worrying where i was as i hadn't come past on the last lap.

Dusk til Dawn
Guesting for XCracer.com. Our team Phil Morris, James Hampshire, Hollie Bettles and ME entered the mixed team with some confidence.

World Cup, Bromont, Canada. July 31st

Once in a cycling lifetime dream for me was realised. read my report at the following link below. what an experience!

http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/mtb/article/mtb20090825-mountain-bike-First-Timers-Guide--World-Cup-Racing-0

BMBS R5 - Plymouth

It's been a couple of days now since I achieved something pretty cool! If you had asked me at the beginning of the season to give you a likelihood of it happening by the end of the season I would of said "Probably between, owning a Ferrari & marrying Keira Knightley". In case you hadn't guessed by now, on Saturday I took my first ever National XC Series win!

The course suited me because it had 3 hard climbs and decents that were smooth and fast. This meant my hardtail would fly up the climbs and I wouldn't give up too much time to the full suspension bikes trying to track me down. One full suspension bike in particular was Sion O'Boyle's (Mojo-Orange). The guy has now taken 2nd at all five rounds of the BMBS this year and I can honestly say that if Saturday's race had come down to Sion & I in a sprint I would of sat up and given him the victory he deserved. As it happened Sion was unlucky and I was lucky. At the start of the second lap Sion and I were locked together going into a small technical up hill section. I led and from behind I heard a crunch of gears, Sion had slipped a gear and had been forced to dab a foot. On this course it couldn't of happened at a worse place and although it was a matter of a second lost, it added up to losing the race for Sion. At this point I had a couple of options, wait or push on. I opted to push on because we were still only a lap into the race and I had no idea how close 3rd place was. If I had waited I could of faced two oponents for the rest of the race and I didn't want to take that chance.


At the end of the second lap the gap between Sion and I was just 11 seconds! I could see him behind me as we looped through the start arena and I knew I had to keep climbing hard to keep Sion off my rear wheel. At the end of the third lap the gap was 12 seconds! This is why I was so lucky on the day, at this point if I had come off my bike or ran wide on a corner, Sion would of been on me! In terms of mistakes, I had a near perfect race. Over the next two laps the gap grew out to a minute & I stayed away to grab the top spot on the podium for the first time at a national series race. Phil Lenney, George Budd & Christian Aucote took 3rd, 4th & 5th respectively. This result also moved me up from fifth to second in the overall series! Crazy I know!


It's been a long year & looking back I've been lucky to take four first, one second & two third places. Not a bad set of podium results for my first year in the Expert category! Don't get me wrong, I've worked & trained hard over the year but I wouldn't have thought I could of achieved so much this year. I now face the sad fact that I need to sort my winter hack bike, dust off the winter jackets and charge up the lights for a long hard winter. Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to do some of the North West Cyclo Cross races but I am likely to be in race hibernation by the end of October! I'll keep the blog up to date with how cold my training rides get!

Looking forward to 2010.

Laters

P.S. The very funky looking image of me flying through the water splash was very kindly supplied by Mark Dunk (Spotless Media).

Season end

2 races and 3 punctures later I've pretty much finished my season deflated!

First up I did a london league cyclocross event 2 weeks before the last BMBS @ Plymouth just to inject some speed into my legs. The course was very fast and rough, so much so that in places I wished I had my full sus MTB! After an ok start I started picking riders off until a few of us were battling for a top ten position. I was feeling pretty good going into the last lap as our group was caught by 2 others and promptly split to just 4, however with half a lap togo and after the pits I ran a bit off line and blew the front tyre on a rock. I managed to limp home only losing a couple of places to finish 12th.

Next up was Plymouth and a course I have never really liked probably because everytime I had been there it had chucked it down, not so this weekend with bright sunshine and dusty trails. A short but demanding lap meant that I would be doing 4 hard laps in sport. After starting ok and sitting in about 10th through the first sections I moved up on the first major climb only to lose a load of places as the guy in front of me unshipped his chain and I got tangled with him. Through the bluebell wood I managed to get back with a group fighting for 8-11th. Although I kept dropping off I always managed to get back to the group over the top of the climbs and even pulled out a small gap through the arena but by the third lap it was still myself, Darrel Upton and Trevor Allen racing for a top 10 position. It all went a bit wrong here as I lost contact on the first climb then chasing to get back on the front tyre flatted, tube changed I set off again trying to regain the places I had lost when at the top of the pipeline the front again flatted. With no more spares it was race over and a long walk back to the car park (probbly a good thing as I had time to calm down!)

So not the end I had wanted but a pretty goood season anyway, 3rd in the Southern xc series and it looks like 9th in the national rankings promoting me to expert next year. Now I have a month with no racing and a bit of a rest followed by some more cross races and a local winter mtb series as I build for next season. I'll keep you updated with it all

Midlands R4 - Sherwood Pines

It's been a long season and it's now winding down to my final XC race this year. This past weekend was the Midlands Regional Series finale.

I was going into the race leading the series and I didn't have to do a great deal to hold onto the overall series win! With George Budd & Christian Aucote not signed on to race the pressure was off!


On the day I still had some top oposition to beat. Gary Record, Charlie Evans and Alex Kinvig where all on the start line and I knew I would have to be aggressive to beat them. I got a great start and led the race out of the arena! Charlie Evans came past me and started riding very hard on the front trying to string out the rest of the field. I was comfortable sitting being Charlie and without any major traffic that could cause a split I was happy to wait. I jumped ahead of Charlie towards the end of the first lap because the second half of the course suited me better and wanted to keep the pace high. At the start of the second lap it was just Gary, Charlie and myself in a line. I put a big dig in up the first climb and managed to gap both enough to allow me to ride hard on my own without the fear of pulling others along. I kept the pace high and at the end of the third lap the gap was up to 40 seconds. At this point some of the faster master caught Gary and on this type of course it gave him a massive boost to get back to me. At the end of the fourth lap, I thought I had done enough only to look across to see Gary only a few seconds behind. I put the hammer down again and gave it everything! I pulled out my fastest lap of the day and took the win by 36 seconds!


I was very happy to take the win on the day and the series overall. My legs are feeling good and I'm hoping for the season to wrap up next week at Plymouth with a strong ride towards a national podium! Fingers crossed!

Laters