Ruthin MTB Marathon

a couple of weeks ago I did the local MTB marathon I ruthin just down the road from where I live on the all natural trails around the clwydian range, we rolled out at 10 o clock through the streets of ruthin before hitting the Blwch Penbarres which is a very steep and long hill up to the car park of moel famau, a group went off the front and I was just off the back of them, once we had reached the top of the blwch we then headed onto the fire road which would take us into the Clwyd's and around moel famau, we then continued to climb and descend along the fire road before going onto the banks of moel famau on many fast flowing grass descents that were really fun. once we had done the loop around moel famau we ten went onto a short section of road and then because I was doing the 75km we did a loop around moel Arthur before stopping at the first feed station, my bottle topped up of torq and we were off again onto the next part of the course which took us in and out of cilcain before climbing back to moel famau on a steep hill again, but was totally worth it for the really fun technical descent and then heading over to loggerheads  and stopping at the 2 feed and going on our way back into ruthin, at this point I was starting to feel the pace I had gone off at and was struggling to keep it, so I made the decision to miss the second part of the 75km loop and follow the 50km loop back home, there was one final climb up to the Clwyd gate before having almost all descent for the final 7km. it was a really great event and look forward to doing it again next year! 

BMBS RD4 Cathkin Braes

Hi all, sorry I have not been updating my blog due to exams and revision but I will now be able to update you about races and how they went again :).
This weekend we went to Cathkin Braes Scotland for the 4th round of the national points series, the weather was windy and cloudy the whole weekend with some light showers from time to time. The course was technical with lots of rock sections and short punchy climbs.
I was gridded 6th on the line and was on the front row, I had a great start and was 4th into the singletrack, it was a fast pace and with the added rock sections and technical features thrown in while the race was still close and people battling for positions, about a group of 6 of us found we had gotten away due to and crash or fall from behind, the 2 leaders attacked and left 4 of us to battle it out for the rest of the race but Cameron Orr and calum fernie managed to get a gap on me and Sam culverwell coming up the final climb to the finish of lap 1, me and same worked together for the next 2 laps only to be joined by Tomos mein on the end of lap 3 heading into the final lap, tomos set a high pace for the final lap and managed to drop Sam leaving me and him to fight it out for 5th place, he was quick over the top of the hills and attacked over the crest and slowly broke me down and tire till I made a mistake on one of the steep wet slippy climbs towards the end of the lap and I had to jump off and he pulled a gap, I tried to get it back and pushed all the way to the line but he had already but a sizeable gap into me with less than 1k to go and I had to settle for 6th. it was a good fast race and was happy with 6th place and was less than 3minutes off the leader over 1hour.
 I have now got 2 weeks before the next welsh XC at Nant Yr Arian in mid wales and then National Champs at Hadleigh farm in Essex.