1st Gear Cycles Rampage Round 2 - Checkendon (22.05.11)

This was one of those 'last minute' races, thus I hadn't really planned (until 2 days before) to do it. However I was looking forward to it, as it was on the Checkendon course, which I had raced on twice before this season and really enjoyed the flat, single-track packed course.

After a slight detour on the way to the race, which meant we had gone down what looked like a Bridleway!, we arrived at the race venue. I went for a lap with another rider and the course was, as I remembered it, at the first round of the Rampage Series, flat, twisty and fast! However after some heavy rain in the morning, the corners, which were covered in roots, were becoming slippery and I found myself taking caution when tackling them.

After a good warm up, I lined up on the start and the race commenced. I had a good start and was in second from the start to the first bit of single-track (being just being Joe Broadhead). After a couple of turns, a Midlands rider (Jack Ravenscroft), overtook me on a turn and then Joe, who was in the lead at the time. Jack then, quickly turned up the pace and consequently Joe chased him down.

Taking some air on the Log Jump

This left me in 3rd, where I would stay for the rest of the race. Throughout the race the gap behind me (to 4th) was staying at a safe distance (1min. 17secs.), but unfortunately the gap in front of me (to 2nd) was getting bigger. I tried to close it a bit on the last lap, but I think I only made up about 5-10 seconds.

I finished in 4th, which I was happy with. I was 44 seconds off of 2nd in the end, and 50 seconds of off the leader (Jack). As I have said, I was happy with the result and glad that it meant I got a podium, even if it is the smallest step! There are also FlickR albums from the race, below.

Richard's FlickR Album

Cowell's FlickR Album

Ciao! and Thanks for Reading!

Southern XC Round 2 - Wasing 22.05.11 (inclu. Southern Champs)

I was quite excited about this race, as I had raced there last year at a round of the Southern XC Series and got 2nd! That race being my first one since ages, because of this I was fairly convinced that this course suited me well.

Once I practiced the course, I realised how fast the racing was going to be. With only a couple of short hills near the start of the lap, and the rest being flat, it was going to be fast! Also the start section was a long tarmac strait and then a long fast fire-track, with both of those parts making up the first minute and a half of racing! This made me look forward to the start because of how manic and fast it was going to be.

As it happened, after having a good warm up (with club members and the rest of the field), I did have a good start. However I only held the lead for about the first 20 or 30 so metres, I was then overtook by a few, but by digging deap I held my position well and on entering the first bit of singletrack, I was in 3rd.

Ahead of me was (in 1st place at the time) Harry Franklin and (a bit further back) Sam Stean. However I think Sam Stean decided to slow his pace a bit and ended up forming a group with me, and Joe Broadhead, which we held together for the remainder of the race.

The group I was in now, consisted of Me, Samuel Stean and Joe Broadhead. I think we worked well and when you are in a group like that, it always helps to keep the pace high. We were together mostly, with a few gaps here and there, until the last minute of the race. I was planning to make a break, but was caught out when Sam Stean went a bit earlier than me, however I managed to latch on and we (Sam and me) had a 10 metres or so gap on Joe.

On entering a gravel turn into the finish field, I had to break heavily after not expecting the slippery turn (because I was hiding behind Sam). This made Sam get a good gap on me and Joe overtake me, despite all this we were all within 10 metres of each other. I lost the group sprint, but still left the race with a pleasing 4th.

I think this is one of those races which I was kinda happy with the result, but know that I could have done better. Also, coincidently these races (for most racers), are the races in which riders look back on and take the lessons learnt into future races.

Overall I am happy with how this season is panning out and am especially pleased with being able to keep with a group of second years near the front of the race. There is a link to a FlickR album below, where all the pictures are.

FlickR Album

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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.

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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! 

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.

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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 

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