XC Racer Blog Post

Winter weekender

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BY: George Budd

Published: 19th February, 2015


In the depths of winter, motivation to train can sometimes ebb away as the race season seems so far away. Coupled with the end of a long term at school, I was in need of some different scenery last week. Fortunately, this year's sponsors started sending out packets of lovely shiny things last week too; shiny new things always inject a lot of happiness and enthusiasm! New Exposure lights with clever reflex technology, some MRP forks for my 'big' bike, a massive box of precision tools and other bits and bobs from Lezyne... All good.

After battle on the beach last year, I knew Pembrey would be a good venue for a winter race as it drains so well. After a quick bit of facebook searching I arranged a romantic valentine's weekend away at Afan and Pembrey with Renvale's Tim Dunford. Saturday, we rode Penhydd, W2 and Blade at Afan. It's the first time I'd ridden a big bike at a trail centre in my Banshee Phantom and it made quite a difference! The slack angles and bulletproof feel gives so much more confidence (and speed!) on the descents. Saturday evening we enjoyed a surprisingly edible curry from a local takeaway; from the outside it looked a bit Ramsay's kitchen nightmares but it was delicious. Sunday, we headed to Pembrey for the XC race organised by my new A Cycling team boss, Matt Page. The course was typical Pembrey - dry, fast and flowy with a couple of tricky bits. Initially I thought the lap was a bit short, turned out I'd pre-ridden the 10 years old and under lap... So I ended up racing the course blind. I decided to treat the race as training and just sit on the front the whole race and smash out attack after attack, which the LES really suits as it's so quick to accelerate. Tim and Lee Williams stuck with me the entire race despite my best efforts and it came down to a sprint across the start field - Tim somewhat got the jump on me and won... Words were had afterwards about manners and lifts home after I'd pulled him round for 7 laps! As I said, it was only a training day and I wasn't riding to win so I wasn't really bothered.

Next event for me is the first round of the Southern XC series at Black Park - not my favourite venue due to the lack of hills and abundance of walkers and dog turds but it's still racing, so see you all there.

GB
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George Budd

Marathon racer & Deputy Head. Usually found eating carrot cake in Peaslake.

Thanks to my sponsors: Pivot Cycles, Upgrade Bikes, Ison Distribution, USE, Exposure Lights, ODI, Gusset, Halo, MRP, Schwalbe, Absolute Black and Rotor

www.pivotcycles.com

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