First Elite Win of the Year

Welsh MTB Series round 2

Today’s race destination was Coed Y Brenin in north Wales, so a two hour journey was on the plateand with that in mind the car was loaded the night before and in the morning we set off for Wales.

I’ve really been focusing hard on my nutrition to get the best out of my training/racing and been training well and this was to be my first Elite race that had BC points up for grabs unlike the previous week at Cannock chase, so I wanted to do as well as I could, I raced this course last year as it was the welsh champs and this was when i junior where I won so I was feeling confident about the course.

Once Arrived we got the bikes unloaded and went for a quick spin around d the course to get a feel about it and to sort out pressures on the tyres, this course was a good test of your bike handling skills and suited my carbon 29er so well as you could really keep the speed up on the technical sections as the big wheels really allowed you to flow over.

Unlike the previous weekend it was much warmer while riding, but standing around you would get Fairley chilly, I was gridded on second row as I hadn’t done the first welsh round which was too early for me in the season.

 As the gun went i got myself into 4/5^th wheel in the first 100 meters then i moved into the lead and rode away with another guy on my wheel but over the technical sections i gapped him and started to move away and over the course of the 5 and half laps, and i rode with in my-self as I had a healthy gapped and kept it at that so I didn’t want to push on to hard and risk blowing as I’m still adjusting to the extra distance.

 I was riding well but with ½ a lap to disaster struck, i somehow managed to hit a rock and bent my mech hanger and rip my rear mech off so for the last half lap of the race i ran faster than i have ever ran before! I still managed to cross the line with 20 seconds to spare and taking my first Elite win of the year which I was extremely happy about, i would like to thank Forme Bikes for their huge support and are %100 behind me along with Nectar fuel, prendas and schwalbe for all their amazong support.

I’ll be next racing the Midlands XC in two weeks time.