It's been a while since I've blogged on my progress! Have to admit, it would of been sooner if not for a bad BMBS Round 2. It's been an odd month or so since the first round of the BMBS. Struggling with weather I've spent far too much time on the road bike and not enough time on the mountain bike. A dodgy excuse I know, but a bad BMBS round 2 was the kick up the ass I needed to get my ass back on the Msc Wcr Carbon!
I decided it was about time I gave my legs as much racing as possible and I'm really glad I did. At the start of this year I had decided I wanted to focus on the BMBS, using one regional series as tune up races to keep my legs going. Based on the BMBS at Dalby this wasn't working for me!
Which brings me to the third round of the Brownbacks (New North West racing series for this year). I was looking for anything to get me back racing and feeling better on the mountain bike and the brownbacks provided a perfect format for me. It wasn't a race that would have crushed my morale if it had gone wrong but there was still plenty incentive to do well.
The racing kicks off at 10am and by this time I was skinsuited up looking way too serious for this type of racing! The start was pretty interesting as it started with a loose fireroad climb which was tough to get traction. I started pretty well but still had to work a little to catch the lead wheel (a nutter on a single speed - Kudos to him cause this course was not for single speeders!). I sat on his wheel for a minute or so before pushing on past looking to open up a bit of a gap. At the end of the first lap I still had two guys on my wheel so I decided to put the hammer down on the start climb that twisted and turned up the end of the lap. I did my damage on this climb and put enough distance between the two chasers to put myself in a comfortable position to take my first win of the season.
The pre-race briefing put the emphasis on grass roots racing which is something I can respect and the fact that these races are a little bit over an hour away from me means I want them to be around for a long time to come. I may not be able to attend all of them but I think having local "fun" racing is something northerners have been disadvantaged with for some time. The South have plenty of these style of races and it's good to see the North finally catching up a little. I tried to do my part by not getting too caught up in the race or the finish and I was well aware of the riders that were new to racing and wanted to enjoy their day. The last thing they needed was some skinsuited serious d*** elbowing them out of the way to gain a matter of seconds! If anyone decides to visit a brownback race I suggest you try to do the same, make them aware and 99.9% will let you by as soon as they can.
It's been a long time since I've enjoyed a days racing in such wet conditions and I think a lot of it was down to the race organisers! The marshalls and spectators were great, plenty of photographers taking snaps at interesting points and in general it was a totally different atmosphere to the normal races I attend. Big thumbs up from me all round, especially the trophies!
Kick ass or what?
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