Welsh Mountain Bike Series Round 2 Buith Wells

This weekend I headed to the Buith Wells Showground in mid wales for the second round of the Welsh XC. the course was similar to the welsh cyclocross champs course, but was still a great course.
The start was carnage due to being started with elites, experts, and junior men and women categories, however I did manage to move into the top 10 fairly quickly and break away with Craig Rogers for the first lap but after the last technical section just before the arena I managed to drop my chain so had to stop and put it back on losing about 15 seconds. I was then stuck chasing back for the next 2 laps with Thomas Nesham. I then just managed to drop him on the main climb and was then chasing back to Craig Rogers solo. I luckily managed to then catch up to him with 1 lap to go, I sat on him up the last climb and down the tight twisty descent and before the crest of the final climb I then attacked him before the final descent as I knew it would be very hard to get past before the finish, he stayed with down the descent but on the final corner Craig ended up falling off on the last corner by hitting my back wheel  which allowed me to cross the line and take the win of RD2 of the Welsh XC.

I have now got a weekend off before heading to Coed-y-Brenin for the welsh champs and then forest fields the weekend after for RD3 of the BMBS where I hope to get some good results too.

 

 

BMBS RD2 Newnham Park

It was an eventful weekend starting off with a 5hour drive down to Plymouth, we arrived around 11:00 which gave me time to get my number and relax for abit before heading out for three practise laps of what pictures and videos I had seen looked like a great course. the first practise lap went well and I rode all the A lines Really comfortably and wasn't really struggling, except for the climbs, they were really steep and if you got out the saddle your rear wheel would slip on the loose ground that  had been baking in the hot dry weather all week. I headed out for my second practise lap just to make sure about thinking of switching down to a 30T ring on my 1x10 set up. on the second lap I did again ride all the A lines comfortably at abit of a higher pace except for the final A line (cottage Carnage) where I managed to end up flying over the bars going straight through the tape and landing on my head in the process and making myself see stars for a while but after 5 minutes I decided to go back up and hit the A line again and ended up going over the bars again probably due to I didn't give myself enough time to calm down after the first one. In this crash I managed to break my seat in the process snapping the rails meaning  that I would have to go back to the car to get that sorted out and to make sure I was also ok as I was feeling sore and did take a massive blow to my head which I later found out I  had also found out I broke my helmet as well leaving a massive crack in the top of it, but to make things worse I didn't bring a spare helmet or seat but was lucky enough that a friend of ours had a spare seat, but this still meant that we needed to get a helmet as the paramedics said it was not good enough to use again as if I crashed again with it, it would not do its job, this meant we had to go to certini the local bike shop to newnham park to find a new helmet.
After about half an hour of looking round the numerous helmets I managed to find a helmet to my liking and then we headed back to newnham park, changed the ring from a 32T to a 30T. this made the climbs much easier and I again rode all the A lines comfortably and this time at Cottage Carnage i took it slower and made sure I got down it safely and then built my speed up over the next couple of runs down before heading back to the car feeling confident with all the A lines.

On race day it looked like good weather and I was feeling good, I started my warm up on rollers and moved through the zones getting me up to speed that the race will be at.
I was gridded on the front row again which would give me a great starting position.
The gun went and everyone clipped in, except me which also meant I went from the front of the race to the back and was sitting dead last, I was then left with the job of moving up back into the top 10 which I managed to do coming through the main arena and was chasing back to the group for 5th, the 5 of us stayed together for the majority of the race until tomos mein put in a dig on the main steep climb and my legs couldn't react and I was out of gears because the hill was so steep, I tried to chase back to them on the descents but the gap was just too big to catch back up to them but I still pushed on as there were people still chasing from behind but I managed to hold onto 10th.
I was satisfied with this result but I am hoping for better at the next round of BMBS at forest fields in wales.

