Midlands XC Champs – Hanchurch Woods, Stoke on Trent

This weekend was the second round of the Midlands XC series incorporating the XC champs. Chris and I, as midlands registered riders, headed over there to see whether we might be able to pick up some points and maybe a placing in the champs. Unfortunately the weekend didn't get off to a brilliant start when we had to do a mad dash across Cambridgeshire to get a headset for Chris's bike and the cleat bolts drilled out of the bottom of both our shoes. Mission accomplished however, we went for a spin on the bikes, ate dinner, packed up the car for the race and headed over to Nottingham where we planned to stay in Chris's parent's house. Upon arrival we realized there was a slight issue, the Pedders were on holiday, there had been a new alarm fitted and we didn't know the code! We rang around a few travelodges but it soon became apparent that we could not afford the prices and it was too late to find a b&b, so we decided we had no option than to bunk down in the car.

After a night of rather interrupted sleep, we woke to see a brilliant blue sky – it was going to be a dry day thankfully. We found a Co-op to stock up on water (although we didn't buy quite enough – lesson learned!) and food in the rather brilliantly named Fenton and headed to the race venue. Driving down the narrow road to the start it was already apparent this was not going to be a flat course so when we parked up in the field and kitted up to pre-ride I was not sure how my body was going to cope with riding. The course was brilliant however, and a credit to Martin Brookes riding and trailbuilding skills. A combination of short, sharp and rooty climbs, steep descents, twitchy technical bits through the trees and sandy/muddy slogs meant that the course was relentlessly challenging. I finished my practice lap feeling not at all ready to race but keen as mustard to ride the trail again!

So I did a brief warm-up, made my way through the sport men to the start and come 11 am we were off. Jenn O-Connor (Patterson Training) thankfully gave good advice on the start line for us not to go hell for leather on the fire-road start so we might survive the first sharp corner. We obediently followed her and the other elite riders at a very steady pace until we rounded that corner, when the race really began. I was in an alright but not amazing position up the first hill with Maxine Filby (A5 Rangers) visible not too far in front, but then as we entered the first bit of singletrack realised I was behind a rider who was really not going as fast as I wanted and the gap to Maxine was growing. Reacting quickly I found a suitable place and jumped past and for the rest of the first lap steadily decreased the gap between myself and Maxine.

Coming into the second lap, I caught up with Maxine and overtook her. I decided to try and get clear and so hit the first hill hard and kept going, but unfortunately didn't drink or eat enough as I was concentrating on riding hard. So when I was caught again going into the third lap, I had nothing to follow with. In fact I felt quite rubbish for the whole lap only talking myself into drinking lots and taking a gel about half-way round and picking up the pace again. Going into lap four however, Chris shouted at me from the feed zone that the race wasn't over. This was exactly what I needed, so I concentrated on riding as well as I could, found a great guy to follow and pushed myself all the way round. I made up about a minute and a half on this last lap but it wasn't quite enough to take first place in the race. Maxine said after the finish that she could see me through the trees and had been really worried I would catch her, but my lap three dip slowed me down too much. I felt terrible at the end and thought I was going to faint. I really must remember to eat and drink lots more next time! Despite all this I did end up being Midlands Champion for my category, and it turns out overall since no Midlands registered riders finished the Elite race! Madness…

After a little bit of a rest and a stop at the burger van to spend all my available cash on small bottles of water, I actually had some time to help Chris out before his race – something we are not used too. I ended up with four sets of bottles to give out since fellow Cambridge graduate Andrew Cockburn (Cambridge CC) was also racing in the Elite mens race and a couple of guys from Bath Uni, John Whittington and Trevor Allen persuaded me to help. I was hoping they would spread themselves out a bit! The men's start went a lot faster than ours had and by the time they came through for their first lap a number of them had had mechanical problems. Andrew had a great start coming through 3^rd a little behind Dave Collins (SIS Trek) and Rob Friel (KTM Pod) followed a little later by John. Chris apparently had a terrible start in the Expert Men's race having drunk milk, which wasn't sitting well in his stomach, because of our shortage of water. But he grabbed his bottle without a problem and headed out onto the second lap only a few seconds behind James Dalton (Salsa). We were surprised to see Lee Williams (Team Wiggle) running around the corner into the start finish. He has been having an amazing season this year becoming Student Champion in both 'Cross and MTB XC and coming fourth in the last NPS at Margam, but had broken a chain on his apparently borrowed bike. Quite admirably he fixed this and went out, albeit a little behind to try and make up as many places as he could. He ended up finishing 8^th and we were all really impressed that he carried on despite everything. At the end he said that since he had paid his entry he was determined to get his five laps in!

Andrew continued his storming ride to take third place, just behind Oli Cox (Pedal Power). Chris seemed to improve as the race went on and yet again put out some scarily consistent lap times – I am quite impressed at how he can do this – finishing 9^th in the Expert race. Amusingly enough we discovered that because so many expert racers had come from far afield to race in a champs race, he placed second in the Expert Midlands Champs. So we drove home with a couple of sparkly trophies, not bad given the race preparation we had!