National XC MTB Series - Round 1 - Sherwood Pines - 25.03.12

On the 25th March I travelled up to Sherwood Pines, Nottingham for the first round of the Cross-country Mountain Biking - National Series. It was a very early start due to a race start time of 9.30am. I arrived with quite a lot of time considering how far we had to travel. On arrival I saw that the weather was nice and the ground dry, (I knew it was going to be the normal super-fast Sherwood race conditions). Un-like normal, I chose to spin my legs out on the turbo before I practiced the course, this was because the practice lap would have to be a sort of war-up for me, as the start time was pretty close.

I felt good after a quick spin on the turbo and thought the course was god when I rode it. It featured a few very technical sections, including a under-cut drop much like Worry Gill at Dalby and a 1.5ft high log, to jump or hurdle. I rode all the 'A lines' in practice and were confident I could do this in the race. Apart from the log jump, as I found it safer and faster, to dismount, hurdle and remount at speed, in "cross style"! :L

I was very nervous for the race and this was shown as from about an hour before my race, to the start, I felt sick the whole time!! I had to sit down for 5 minutes on a couple of occasional to calm down and to make sure I didn't regurgitate vital food for energy! :L

I had a great start after being gridded 5th on the first row and I was in 2nd until we entered the first single-rack where I had fell back 4th. I was happy with this place, but when the course became slightly wider I overtook one rider and was in 3rd! Billy (race winner) pulled a gap from everyone, then a bit further back was Dylan, then me. I would say about 10 seconds separated us all from each-other!

Come mid-first-lap Billy had a clear lead of about 30 seconds to Dylan, and I was about 20 seconds from Dylan. I was pushing as hard as I could to catch Dylan and chase Billy with him, but I started to fill sick, so I decided to not bury myself as much as I was! By the end of the first lap Dylan's lead to me had lengthened and I had been caught by 3 chasers (Will Cheaney, Calum Magowan and James Shaw). After we crossed the line to start our second lap, James Shaw went past us all and I chased him down as much as I could. I did not catch him, but by doing this I dropped Will and I was left with Calum to chase down James.

So to recall, Billy was leading, then there was Dylan, then James, then me and Calum chasing together. When Calum got on the front he chased James down hard, and this make him get a 3 or 4 second gap to me, after this I made a few technical mistakes which made this gap grow and eventually mean he crossed the line at the end of the two lap race, 18 seconds ahead of me. So in the end I finished in 5th place, being 18 seconds off of 4th. I was 2 and 1/2 minutes off of the leader. I was very happy with my race as it's the start of the season and I was nervous as to everyone's form.

Me in 2nd from the start! :-)

So, overall, it was a good result, great course and a great day! Unfortunately I haven't many photos at the moments, but thanks to Andy Whitehouse (http://www.andy-whitehouse.co.uk/) for the one photo I could find! Thanks again! :-)

There is a link below to the results sheet as well, I am in 'Youth Male'.

Event Results

Thanks to my dad for taking me to the race, for all the support from people course-side and lastly to Andy Whitehouse (http://www.andy-whitehouse.co.uk/) again for the photo! :-)

Thanks for reading and Au-Revoir!

Southern XC - Rnd.1 - Checkendon - 18.03.12

On the 18th March was the first Southern XC of the 2012 Mounatin Bike Season, in fact it was the first real race of the season! having not raced MTB in a while, I was very committed to getting a good result on the day. I went into the race confident with good training over the Winter and was looking forward to seeing what my form was like.

On arrival, the weather was very nice, but the ground, and inevitably the course, was a bit damp and muddy. The course was much the same as last year, with lots of flat, fast, and rooty single-track. Also 3 or 4 steep hills running consecutively, mid-lap. The hills were short, steep, but very slippery and technical. I managed to ride everything in practice, so when it came to waiting on the line for the start, I felt quite confident.

I was gridded first, after a god series position last season (2nd Youth Male), and I had a good start leading until entering the first bit of singletrack. I was overtaken by Tom Franklin and Harvey Lowe after entering the single-track, but soon overtook Harvey as Tom was distancing everyone. I chased Tom down and rode the rest of the race with him.