Midlands XC RD1 Cannock Chase

A few weeks ago I headed to Cannock chase for the second time this season for the first round of the Midlands XC. the course seemed to be fairly dry but was still very slippy in the trees.
The start of the race was really fast but I managed to clip in straight away and led the start out and half of the first lap before Cameron orr overtook me but I managed to jump on the back of him and stay with him up the first climb until he attacked over the crest of the hill and managed to open up a gap before we hit the tree line and the vets! it was really hard to overtake all the vets in the trees and this is where gaps could have been opened or closed depending on if they wanted to let you past and in my case it was closed and was caught by harry yates, we then stayed together for the rest of the race trying to close the gap to Cameron taking it in turns on the front for the remainder of the laps, in the end we couldn't catch Cameron and we both knew that it was going to come down to a sprint for 2nd and 3rd, before the final single-track I attacked and overtook harry and I thought this was a good move as I knew he would struggle to get past, however, over the final jump I over shot it and was carrying  too much speed  and came off the main line and gave harry enough of a gap to come up on the inside of me and then we were going head to head for a sprint finish and knocking bars and in the end harry got 2nd by less than half a wheel and I had to settle for 3rd.

BMBS Rd1 Sherwood Pines

Over the weekend I headed to Sherwood Pines for the first round of the British Mountain Bike Series at Sherwood Pines in Nottingham. We arrived On the Saturday lunchtime after a 3hr drive in some wet conditions. Me & Dad who decided to race in open cat later in the afternoon collected our numbers and headed out for 3 laps course practise just to get to know the track, it was quite dry and wasn't very technical but would be a course that all you needed was lots of power & super smooth lines in the tight & twisty single-track. After my laps I cleaned the bike and went to watch Dad race before we headed to the hotel where we would stay the night.
The next morning I went to breakfast feeling a little bit nervous but also anxious of what to expect.  We arrived at Sherwood pines in plenty of time & I started my warm up swiftly after, once my legs were warmed up I headed down to the start arena for gridding where I was seeded on the front Row.

Just before the start the forecasted rain began to fall which would make the course a lot more slippier than in practise yesterday but hopefully the Racing Ralph tyres would still be ok, The start of the race was fast & I had a really good start and I sat 4th going into the first singletrack round the start arena, It was a fast pace race and people were frantically attacking to move up including me, People were moving up and down the positions but I stayed in the same position in 4th.

Daniel Tulett opened up a gap and it just kept growing and then once we hit the first part of open track Ross Harnden flew passed but no one seemed to attack however this didn't seem to matter because I found myself in a trio who had managed to get away with Callum Fernie and Cameron Orr, We stayed together opening up the gap to 6th taking it in turns on the front on the fire roads, I was feeling really comfortable and was feeling strong sitting behind them at their pace, however disaster struck coming back into the arena with my rear wheel coming loose and rubbing against the side of the frame, I pushed on for about another 20meteres but it was not falling back into place , I had to stop and I tried to tighten it as fast as possible and hop back on, by now Callum and Cameron had gone off into the distance and Tom Piddcock had also passed me but I managed to get back on and was sitting 6th with Tomos Mein sitting behind me.
Later that lap Ben Healey came up to join us and we worked together again and I was feeling comfortable and was trying to push the pace to try and make it back to the next rider so I could still maybe get a top 5. we stayed together for the next three laps until Tomos attacked and me and ben chased, until again my wheel came loose again but this time I only had myself to blame as I had been the one who had rushed to get it fixed as quickly as possible. I once again had to stop and tighten it up but luckily was not caught by anyone when doing so but I could see a trio  of riders coming up in the distance, in the end I ended up being caught by harry yates and we worked together to try and catch Ben who we were slowly bringing in towards the end of the last lap but there was not enough time left and we couldn't catch him, Harry ended up attacking before the final single track and getting ahead of a lapped rider giving him a small gap that he then held to the line. I ended up finishing 9th which I  was satisfied with but was a bit annoyed that I had been in the running for third until my wheel fell out so the Lightweight KCNC Titanium skewer has been replaced in favour of a more Substantial & hopefully reliable Shimano item for the future.
I now know my winter training has gone very well & my form is there so I still felt like I had a good ride and now look forward to the next round of the BMBS in Newnham park in Plymouth on April 18-19th.
Im off to South wales next week for a 4day Mtb Training Camp with Welsh cycling which will be really good to get together with the other Welsh riders for plenty of quality Race training & Skills practise.