National Championships

This weekend finally arrived, the first real target of my season, my first race against the elites. After 12 hours of constant rainfall through Friday night and into Saturday, and a further 6 on Sunday morning, the course was not quite how the organisers intended. When I pre-rode it on Saturday evening it was 100% rideable, much better than I expected having been marshalling in the woods and seeing plenty of people crashing and complaining. The rain had definitely made it technical with a few sections being about handing on and hoping you are still attached to the bike at the bottom. There were also a few killer grass climbs which had not been rain affected but were still bloody hard.


On Sunday morning I changed my rear tyre from the semi slick to a Continental X-King in case more rain came and the climbs got slippery, and replaced my break pads. You will see why I mention this soon. From the start I felt pretty good and was by no means last at the top of the first climb. I managed to hold good position down the greasy rocky descent and the muddy descent without getting caught up in anyone else’s drama before reaching the flatter singletrack. The group I was in was pretty compact at this point so I kept getting held up by people slipping on the roots. Once out on the flat fireroad I struggled to close down gaps and had to rely on being smooth in the troll trail’ singletrack to keep with the bunch for the long drag into the headwind back to the start finish. On the next climb I once again felt surprisingly strong and managed to drop my group and forge on alone. The second lap passed fairly uneventfully except the feeling I was losing air in my rear tyre a bit quicker than I had hoped. I didn’t seem to be losing much time but it felt extra draggy on the fireroads and in danger of rolling off the rim on fast corners. The back end of my bike was starting to rattle too but I wouldn’t work out what it was coming from. I got to the top of the first climb on my third lap and made the decision to stop and top up. Fortunately I had bought a CO2 canister that morning so I didn’t loose too much time on this, but it was enough for a train of about 4 riders to pass me. I had a quick check of anything drive-chain related but couldn’t find anything loose to cause the rattle so hopped back on in pursuit of the 4 riders ahead. After the rocky descent the rattle had got worse and it dawned on me what the problem was. I stopped again, whipped out my allen keys and tightened the rear brake calliper. I obviously hadn’t tightened the bolts enough and they had worked themselves very lose. I am surprised I had any brakes at all. The riders ahead had now disappeared so I set off again, now slightly more confident with the back end behaving its self! I caught two riders on the 4th lap, around the time I also got caught by Liam Killeen. That was one of my pre-race objectives out of the window, and the first time I have ever been lapped in an XC race. I rode a pretty smooth lap and still felt I could do my final lap at a reasonable speed, but I was not sure if being lapped meant I could not go onto my final lap. On the long fireroad drag I was caught and passed by Christian Aucote who was obviously of the impression that we didn’t have to do the final lap. Unfortunately he was right and the course had been taped off. I was a bit frustrated at this point as I felt like I had thrown at least one, maybe two places away by not using everything I had left on the final lap.

Following the race it absolutely pissed it down so it was a case of packing up and heading off as soon as possible while staying as dry as possible. No mean feat when you still have to pack up your tent. On the way home I decided I had done pretty well and was confident I had beaten at least a few elites and been reasonably competitive. When the results came out I was very disappointed with my final position, and due to there being no lap times available, I cant really work out where I lost places or time which is incredible frustrating. Especially since the timing system used chips so this information should be easy to access. On further reflection, I met all my goals except for being lapped. I beat 4 out of the 6 names I had jotted down before the race, and narrowly lost out to another. I also felt good at the start and finish. All things considered this was a reasonable debut to elite XC racing, even with my two avoidable mechanicals. I now have the feeling of ‘must do better’ and have over a month to prepare for my next race so hopefully I can put this disappointment to good use.


During the weekend I also offered to marshal on the Saturday. I was given a spot at the bottom end of the ‘Troll Trail’ and spent most of the day chatting to passing riders and spectators, shouting encouragement to racers and taking photos. I quite enjoyed my day on the other side of the tape and would recommend everyone help out an event if they can. It gives you an insight into the work put in to get these events off the ground and how much work is required, even once the weekend is running. I think if more people did this there would be less people bitching and moaning on places like the XCRacer forum and more people complementing their efforts. James and Matt from the nutcracker team worked tirelessly all weekend, including well into the evening on Saturday when most of the competitors were tucked up in bed. We need to appreciate this, and show our appreciation, otherwise they could just decide to not organise another series, and where would that leave the XC racing community?


All the photos I took from the weekend are here. Feel free to download as many as you want