more racing

14th june, Midlands Champs
with my confidence middling and getting a front row gridding from 2nd place from round 1 i thought i could go well. i had a good start but unfortunately lost some places going into the far side singletrack. i was caught behind some slower technical riders and i went down for crash no.1. i gained some places and started to ride with Oli Cox and was riding 3rd and 4th for a while. 2 laps to go and i hit another bastard hidden stump. BANG! straight over the handlebars, no damage done except for my nerves. Oli took advantage and took off. i couldn't catch up and carried on. penumltimate lap and the exact same crash happens again! i can't believe that bastard stump. Rob Friel comes past and i have to limit my loses and come over the line a little pissed off. 5th a pretty good result considering my spills.

pic is by Joolze on the fast downhill woop!

19th june, fnss rd 5, cosford
A course i do well at with a mixture of rooty technical short sharp climbs and woopy downhills on grass. Some good riders turn up and its the four of us who ride round for most of the race. Matt Barrett, Dan Booth and Chris Rathbone going well. its all very tight with no space between any of us. i was thinking of an attack on the climb out of the techy woods but didn't get that far after i got what seemed like and enitre bush wrapped around my wheel. i lost 1 minute getting rid of it whilst Matt had attacked after seeing my trouble. I ride my arse off to get back on and caught by the end of the hard climb and half a lap to go. matt was away so i needed to somehow get passed the big frame of Dan and the Fiesty Chris. i was a little puffed from my effort to get back on and couldn't find any space. chris squeezed passed dan on the last corner and i was half a bike length back. damn 4th! i learned something from this race though. i knew i was the strongest but sat, watched and wondered what everyone else was gonna do instead of doing my thing.


27th june BMBS rd 4 Crow hill
the same course as the nationals from last year but backwards. a reasonable start, got into a rythmn and worked my way through the pack. the dreaded cramps kicked in again after mid way and i thought the same might happen as margam. i fended them off and rode on the limit of them giving way again. reaching Tim Dunford i had another cramp attack and he got away. Racing for the 12th place against Jody Crawforth who i presume punctured earlier, i trailed in 13th. my best NPS result but could have been better. gotta get my fuelling sorted.