2XC2012 - Race 6 Sat 29 Sept, Heatree Dartmoor

Rolled up to Heatree, near Hound Tor on Dartmoor, yesterday for the final round of this years 2XC race series.

This is a new venue and what a great place! The weather was nice and sunny and the track was proper XC.....a real mixture of good stuff....

Rooty technical climbs, loamy singletrack and fast flowing technical descents...it had it all and is probably my favorite track of the series and judging by the reaction of others, it was theirs too. Attendance was fairly low so lots of racers really missed out on a great event!

Was a really good race for me racing against Harry Foreshaw (Fully Sussed/Certini team rider and current South West Junior Champion). We traded places on what was a very quick and equal first lap -  Harry took the fastest lap of the day (incl. the Seniors Race 2) at 8m 41s with me 1sec behind at 0h 8m 42s. I pushed hard on the second lap and managed to pull a lead on the first climb and create a gap of 40 seconds during the lap. I eased off a bit on the third lap to recover and Harry made up 3 seconds on me but I pushed hard again on the final lap and I gained a further 15 seconds.

Lap 1: Racing hard with Harry Foreshaw leading

Was a tough race (thanks Harry!) but in the end I took the Race 1 and Juniors win by 49 seconds, so really pleased with a solid performance against stiff opposition. Full race results can be found here.

Thanks to Steve Birchill and Alan Drury at MDDC for organising a brilliant event at a fab location with a really cool XC race track....really hope the word spreads and more people attend next years race and help create the success it deserves!

Back to racing Cyclocross next weekend for Round 4:  Sunday 7th Oct:  MDCC Cyclo-Cross, Stover, Newton Abbot

MoreDirt Locals, Thurs 27 Sept

Got featured in this weeks MoreDirt Locals - cheers Billy!

Full article can be found here MoreDirt Locals

Here's some of the pictures we did for the article....

South West Cyclo-X - Round 3 Sun 23 Sept, Barnstaple

Headed up to Barnstaple for my very first South West Cyclo-cross race on Sunday. The weather was terrible...pouring with rain and blowing a gale!

Although I'm competing in the Junior category we race in the Seniors race which means a duration of around one hour. The front of the starting grid is seeded so for me being non-seeded meant starting somewhere in the middle of the pack...not ideal since a good start is pretty crucial.

Not a brilliant start for me as I managed to crash in the first corner, going down hard and cutting my forearm, after being cut-up by a fellow racer....cheers Alan! Oh well, I managed to quickly recover from that and settle into a good rythym with reasonable pace so began climbing my way back up through the field.

I was in 12th place after the crash but ended up finishing 4th overall (well that's what I was told on raceday although looking at the published results I've been placed 5th :S) in the Seniors race and took the win for the Junior category having lapped the second place Junior....well pleased :)

I really enjoyed my first CX race, so a big thanks to Taw Velo and British Cycling for organising this event (and MDCC for getting me involved) and I will definately be back for more at the next event in two weeks time! Meantime, next Saturday, I'll be heading to the final round of the 2XC race series, maybe see you there....

Mondraker Gravity Rally - 15 + 16 Sept, Exmoor

Great weekend of riding, really enjoyed the chilled, friendly vibe!

Weapon of choice for the weekend was my current fav the 160mm travel carbon Scott Ransom.

The timed stages were pretty flat out and open and not really very technical. I ran out of gears for Saturday's timed stage which meant a capped top speed so ended up in 29th place out of 230+ competitors at the halfway stage. I'm only running a single chainring on the front so swapped out the 34 for a 36 on Saturday evening to see if that might help...

....well it helped a bit (although a dual chainring upfront is possibly way the forward for me...I think?) and I had a enjoyable Sunday. Unfortunately the timing got corrupted for a lot of riders (me included) on Stage 2......which was a pity because I was flying on that stage as it was more tech and suited me far better (got KOM on the Strava segment for Stage 2).

So in the end the results for Stage 2 were not included in the overall, however I still moved up to 23rd place which when put into context meant 3rd place for the under 18's so all in all pretty happy really and will definately be back for more next year :)

More race info available here: Mondraker Gravity Rally 2012