Southern Xc Champs Expert Win

Sunday the 19th of May saw the 2nd round of the Southern Xc Series, this round was the Southern Area Championships. I was on the hunt for the title of Southern Expert champion!, race preparation leading up to the race was quite poor to be honest which left me really stressed out on Saturday (the last thing you need the day before a race). Luckily I had booked the Friday and Saturday off work as I was supposed to be going on a family weekend away. I had to cancel the holiday and stay at home to get my bike sorted as It needed a couple of minor tweaks before the race. After Newnham where I punctured this left me without a race tyre on the rear so I ordered a bontrager 29-0 from Evans on Wednesday and it arrived Saturday morning which wasn't ideal but I could work with it. I put the tyre on and there was several holes already in the tyre before I even rode the tyre, it was loosing air at a rate!. I thought I could patch the holes up but this didn't give me confidence in the tyre at all and knew there was a high possibility that it could go during the race. So in the end I had to get another Renegade tyre for the rear and that sealed 1st time (Proper tyre!).

Onto race day, me, my Dad and Tom Bidder traveled down to Crow Hill in the 1 van to save petrol. Me and Tom went on a practice lap and I wasn't expecting the couple of boggy sections that there was out on course. I had to stick with my tyre choices as I didn't have any spare, onto my race which kicked of at 2.02pm just behind the Elites. It was quite a fast start with me going into the 1st bit of singletrack barely in the top 10 so had it all to do. I could see Michael Guildford leading out through the twists and turns in the earlier part of the lap. From there on I bridged the gap to Michael then taking a big turn on the front and eventually dropping Michael just after 1/3 of way through the 1st lap. From here on I rode the race alone and didn't take any unnecessary risks as I knew I had a decent gap and just needed to keep my composure and take it home. I was hoping I could catch some of the back end of the Elite field and was caught a good few of them, nearly 1/2 of the field in fact!. Coming up the last little rise into the finish I knew I had a healthy lead so thought shall I put my hands up or pull a wheelie?.. I went for the wheelie in the end.

I won the race by a comfortable margin of 2mins 6seconds, Looking at comparing lap times with the Elites I knew I could have given more than I did but that was all that I needed to give on the Day. It would have been different if I was hanging onto wheels in the Elite race.

Results Avaliable here - http://timelaps.co.uk/assets/uploads/Southern%20XC%20Rd%20%202.pdf 

Also a Video from the Race -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orl9w2fxWMY

A big thanks to my Main Sponsor - Aw Cycles for the Great bike, Nutrition, Kit & Support. 

www.awcycles.co.uk 

Also a Big thanks to Strada wheels for a very nice set of Carbon wheels. Cant wait for my own personal pair which are being built up very soon :)

www.stradawheels.co.uk

NEXT RACE for me now is the 3rd round of the National Points Series in Hopton Woods in Shropshire on the 2nd of June. Riding Expert all of this season then will hopefully be moving up into Elite for the 2014 season.