Happy New Year everybody!, hope you had a good Christmas and new year.
Sunday the 5th of January saw my debut race for my new Team & Sponsor for the 2014 Season. I was very excited to put in a solid performance to start the season with a bang! for the new team. Unfortunately only 2 out of 4 team riders could make the 3rd round of the Merida Brass Monkeys series held at Ash Ranges. Ben opted to ride the 4hr category as this suits his riding style more than the 2hr which suits my style so I flew the flag for Mountain Trax - Vauxhall Motors Cycling team. The youngest rider on the team Sam Stean broke one of his fingers earlier last week so that put him out of riding and Tim our oldest rider is also Injured with a fractured wrist & broken Rib!.
Onto race day!. The race was held at Ash Ranges which was one of the Gorrick venues that I have only ever ridden once. I live quite close to all the Gorrick venues so know most of them very well but Ash isin't one of them. This made for a different race than say at Tunnel hill which I know like the back of my hand. The weather leading up to the race had been very mild but very wet!. I stupidly left my summer tyres on as I was rushing around the day before the race checking the bike over and didn't think to much about tyre choice. The course in practice wasn't to bad but after a good few hundred riders churning through it soon became a bog and a real slog!. The 2hr race started at 11.30 after 2hrs of the 4hr Enduro lads shredding round the course. The start was reasonably steady with a long tarmac stretch which worked well allowing everyone to get where they wanted entering the 1st bit of Singletrack. I took the lead into the singletrack followed by Phillip Pearce of Banjo Cycles not far behind. I initally got a small gap but wasn't willing to smash my legs on lap 1 of a 4 lap slog!. I knew If I continued at a similiar sort of pace he would drop of, unluckily for Phillip he got a puncture at the end of lap 1 and had to change a wheel. I used this to my advantage and settled into a good pace which I pretty much stayed in for the rest of the race growing my lead lap by lap. The course got worse and worse as the laps went on with an obvious line non existent!. I rode the last 3 laps alone having a few close calls with some backmarkers from the other races out on course. I rode a decent race, my legs didn't feel by any-means 100% but after Christmas/New year and a Chest infection that I only got of the Antibiotics for on Wednesday I cant complain!. I am very happy to put in a solid first race for the new team, Ben secured 2nd place in the 4hr category behind a Man who's flying at the moment Mr George Budd. A man on a mission who wasn't willing to stop for his Chauffeur (Ben Thomas) to relieve himself part way through the race. That is racing and considering Ben has been doing very steady miles and George has been putting in some serious intervals Ben did an awesome job staying with him for 6+ laps.
Next race for the team is at the 4th and Final Round of the Merida Brass Monkeys Series held at Tunnel Hill. A local venue I know very well and have been looking forward to racing at Tunnel for a long time. All the team should be on there new 2014 race bikes which is very exciting, See you there.
A huge thanks to Mountain Trax - Vauxhall Motors Cycling team and John Newport at Vermont Images for some pictures as well as passing bottles!
Below is Ben Cleaning his bike after Sundays race with Welditite lubes & cleaners outside the Vauxhall Antara team car. :)
Check out our Facebook page for more frequent updates
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mountain-Trax-Vauxhall-Motors-Cycling-Team/330790256947713?fref=ts
Sunday the 5th of January saw my debut race for my new Team & Sponsor for the 2014 Season. I was very excited to put in a solid performance to start the season with a bang! for the new team. Unfortunately only 2 out of 4 team riders could make the 3rd round of the Merida Brass Monkeys series held at Ash Ranges. Ben opted to ride the 4hr category as this suits his riding style more than the 2hr which suits my style so I flew the flag for Mountain Trax - Vauxhall Motors Cycling team. The youngest rider on the team Sam Stean broke one of his fingers earlier last week so that put him out of riding and Tim our oldest rider is also Injured with a fractured wrist & broken Rib!.
Onto race day!. The race was held at Ash Ranges which was one of the Gorrick venues that I have only ever ridden once. I live quite close to all the Gorrick venues so know most of them very well but Ash isin't one of them. This made for a different race than say at Tunnel hill which I know like the back of my hand. The weather leading up to the race had been very mild but very wet!. I stupidly left my summer tyres on as I was rushing around the day before the race checking the bike over and didn't think to much about tyre choice. The course in practice wasn't to bad but after a good few hundred riders churning through it soon became a bog and a real slog!. The 2hr race started at 11.30 after 2hrs of the 4hr Enduro lads shredding round the course. The start was reasonably steady with a long tarmac stretch which worked well allowing everyone to get where they wanted entering the 1st bit of Singletrack. I took the lead into the singletrack followed by Phillip Pearce of Banjo Cycles not far behind. I initally got a small gap but wasn't willing to smash my legs on lap 1 of a 4 lap slog!. I knew If I continued at a similiar sort of pace he would drop of, unluckily for Phillip he got a puncture at the end of lap 1 and had to change a wheel. I used this to my advantage and settled into a good pace which I pretty much stayed in for the rest of the race growing my lead lap by lap. The course got worse and worse as the laps went on with an obvious line non existent!. I rode the last 3 laps alone having a few close calls with some backmarkers from the other races out on course. I rode a decent race, my legs didn't feel by any-means 100% but after Christmas/New year and a Chest infection that I only got of the Antibiotics for on Wednesday I cant complain!. I am very happy to put in a solid first race for the new team, Ben secured 2nd place in the 4hr category behind a Man who's flying at the moment Mr George Budd. A man on a mission who wasn't willing to stop for his Chauffeur (Ben Thomas) to relieve himself part way through the race. That is racing and considering Ben has been doing very steady miles and George has been putting in some serious intervals Ben did an awesome job staying with him for 6+ laps.
Next race for the team is at the 4th and Final Round of the Merida Brass Monkeys Series held at Tunnel Hill. A local venue I know very well and have been looking forward to racing at Tunnel for a long time. All the team should be on there new 2014 race bikes which is very exciting, See you there.
A huge thanks to Mountain Trax - Vauxhall Motors Cycling team and John Newport at Vermont Images for some pictures as well as passing bottles!
Below is Ben Cleaning his bike after Sundays race with Welditite lubes & cleaners outside the Vauxhall Antara team car. :)
Check out our Facebook page for more frequent updates
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mountain-Trax-Vauxhall-Motors-Cycling-Team/330790256947713?fref=ts
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