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Showing posts with label Tom Butler. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tom Butler. Show all posts
Saturday, 7 May 2011
South Downs Ride - 02/05/11
On bank Holiday Monday I rode the South Downs with some riders from my club VC Deal. According to my Coaches GPS, we rode for just under 5 hours. We may not have covered as much distance as we would like to have done, with how many hours we rode for, but this was due to very strong wind the whole ride! Despite the wind it was a good days riding and we saw some great views at the same time. Pictures are below, courtesy of Richard Wood.
Saturday, 30 April 2011
BSCA National MTB Champs - Wilmington School
This race was quite close, as it was only about an hour from where I live. Also with this being only a School Champs, there was no need to practice the day before! On arriving at the race venue on the morning of the race, I suddenly realised how HOT it was and how harder the race was going to be because of it!
I had raced at this venue earlier in the year at a Cyclo-cross race, because of this I was interested on how good of a Mountain Bike course they were going to make it. However on practising the course I noticed that it featured alot of fast flowing, really nice single-track. The course also featured a fairly technical drop, with a sharp right hander at the bottom, followed by a concrete step section which I really liked, this technical part of the course also featured a chicken run.
After doing a total of 3 practice laps, I was confident of a good race and could not wait to get started. As I was hanging around (with many other riders) near the start for Gridding, I was excited for the race. However, because the race is not British Cycling run, they cannot grid on national Rankings, thus I was gridded second to last on a field of about 25 riders! I knew I would have to get a good start, in order to have a good race, or I would be playing catch-up.
I had a good start, as the start straight of the course was not taped at the sides, thus I was able to sprint my heart out and go round to the right hand side of the pack of riders, and consequently I was in about 5th, when entering the first single-track section. I couldn't believe I had gone from about 24th to 5th in about 40 metres!
I carried on in the first lap and because one of the riders in front of me went down on a single-track turn (Sam Stean), and from gaining another place earlier in the race, I was in 3rd! When he went down, I obviously went round him, sprinted off and sprinted up the next climb, in an attempt to gain some distance. I held him off for about half a lap and then he went round me on the only steep hill of the lap (near the finish). I was unable to follow his wheel and this put in 4th, this was where I was to stay for the remainder of the race. I carried on in the race and was really enjoying the single-track and the technical section.
I finished in 4th, and was pleased with my race. I also found out after the podium that I actually got 3rd as one of the riders in front of me was an Over-16 rider. I missed the podium because of this, but was still very pleased with the race.
I went away from this race very happy and with a tan that was a few shades darker than the one I had before! My next race will be the Southern XC Round 2 at Wasing Estate on the 15th May. I am looking forward to racing there as the course suits me well, and because, I will be doing a National Mountain Bike Race there on the 12th June.
Thanks for reading
Au-revoir!
I had raced at this venue earlier in the year at a Cyclo-cross race, because of this I was interested on how good of a Mountain Bike course they were going to make it. However on practising the course I noticed that it featured alot of fast flowing, really nice single-track. The course also featured a fairly technical drop, with a sharp right hander at the bottom, followed by a concrete step section which I really liked, this technical part of the course also featured a chicken run.
After doing a total of 3 practice laps, I was confident of a good race and could not wait to get started. As I was hanging around (with many other riders) near the start for Gridding, I was excited for the race. However, because the race is not British Cycling run, they cannot grid on national Rankings, thus I was gridded second to last on a field of about 25 riders! I knew I would have to get a good start, in order to have a good race, or I would be playing catch-up.
I had a good start, as the start straight of the course was not taped at the sides, thus I was able to sprint my heart out and go round to the right hand side of the pack of riders, and consequently I was in about 5th, when entering the first single-track section. I couldn't believe I had gone from about 24th to 5th in about 40 metres!
I carried on in the first lap and because one of the riders in front of me went down on a single-track turn (Sam Stean), and from gaining another place earlier in the race, I was in 3rd! When he went down, I obviously went round him, sprinted off and sprinted up the next climb, in an attempt to gain some distance. I held him off for about half a lap and then he went round me on the only steep hill of the lap (near the finish). I was unable to follow his wheel and this put in 4th, this was where I was to stay for the remainder of the race. I carried on in the race and was really enjoying the single-track and the technical section.
I finished in 4th, and was pleased with my race. I also found out after the podium that I actually got 3rd as one of the riders in front of me was an Over-16 rider. I missed the podium because of this, but was still very pleased with the race.
I went away from this race very happy and with a tan that was a few shades darker than the one I had before! My next race will be the Southern XC Round 2 at Wasing Estate on the 15th May. I am looking forward to racing there as the course suits me well, and because, I will be doing a National Mountain Bike Race there on the 12th June.
Thanks for reading
Au-revoir!
Monday, 4 April 2011
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.
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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
Thanks-for-reading
Au-revoir!
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