The long awaited weekend quickly came upon us as our team once again headed off to Margam Park for the 4th Round of the British Mountain Bike Series!
The start with Ant in front and myself on his wheel in 15th position
This was my main event I’ve been looking forward to all year as it is a tough gruelling proper mountain bike course, the way they should all be!
Leading up to the event I didn’t have the best preparation with a cold for over a week and working from 7am till 10pm at night all week, hence I took a well deserved rest from all the hard training I’ve been putting in from my delayed start to the year with training!
On Saturday my brother, Ant and I did a couple of practice laps in the rain to find an amazing course, which was wet and muddy which made it technical along with being hilly and awsome downhills! However we knew the course would dry up for our race as we were expecting 25degrees! (actually turned out to be 28 degrees)
Anthony and I after the first Lap!
Race day came and I started 18th on the grid with my brother at 22nd! Once again the cycleops turbo was set up to warm the legs up although we didn’t stay on too long as we were sweating like someone poor water over us!
Bros smashing the climb up!
The start didn’t go to well for me as we hit the tarmac so I decided to go out the outside on the grass and take the non race line! It worked as I moved up into 15th position before making my way up to 12th before the 1st major climb!
How the chute should be riden! Flat Out!
By the time I got around to the top of the final climb I was in 9th position before my brother chased us down and went straight in front to take the lead on the downhill! We dominated the downhill dropping a few off our wheels and took away 2 others! We stayed on the front of the group pushing the pace and dropping the rest of the guys on the technical course and opened the gap further by sharing the load on the hills!
Boyler Train about to up to the pace and drop the others
For the next 3 laps there was a Boyler Train on the go as we flew around and even moving up into 6th position taking over Paul Oldham who now was behind us!
Paul Oldham chasing me back slowly at the end
As we went into the 4th lap Paul put a huge attack in behind as he stormed right past without us even getting chance to get on his wheel!
Anthony and I with Chris
Half way round that lap Ant’s chain came off as I pushed on with one of the other guys as we came through the finish area going into our last lap in 7th and 8th!
On Chris's Wheel about to attack
With tiring legs and plenty of hills to go I was ready to give it my all and drain the legs in one last lap!
A quarter way round the final lap I was touching wheels with Chris on the descent before he suffered a minor mechanical. I saw my opportunity and attacked as I pressed hard with my legs screaming to stop!
I never looked back until I got to the final climb of which I saw that I was all clear and ready to enjoy the final descent with a massive grin on my face!
Me coming to the end of the final lap
Down into the finish arena I had a warm welcome and took a Very Happy 7th place and 2nd U23.
Anthony managed to sort his chain out and only losing one place and came in 9th place giving the Torq Performance Team 2 top 10’s!
Next up is the National Champs in 3 weeks time which may or may not favour me, depending on the course!
(Photos taken from my mum)
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