National XC Championships - Wasing Park

Apparently we have a couple of weeks of acceptable weather and all of a sudden I forget to update my blog. Poor show! Over the last 4 weeks I have had 3 races, one biggie and 2 chippers. The most important race amongst this was the National Championships 2 weeks ago at Wasing Park. After a week on holiday in the Lake District doing a little bit of MTB, a couple of road rides and some hiking I made the long drive from Keswick to Wasing, via Cambridge to drop Emma off. A solid 8 hours of driving is not generally considered the best pre-race preparation but short of buying a helicopter I had no other option!

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.

South West series - Forest of Dean

It seems to me that this blog is getting quite repetitive. I went to a race. it pissed it down for a week/3 days/ 5 hours before hand and made an otherwise acceptable course a nightmare. I ended up with mud/grit in every orifice and my white kit may never be white again. I would love to stop regurgitating this kind or race report, but unfortunately, all of the above are true. The venue was different but just about everything seemed the same. This time around it was the Forest of Dean playing host to the Fully Susses South West Series race. Most of the top riders in the category had taken the long journey up to Kirroughtree in West Scotland for round 4 of the British National XC series but I didn't fancy 6 hours driving each way for a 2 hour race (which would probably still turn out with an identical race report to that above) where I would almost certainly get my ass handed to me. since I am no longer harbouring hopes of promotion to elite this year I decided to take the inconsiderably more humane 1 hour drive to the FoD instead.

Race Reports x2 - Hopton and Codham

Hopton in the sun, what a lovely sweaty place to be!

The first part of this blog is a little late as it is now over a week since the 3rd round of the national XC series at Hopton Castle in Shropshire. The fact that I am lumping my 2 most recent races together works out quite well though as it emphasises the massive change in conditions between the two. Only 7 days separated these 2 races and yet the temperature difference was about 20 degrees. This, along with a not inconsiderable volume of rain meant these two races could not have been more different. No prizes for guessing which one I enjoyed more!

Southern XC Champs; Wasing Park

I have not ridden my bike since Wales because of a sore throat/cold so I had no great expectations going into Sunday’s Southern XC Championships. The thought of racing had kept me going all week long but when I was struggling to speak on Sunday morning I did question whether it was wise. After a couple of Strepsils and a gentle reccy lap I was starting to feel a bit better but how my legs would react after a week of 0 exercise was still a mystery.

After weeks of miserable rain we were gifted a couple of days of sun which did wonders for the course to the point that it was dry and dusty for almost the whole lap. Thank God for that is all I can say because this could have been a full on bog slog if things had gone the other way. Much of the course is loamy soil with exposed roots which have a habit of becoming unridable very quickly. The course was very similar to previous years with a slightly reworked, and less to my liking, start and a new near-vertical drop-in by the lakes.

Dyfi Enduro 2012

On Saturday I headed over to Machynlleth for the annual, and by now legendary, Dyfi Enduro. Because of a hangover I was delayed in setting off and didn’t make it there in time for the usual reliability ride around the Mach 1 loop so just pitched the tent and headed to the pub. You might notice I don’t take the event too seriously. It’s a fun event with a great course and I like to do as well as I can but it is also a good opportunity to catch up with people I only see once a year and eat my body weight in the finest fish and chips in the land.