Jumps, Drops and Radar Towers – MSG round 2

In the lead up for the second round of the Mud, Sweat and Gears series, it’s fair to say that there was some apprehension about how good the course was going to be. Airfields, such as the one at Carver Barracks, tend to be quite flat after all!
We need not have worried though, the guys at Walden Velo pulled a great course out of the bag, with a real mix of twisty singletrack, steep roll ins, some fun technical sections and a (slightly less enjoyable) grassy drag back to the finish.
The most interesting section, and one that caused a bit of a stir in the practice sessions, was a steep roll in, with a telegraph pole lodged halfway down, which spat you out onto a small wooden jump! The jump itself was so well made that it didn’t really demand any thought to get over, but the drop got a bit tricky at full race pace.

I was not anywhere near good form for this race, on account of a cold that had been circulating around the family, stopping me from training in the run up to the race. I had already entered the full MSG series though, and I figured that I could still have some fun on the bike.
Luckily, after spinning the legs up on the rollers, and joining the start line, I didn’t feel too bad. The cold had migrated into my head, leaving my legs quite strong, but my nose still quite blocked. 

As the juniors start just behind the elite/expert category, and I had seen the pace that Rich took off with at the last MSG round, I decided to put myself right behind him, hoping that I would be able to shoot up to the front in his slipstream and get an XCRacer train going.
Unfortunately, this plan went out of the window once the whistle had been blown. Both me and Rich got pretty awful starts: my rear wheel spun around on the loose gravel, and I think Rich had some issues with clipping in!

Callum (Riley) used this to his advantage, shooting off and blasting his way around the course that he helped create. Rich gave chase, working his way through to the front with me in tow, helpfully bringing me past the leader of the juniors – Liam (Manser) . Eventually the pace got too much, and I settled into my own rhythm, in a small group with Andrew Cockburn, Thomas Ward and a Renvale rider (I’m not sure if it was Stephen (James) or Ian (Mockett)). We snaked around the flowing singletrack, and once we got out onto the open section, I put in a bit more of an effort and managed to get off the front, with Andrew coming along. We stayed together into the second lap, where I managed to go off a small drop that I hadn’t spotted in practice, and straight over the bars! 

Once I’d picked myself up, Andrew was disappearing into the distance, so I just had to get on with it on my own. I tried to keep it smooth through the little tech sections, and take on gels and plenty of drink where I could. I tried to catch Andrew, but he was just going too fast on his way to a masters win. I did manage to hold off Tom though, and got back in time for a quick warm down before watching the rest of the guys in the junior category come in – Ben Morris in second, after Liam snapped his chain, and Stanley Nutter coming in third.

So not a bad debut for the new team kit, with me taking the win in Junior, and Rich with a win in elite

Thanks to Louise Bettles for the picture. I'm working on finding some more!

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