Nutcracker rd2 - hot hot hot

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BY: Niall Frost

Published: 24th May, 2010

Much like the rest of the country North Yorkshire was bathed in sunshine last weekend.  The good weather coincided with the second round of the newly created Nutcracker series (or was it good planning?).  A new course had been created in the grounds of Aske estate with a lot of work going into some new sections in the woods and a gorgeous headwind at key sections to cool riders down.

With so many competing events on, not to mention the draw of the seaside when the temperature reaches mid twenties, numbers were slightly down on the previous round with only 4 in the expert category and 2 in the elite!  Paul Oldham went on to best Mark Thwaites, whose name many will recognise from his brother Scott who had represented GB at the '09 world champs.

Amongst the experts I was up against Michael Coward of Velo29 who had been riding well at 10 under the ben the previous week and was part of the team to win trios.  We joked beforehand that we'd just sit on each other's wheels before going mano-a-mano on the last lap.  I may have joked but riding on Saturday had seen my HR near 180 just spinning, so I knew I was tired and wanted to ride my legs in.

The first lap and Michael had set a fast pace, a bit too fast for me but I stayed there, albeit complaining much to his amusement.  The 2nd lap finished and the pace didn't relent so I took my opportunity to jump in front and slow things down nicely.  Who'd have thought that you'd have to go on the front to get a rest!  Unbelievably I was feeling really comfortable on the steep climb even though it felt like a pressure cooker, but my usual strength on the flat was altogether missing and I was being dropped at will.

I should definitely get thanks in now to Jason Hynd, who has a slightly mixed background as a stalwart of the Scottish xc scene and a soigneur for an Italian road team.  Fortunately his soigneur training came in particularly handy as he managed to hand bottles to both Michael and I despite passing at exactly the same time.  The boy got skills (although I suspect musettes being handed to roadies at 40mph is probably harder).

Back to the race, and as I alluded to earlier, Michael's no fool and a determined increase in pace halfway through the last lap was to be the end of me.  In previous blogs I mentioned blowing up and not having had the pleasure for a long time.  Well, never tempt fate as at this point I could barely contemplate riding to the finish, let alone racing wheel to wheel.  Within about 300yards I had completely lost sight of any rider and consoled myself with dreaming about a sausage buttie from local gourmet food producer www.debbieandandrews.co.uk  Mr Whippy was there too, all my prayers answered at once.

I have to thank the organisers for doing a great job bringing local racing back to the NE and there is a really high standard at the front of many of the categories.  Even better, the next event is at Dalby Forest on the 13th June which serves as the perfect event to get the practise in for the Dalby BMBS on the 3rd July.

Niall Frost
XCracer.com/29ers
Many thanks to my sponsors XCracer, Gary Fisher, Accelerate and Exposure.
Thanks to enigmatic photography, website coming soon!