I was comfortable riding round with Tom, but maybe too comfortable. I was so surprised with my form, having rode nowhere near Tom during the whole cross season, that I didn't having the confidence to go past. Looking back on it now, I could have and I should have. In the end we rode the whole race together, until Tom entered the final corner in-front of me and sprinted to victory on the line.

I was pleased with 2nd place, but knowing the victory was just 2 seconds in front, is a bit annoying. Anyway, it was good to find how my form was at the strat of the 2012 Mountain Bike Season, and this set me up well for the first National MTB Race at Sherwood Pines the following Sunday. There are links to the photos and results for the event, below.

Thanks to Richard for taking me to the race and for taking some photos while there! :-)

FlickR Photos (with thanks to Richard Wood)

Event Results (Southern XC Website)

Thanks for reading and Au-Revoir!

Long time, No blog......

I have recently been 'neglecting' my blog, this is because of being rather busy pedaling, and because it's the cross season. This season being one that I don't tremendously wait all year for, and don't really 'excel' in.

I have had a mixed bag of results this cross season, and currently I have competed in 9 Cyclo-cross races. My best national cyclo-cross result this season has been 13th at Round 1 South Shields, and I have won 2 London League's. I have only won 2 London League's out of the 8 rounds which have so far taken place, but I am still currently leading the London League Youth Series Standings.

Although I have not performed as well as I expected to this season in national races, I have had some good local races, and know that the best training is racing, so it all helps towards my form for the coming MTB season in March 2012.

Although I have been competing primarily in Cyclo-cross races since September, I have done 2 Mountain Bike races, these races were part of Fowlmead's Night Race Series. These races are 1 hour (which is the same duration as National Youth MTB races) in the dark and mud, and I have won my category (Youth), and the Seniors in both events. Although this is only a local series, it is still good to win and good for my confidence in more 'high-key' events.

So, as previously mentioned, I think I have found out that I am not going to trouble the front of a National Cyclo-cross race, I am using the cross season to keep my form throughout the Winter, and hopefully let it be a great training tool for the coming MTB season.

Last on this blog post in some news on a new ride. I have recently got my hands on my first racing full-suspension mountain bike. I plan to use this full-suspension mountain bike in the 2012 MTB Season. With Mountain Bike Courses becoming shorter and much more technical, I thought it would be a good choice for the coming season. The bike is a Trek Carbon Top Fuel 9.7. I have since upgraded to Bontrager's Race X Lite Wheels and plan to upgrade to Shimano's New 10 speed, Double XT Drive-train before the MTB season.The bike is pictured below, and I will soon post a picture of the actual bike, not just a image from the web, which shows the bike as standard.

Finally, I would just like to say, thank-you to everyone who is viewing my blog now, or has done in the past and made me very happy to have my page views at 2600+ !!!!

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


Au-revoir

Southern XC Round 1 Checkendon 03.04.11

On Sunday I attended the opening round of the Southern XC Series at Checkendon, as you may know from my previous Blog Post I raced here a few weeks ago and as noted the course was pan flat and fast (13.5minute lap). I was aware that for a Southern Round they would have to lengthen the lap to around a 20minute lap. To do this they would have to take the course into other fields (which meant long slogs) and to add some height gain (which meant adding painful hills).
 Although the course for this race was a lot longer and had quite a few steep, fairly long hills in it, I still found that I liked the course in practice.

While I was warming up a bit before the race with a fellow club member (Calum Anderton), he suddenly noticed that everyone for our race was already being gridded! Unfortunately they had already gridded the Under16's (my category), for this reason I was gridded at the back. So while on the line I was already picking my lines off the start in order to get nearer the front.

In the above photo you can't even see me as I am in the back row, but however it turned out that I got a pretty good start and by the time we entered the first single-track I was in 3rd! This was after a lot of pushing and because there was quite a lot of wide open track between the start line and the first bit of single-track.

My race lasted 2 laps of about a 22 minute lap, thus my race lasted 3/4 of an hour. On the first lap I stayed in 2nd for a while behind Joe Broadhead as I didn't want to be too ambitious too soon, especially as a first year under16! Towards the end of lap 1, I overtook Joe and lead for almost the rest of the race.

I felt comfortable in the lead and kept the gaps between me and the competition at the same distance (when I looked over at the open sections). However towards the end of the last lap I saw Sam Stean (VC Jubilee) catching fellow riders on a climb of the course, i was aware he was a second year and knew that he was close to me at Sherwood's race.

