Hopton Rd 3 NPS

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BY: phil Morris

Published: 29th May, 2012

Hopton woods is my 2nd round of the NPS as I missed Dalby, and probably my last for this season as we will be away for the next round.

After a fairly disastrous month with having both my bikes nicked at Enduro 6 and then an upset stomach at Selkirk, I was hoping that I could  manage at least a half decent race performance regardless of the result! The pressure was on too as my wife (Donna) had managed a first in the Fun on the Saturday.

The course was great and put simply you went all the way to the top and then all the way back down!

Arriving on the Sunday I was really disheartened to hear another bunch of bikes had been nicked by some scumbags!! I personally think now it may be time for organisers of the big events to look at possible options?

On a more positive note. Next up was my little girl in the Go ride race on her new isla bike which we had picked up the day before from Ludlow. She was very excited and eager to try it out! The course was quite tough for the little ones but a good test for the kids which was nice to see! As always she thoroughly enjoyed the race and was over the moon with her goody bag.

Next up was my race, I was gridded in about 16th as I had missed Dalby but this was fine as this put me on the second row of the grid. On the gun I had a poor initial start failing to engage my pedal properly, but with the monster climb just around the corner I wasn't too concerned. We hit the climb and the pace was fairly high, but I had decided to try and keep a cool head as the conditions were tough and I had very little racing in my legs so I wasn't sure how I was going to cope. Straight away Jason Boutell set the pace followed by John Hopkinson and then myself and a few others. By the end of the first lap I was about 7-8th ish but I still had everyone in sight and decided to stick to my current pace. On lap 2 nothing much changed and I maintained the same kind of pace. Lap 3 and I had started to gain some time on the guys in front now and managed to get myself up into 5th I think. On the final lap I caught 4th and decided I still a good bit in the tank so pushed on hard and by the top of the climb I was into 3rd and had sight of second but was rapidly running out of time. I attacked the decent as hard as I could and on times came close to leaving marks in my shorts as well as on the course!! Just before the final drop into the finish I caught 2nd it was going to be a sprint for the finish now. I got myself prepared and on the final straight went for it but I'd completely cocked up my choice of gear and run out of steam before the line, but hats off to Dieter Droger for a great finish to take 2nd.
Overall I was happy with the result especially as I done very little racing this year between one thing and another.

Thanks to everyone who was cheering me on around the course as it really does help. As always thanks to my support crew Donna, Hali-Rae, Ryley and the Bettles family for helping out as well really appreciated.

Finally thanks to my sponsors:
Xcracer.com
Accelerade
MTzoom