Midlands Round 4

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BY: Richard Jones

Published: 21st May, 2012

Midlands Regional Champs! 

Living in Northampton means I am classed as a Central area rider so logic would dictate that I would qualify for the Midlands.  I mean surely central and middle are two words for the roughly the same thing?  Apparently not, in fact central riders qualify for the southern series…. strange! 

However I had heard so much good stuff about the venue for the Midlands series I was determined to race at Hanchurch.  We arrived early and Hollie and Lloyd set about preparing for the morning races.  Before we knew it the time had come for their start. 

As with most Midlands races there were a good bunch of lady riders.  Hollie returning from a winter off the bike had some tough competition.  Within the first couple of minutes of the race it was clear that the past months of very relaxed riding from Hollie had done little damage.  She had settled onto XCRacer's very own Verity!  The pace looked high but Hollie looked comfortable through out the race.  The tough demanding course was proved to be very hard as the women's race time was just over two hours.  Hollie finished looking strong in second Expert. 

Lloyd continued to show his great form and also finished second in the Veteran's race. 

It had quickly come around to the time for me to start preparing for the afternoon's Elite race.  The course consisted of a 20 minute lap full of rooty exposed sections mixed with hard sharp climbs and flat out descents - what more could you want?  I loved it and couldn't wait to get going. 

Stuck in the mud.

As we were gridded it was clear that the level of competition was high.  I was reluctantly gridded on the front row but made that the moment we started I made my way into the middle of the pack and left it to others to lead the fire road start to the first large climb.  The pace was very high and riders such as Nick Craig had already started to show there dominance.  In past races this year I had struggled to hold the wheels of the front runners and was loosing pace as the race went on, however, this time I had decided to stay at a comfortable pace and attempt to build up. 

By second lap I had joined Dan Booth's wheel.  Dan's smooth yet powerful riding style was impressive, every section seemed to be effortless for him (perhaps it was) however for me it was stinging the legs and hurting my lungs. I had decided to stay on his wheel and try to keep the same pace going for the duration of the race.  I didn't feel comfortable enough to move to the front as on many sections he was pulling gaps on me. 

Thanks to Louise Bettles for the fantastic photos!

Four laps had passed riding with Dan and before we knew it we were heading out for our last lap.  With this comforting thought I pulled to the front and gave my all up the largest climb.  Much to my surprise I had ridden away from Dan. 

I felt a little guilty, as I had sat on his wheel for numerous laps but kept at my pace and pressed on.  We were two hours into the race by this point and each one of the sharp climbs had begun to hurt.  After 2 hours 4 minutes of racing I was finished and had managed to make it into sixth place out of the fourteen strong field.  Still eight minutes down on a podium full of men who are nearly all twice my age!  

A fantastic series with some brilliant venues, thank you to everybody involved in these races they have been great fun. 

Richard Jones

XCRacer.com