Early Saturday morning we loaded up the van and headed north up the M5 to Hopton Woods to get a practice lap in prior to Sunday's race. On arrival around lunchtime we got registered and then headed straight out for a practice lap.
The track was amazing with one huge climb to the top and a sweet descent with a couple of intermediate climbs on the way back down. All the descents were flat out and not overly technical but had lots of line choices to keep things interesting.
Sunday morning we got to Hopton early and watched some of the first race before heading back to the van to do a turbo warm up and then got down to the start line.
Unfortunately, due to my DNF at the previous round I was gridded near the back of the field making the start much more difficult than it should have been with the top riders making a break from the off.
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| photo: Andy Whitehouse |
At the end of the first lap I was up to 9th position and continued moving upwards throughout the race to finish knocking on the door of the top 5 in a respectable 6th place which I was super happy with having only been racing XC for just over a year now and this being only my 3rd ever National race.
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| photo: Mike Adams Photography |