British Mountain Bike Series Round 2 - Dalby Forest

This race was the furthest away one, that I have planned to do this MTB season, and so I went up the day before and had a look at the course. When practising the course on the Saturday I was slightly shocked by the technical aspect of the course, and how much this course suited all types of riders, as with very technical parts to long steep hills it had something for everyone.

When doing my first practice lap on the Saturday, a big rock flicked up and bent my Rear Mech slightly, this in turn knocked alot of my gears out of line, thus I didn't go for the second lap I had hoped to do, with fellow riders. This was not good for my confidence, after being slightly shocked by the technical aspect of the course, it did not put my mind at rest after doing only one practice lap!

On arriving at the race venue on the morning of the race I was feeling very nervous (of the race course and of the race itself) because of this, and the windy roads going into Dalby Forest, I threw up about 10 minutes before my race!

During the race I was feeling Ok considering I threw up, but I was just falling of the wheels of riding I was following through the technical parts of the course and on the open sections, then.....
I was just about to ride one of the courses most famous technical sections Medusa's Drop, on this part I was kind of forced to do the technical option instead of the "chicken run", as there was a back-marker on the chicken run already, then as I went over one of the roots on the drop, my front wheel dipped to much and I went strait over the bars! I got back up and my handlebars were bent and my legs pretty chewed up. I then got back on the bike and started the ascent of the biggest climb of the course, where I dropped a further 3 places.

The "Dual Descender" section at Dalby

In the rest of the race I felt Ok, but just wasn't where I wanted to be in the race positions, I finished with a sprint to Danny Fox and won it by about half a wheel. I finished in 24th place, which I was not that happy with, but was a bit comforted when I found out there was 46 riders in my race. I have a BSCA National Chamaps Race a week  and one day from the day of this race, and after that a good 3 week gap to the second Southern XC, in which I hope to get some good training in and hopefully get some results as good as I had at BMBS 1 at Sherwood Pines.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I was not able to find many photographers websites who were there and the 2 that I found, did not have any photos of me.

Thanks for Reading


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