BNPS Round 1 - Pembrey Wales

BNPS Round 1 - Pembrey Wales 

Sunday 3rd April saw the 1st round of the MTB XC British National Point Series, in Pembrey Wales. In the week leading up to the race I had a good solid block of MTB and Road training, and from Friday onward's I had a couple of days of rest. 

With the new start time of 3:30 instead of 12:00, it meant we could travel up early Sunday morning, with thanks to Dad who drove the 8 hour round trip, and still have enough time for a course practice and to watch some of the other exciting races. The weather was holding off through the morning, and it actually looked rather sunny on the journey up. But come 1pm, the clouds began closing in and the heavens opened. The course was getting muddier and muddier. 

14:30 came around and it was time to start warming up. I jumped on the turbo trainer (in the rain) and got a decent 20 minute warm up in. 

I took to the start line, being grided 30th out of 54, i knew all i wanted to do was finish the race in the worsening conditions and if possible finish somewhere around my griding position. The race started well, dodging a broken chain on the start straight i got comfortably into a good position for the first couple of laps.

Due to the lack of racing and STILL worsening conditions, i started to fade come the 4th lap. I was loosing my cool and concentration and starting to get frustrated with the way i was riding, causing me to make some simple, yet silly mistakes.

I had dropped back into about 38th position and was going to hold this until the end of the 6th lap. I was then, weirdly, pulled out of the race by one of the commisaires just before going onto my 6th lap. I was a bit suspicious at the time as I hadn't been lapped. As I was riding around the pit area to cool down, I noticed 2 expert riders who were behind me, continuing their race onto the 6th lap. Immediately I questioned the commisaire who 'made a mistake'. I quickly jumped back onto my bike and rode the last lap, be it rather angrily.

I wasn't able to catch the riders who passed and eventually, after 01:52:00 of racing, I crossed the line in 40th. I was rather dissapointed as I thought I had done everything right in the build up and was beaten by people I know I was capable of beating.

The next race is the 2nd round of the Southern XC where I hope I can repeat the race of 2015's 3rd place expert (maybe).

Ryan

Southern XC Round 1 - Black Park

Southern XC Round 1 is the first proper season race of each year, and this year we were back to the same location as R1 in 2015, Black Park. The course is notorious for its flat, fast and tight racing. The winter training has gone to plan (almost), as i would have liked to have got a few more hours in each week. But such, life gets in the way. Whilst sat on the M3, all that was running through my head was how exited i was, the sun was shining and it hadn't rained all week. 

The morning practice lap was complete and I knew it was going to be a full body work out, what with the flat, bumpy and really twisty course. The twists certainly did suit my riding style and I knew I would be faster through those sections than some of my rivals but was going to have to hop onto a wheel on the fast fire roads.

I lined up on the first row after a strong finish to the 2015 series, next to many familiar faces from the past Southern XC series’. With these races you get to know who you’re going to be racing, who’s going to kick your butt and who you may stand a chance against. The whilst went, the first mile was a hard, smooth and fast surface which quickly strung the field out. The usual culprits were on the front pushing a fast pace along the fire roads and through the single track.

The first lap came around and I found myself in the first group of 10 riders and we had managed to pull a gap on the second group. I sat pretty comfortably at the back of the group trying not to get carried out.

The racing progressed and the laps ticked by, but I was slowly losing sight of the lead group I was originally with. Lap 3 and 4 were a real struggle, this I think was due to not having raced since November. The 5^th lap came and after a couple of gels I managed to find a bit of strength and pushed on to ensure I didn’t lose any more places.

I crossed the line in 13^th and found somewhere to lie down. I was happy with the result and know that with a few more races under my belt in 2016 I can start to push for top ten at these events. The next race for me is now Round 1 of the British National XC Series at Pembrey where the course is flat, technical and fast.