National MTB championships

The past weekend I headed to Hadleigh farm Essex for the National championships on the Olympic course, Hadleigh is a  great course with really fun and challenging A-lines and I have had good and bad luck here in the past.
After warming up early on Sunday morning before the 9 O'clock start I headed to the start line, I was on the front row which would help with my start and how the race panned out for me.
I had a good start and was sitting around 5th going under the start/finish banner but I quickly noticed that my legs just couldn't keep the pace like usual and I spent the whole race going backwards from then on in, the race quickly split up with riders racing ahead at the front of the race and I was hoping that my legs would come around sooner rather than later, as people came past me throughout the 4 laps I found myself not being able to stay with them on the short sharp climbs like I usually could and I just wasn't able to attack over the top of climbs as normal, after a really hard race I finished 14th, defiantly not the result I wanted from national champs but I guess my legs can't always be there at every race,it was just a shame the weren't there for this race and just felt empty, hopefully they will be back on  top form for my first major road race out in Belgium riding for wales in a couple of weeks.

WMBS RD4 Nant yr Arian

The past weekend me and the family headed to Nant yr Arian near aberystwyth for the final round of the WMBS, coming into this I had a lead of 3 points to Craig so I needed to finish in at least 3rd to hold on to the overall series win, I did my practise laps on the Saturday so I didn't have to ride before the race and just warm up after warming up I headed to the start  i had a good start and led all the way up the main climb but Craig jumped ahead just before the singletrack, we quickly opened up a good gap to third place, i then overtook and led for the majority of the lap pushing on the descents and on the short really steep uphill climbs, we stayed together for the next 2 laps attacking each other trying to get away until the second descent on the third lap where i dropped my chain and Craig managed to get a bit of a gap, i pushed on and managed to catch him by the top of the climb and was able to be back in contention for the win, we didn’t attack much on the last lap but took it in turns doing the least work possible for the first half of the last lap, I then wanted to lead into the really steep and technical ascent so attacked before it but Craig pushed his way back through and he was leading up the technical climb, after the climb he seemed to be abit tired and I attacked him over the top and back down into the final descent, i had opened up enough of a gap to then hold Craig off and take the win and also the overall series.