Sam managed to over take the last 2 or 3 riders behind me and was obviously feeling better towards the end of his race then I was, as he overtook the riders behind me and sat on my wheel for a while until there was a opportunity to pass nearer the end of the lap, however near the end of the last lap he had a wash out at a corner. I took the opportunity to gun it for the rest of the lap to see if I could keep the gap open and stop him from overtaking me. I stayed in front until the last 30 metres, where he had caught up with my wheel and in the end overtook me to take the win.

Me checking behind near the finish

Although I was in the lead, I knew Sam was catching me and I knew that he would overtake me, as he looked much stronger than me by this time in the race. Also, the crash he had, just delayed the overtake that he was going to make, to take the win. I got 2nd which, as a first year under16 I should be more than happy with, but when you were that close to win, you always think after the race, "surely I had enough energy to push that bit harder". But as I have been a racer for almost 7 years, I have learnt not to over-think and pick apart races, I tend to just take the simple lessons learnt when racing.

One of my Edits :D

Overall I am happy with my race and thanks to all the Southern XC Team who put on a great event with a great course! Also many thanks to Richard Wood for taking me! :D Finally here is a link to the full FlickR album and plus some of my racing Photo Edits!

Full FlickR Album (Including Edits)

Full Southern XC Round 1 Results ( I am a Youth)

Thanks-for-reading

Au-revoir!

British Mountain Bike Series Round 1 - Sherwood Pines

It was an early start to the first Round of the National Mountain Bike Series, as I travelled up on the day and this meant I had to get up at 4am! However I had gone to bed earlier the night before to compensate for this, thus I had had plenty of sleep :D

When I arrived at the race venue (Sherwood Pines) it brought back memories of coming along with the family and watching my brother (Michael Butler) win National Races (that I would be doing that day). In this way I was keen to get a good warm up and be in best possible physical condition to get a good race for my Dad and Family.

As the organiser of the race was only allowing course practice between 9 and 9.30, I could not practice the course as my race was at 9.30 and there isn't enough time in between to be ready to race. An advantage of this is that I had arrived at about 8 o'clock and I raced at 9.30, this gave me a long time to get a good warm-up in before my race.

I had a good warm-up and felt very good when putting in my sprint efforts during the warm-up. As I went to the start line I was very nervous, and as I rode around with a few other riders (to keep the legs turning for as long as possible before the wait on the line), I found that I was far from the only one who was nervous.

I had a good start and was in about 19th (I think), after the first 50 metres, also the course featured a long start on a wide fire-track. In the fire-track I was able to push some big gears and put lots of effort in, because of this I pushed myself up to about 15th. On entering the first single-track I was in the same position, as the race was 3 laps, each lap was about 20 minutes.

Between the first and second lap I caught a few places by going all out on the fire-tracks and taking it smoothly through the single-track, because of this on the bell lap (last lap) I heard from the commentary, that I was in 12th! I really wanted to get that top ten spot, so on the last lap I caught another rider nearer the start of the lap and then I was behind the 10th place rider (Billy Harding).

This was a rider who I knew was predominantly a road and cross rider, thus hopefully they would not ride single-track as fast as I could. I followed his wheel for one fire-track section of the course and then just before entering the single-track, I made my move! I overtook him, in the hope that I would drop him in the single-track sections of the course, this worked and I gave it all the guts on the last two fire-tracks (to make sure he wasn't catching) and came into the arena with a very happy smile to take 10th place! :D

Once I had finished I went into the arena and waited for my Dad, but before this I shook the hands of a few riders that I have caught on the last half of the race, to share a bit a respect between us.

I was very happy with my race performance, and I was safe in the knowledge that as I was a first year under16, all the people that beat me, except one would be moving up next year, this meant next year with the same performance it may hopefully be podium time. Also with the huge field of Youth riders that raced (51 riders!!), I saw that a lot of the people that had beaten me all cross season, I had beaten today.

Lastly I would like to say thank to Martyn Salt (race organiser) for a fantastic race venue and course. Also thanks to my Dad, for driving up there for 4 hours at 4 o'clock in the morning!!

Thanks-for-reading 

Au-revoir!