Southern XC 5: Frith Hill

 In the week following my win at the Rampage Series opener we actually had some pretty nice weather so I forced myself to commute by bike to make the most of it, and managed to fit in some lovely sprint intervals too. Never fun but hopefully they make a difference come race day. Sunday was the final round of the Southern XC series at Frith Hill and with a weather forecast that could go either way I was trying to be positive and hoping for a dry race. This venue is traditionally used by Gorrick in the pre-season races so on arrival I was struggling to get myself in the competitive mind set. The fairly torrential rain shower just as I was driving down the entrance road didn't help my motivation either.

Rampage Series Round 1

First win of the season

Looking at the state of the Mountain Mayhem course this weekend I was very glad to have not offered my services to anyone. I did, however, book myself in for a far shorter session of mud surfing at the first round of the Rampage series based in Checkendon. The course is short at about 2km and when dry the racing should last about 1hour. Although it was definitely not dry, it was holding up pretty well for the most part. The first section of singletract after the start as very slippery and kept making me think I had punctures because I was finding it so hard to keep in a straight line! The final section was also pretty tough becasue it was the only part of the course that had got baddly cut up and was very claggy and slow progress. The rest of the track was still running firm and quick.