XC Racer Blog Post

Friday Night Summer Series 2011

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BY: JAMES HAMPSHIRE

Published: 8th September, 2011


Little slow with this blog (been a bit distracted playing at race organiser...) but can't let the season pass without a shout out for this great series.

I had hoped that the spring time house move would allow me to hit up all 15 rounds of this years' Friday Night Summer Series - the 20th Anniversary year (Certainly the longest continuously running series in the UK, if not the world), but stuff happens (work) that got in the way far too often meaning I only managed to attend 4 of them! Why I would want to go anywhere near the M1 on a Friday evening, when you can walk out the office door and shuffle along to the nearest drinking establishment is beyond most people. There are times of the week when riding your bike is now becoming socially acceptable, Friday night isn't yet one of them. That doesn't stop way over 100 of us East Midlanders looking to start our weekend with a thrash round though. It has a great fun/friendly reputation and the short lap/sub 1hr duration also guarantees close racing whether you're ripping along at the front or pootling around at the back of the pack. Here's my recap of the season:

Round 1 - Borough Hill Country Park. A new season and a record turnout. Radar was invented here, thankfully it's not all protected by an SSSI as it's a great location. The course really was a game of two halves, starting with a completely balls out, leg searing effort along the top of the park, before dropping down the hill into lots of really fun singletrack back to the finish. You can't beat the first race of the year - catching up with old faces you haven't seen since the previous year, checking out new kit and the shock to the system of trying to ride as fast as you can. Should have been better prepared for that as I missed out on some cash by 1 place.
Round 4 - Mowsley Farm. A new course in south Leicestershire that could develop into a great venue. The relentless up/down nature of the course, the switchback climbs and the fact spectators could watch so much of the racing from the viewpoint at the start/finish had a sense of déjà-vu - forget Hadleigh Farm, let's bring the Olympics to the East Midlands :-) For some reason (an attempt at training? A lovely summer evening?) I decided to catch the train over then ride the 18 miles to the venue (and ride back again) instead of blagging a lift, leaving me with little time once I'd arrived. First tip for racing the FNSS: arrive early enough to do a practice lap!

Round 7 - West Lodge Rural centre. Head past the local team playing cricket and the kids feeding some rare breed animals to find the race. Properly tucked out of the way. Another venue that goes to show you don't need mountains to race mountain bikes. Think ATB, not MTB. A lot of people race the FNSS 'cross style because of the sub 1hr duration, but my 750ml bottle was empty by the finish such was the heat. Nice whoopy bits, singletrack and a tricky off-camber section. With ice cream from the farm shop to finish things off nicely.

Round 8 - Harringworth Aerodrome. I could have made this round and it was one of my favourite courses of last years' series, with a 50kph downhill and a cool quarry section However, it lashed it down all day so I wussed out. Sorry CATS MBC!


Round 9 - M.K. Bowl. If you ignore all the behind the scenes prep, I love the fact that if you turn up to a round of the series at 1pm there's nothing there. Come 6pm there's a 3km course marked out, a queue at registration and riders everywhere. By 9pm everyone and thing has gone, the only trace that a anything ever happened are maybe some fresh braking bumps on a section of trail or a racing line carved into some grass! I stepped in to host round 9 after the original venue fell through. You may associate the 'Bowl with Foo Fighter or Prodigy gigs but there are some really fun trails hidden away and the venue is a key asset for all forms of cyclesport in the region.

Round 15 - Kilworth Springs Golf Club. The M1 tried it's best and so did the weather, but the dress code said fancy dress and there was a commemorative medal for the first 85 finishers (pot hunting or what) there was no way I wasn't going to make it. "Let me guess, you're dressing up as a fairy..." Trust me, I wasn't the only one in drag in amongst the bumblebees, witches, school girls, morph and the guy on a unicycle! To keep things interesting as there were no series points up for grabs, this was a handicap race with cash primes on every lap. And a prize for the highest placed finisher in fancy dress - money Pete Harris (Pearce Cycles) beat me to by 4 seconds. Damn that 30% off-camber, uphill sprint finish!


With a resurgence in racing thanks to London 2012, there is now a queue of clubs wanting to host a race, shame it's such a long wait till round 1 of the 21st running of the series. A different club organising each round, sounds like a good idea to me... A big thanks to Neil Holman and all the promoting clubs and volunteers for putting on such a great race series this year.

Cheers to Nadine and Numplumz for the pics.





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JAMES
 

JAMES HAMPSHIRE

Midlands XC coordinator and black collar racer.

http://midlandsxc.com/

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