National Xc Series R4 - Sherwood Pines

Sunday the 13th of July saw a weekend away with my Dad, Brother & the Mountain Trax - Vauxhall Motors Cycling Team at the 4th round of the British Cycling XC Series in Sherwood Pines Nottingham. We arrived Saturday as my Dad was racing the open cat and put in a real solid performance coming 7th in a packed open field beating TT legend Guy Martin. Most people were saying the course was slow and unflowing. I did a 3 practice laps Sat afternoon and loved the course, nice and twisty with some flat out sections. Sat evening we stayed in a bar accommodation which wasn't ideal with a party 10ft below us with blaring music until 12 at night. Sunday morning came with some black clouds and spits of rain and after some heavy rain Sat eve the course was a little damper than saturdays races. Onto the start of the Elite Race at 1pm on Sunday Afternoon. I was gridded 12th and planned to beat my number for sure. I sat in the top 10 for the first lap or 2 then moved up. The group I was part of  ended up catching the front runners and I stayed with them leading the race at times until 1.5laps to go when Grant Ferguson decided to put the hammer down and split the field to bits. I was sitting in 5th place all the last lap until I saw Ian Field chasing me down and gaining on me. I put myself in all sorts of pain to try and hold him off but I couldn't quite hold on for the podium. I Ended up 6th of which I was 3rd Brit. This is by far my best ever result coming 6th to such a strong field including many foreign professional riders. I plan to continue my success onto next weeks National Champs at Hopton Woods.

Here is the link to the results - http://www.timelaps.co.uk/assets/uploads/EVENTREPORT.aspx?eventid=294SherwoodPines13/07/2014#Elite%20Male

Once again none of this would have been possible without all my Willing Sponsors.

Below are a few pictures from Vermont Images.