Midlands XC - dusty trails are back

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BY: Niall Frost

Published: 21st April, 2010

Well, my first blog entry and what an event to start with!  The Midlands XC rd 1 began outside Stoke on Trent on a course whose reputation grows with every event.  Could Stoke be the Glentress of the midlands?

The weekend action started early on Saturday for me as I planned on helping organiser and team mate James Hampshire with some of the course marking/taping.  Ok, I was actually trying to get a sneaky peak at the singletrack as I hadn't ridden there since 2008 and thought helping with the course would be the perfect cover.  Early impressions were of beautiful dusty trails with some small wet sections to remind us we live in England.

4hrs later and with only 2/3rds of the course marked out I had to retire.  It seems that my focussed bike training has not improved my ability to tie tape round trees and drive stakes into the ground.  The latter, rather worryingly, exposing my complete lack of upper body strength.  Suitably humbled by course designers James and Lynn's enduring energy I made my way to the evening digs.

Sunday dawned, and another perfect weather day for bike racing.  The start/finish arena was transformed from Saturday with trade stands, music and a surprising number of early racers face-planting on the opening climb ruts.  Little did I know how close I would come to this fate during my own race.

Come 2.30pm and I took my allotted space in the Expert grid not quite sure what to expect after a week in an office full of sniffles and man flu (getting the excuses in early....).  With a mile of fireroad before the climbing started the pace was fairly uneventful so Giles Drake decided to liven things up with a trip into the dirt on those fateful ruts.  The only positive for him was he proved he'll be the rider to beat in the Expert category this year with second win this year, an excellent ride that proves anything is possible after a bad first lap.

I settled into one of those races where you find the pain cave and just crawl in.  With the exception of the inevitable arrival of the leading Masters around lap 3 I hardly saw another soul, not that I can complain as I was very happy with 4th and would literally be very happy to ride that course every weekend.  Stoke residents I envy you....

Niall Frost
XCracer.com/29ers

Thanks to Martyn and our sponsors: Gary Fisher, Exposure Lights and Accelerade.

Photo: Roy Bevis