Lee Williams Blog: British Mountain Bike Series Opener

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British Mountain Bike Series Opener

Since getting back from Cyprus I’ve had a few weeks with no races where I could make preparations ready for the first round of the British Mountain Bike Series Held in Sherwood Pines Nottingham on the 28th March. In that time I put in a few really good training weeks where not only have I been getting in quality rides, but I’ve been watching my eating. It’s essential that I’m getting the right foods to be able to recover and push hard from day to day in order to get the most out of the legs ready for the British season opener.

This weekend we (me, fiancee, daughter, mam and dad) decided that it would be best to go up on the Friday as opposed to the Saturday. This would take out all the traveling the day before the race, but also give us an extra day training on the course to get to know some lines before practise on Sat. Driving there, setting up camp and getting in a few practise laps with my dad took up most of the Friday, but after a bit of food, the biting cold forced us to head into our tents/vans around the 7:30 ish mark to keep warm and shortly after get some sleep.

I woke up on the Saturday after a freezing nights sleep with a pretty stiff back but also with quite a few of hours sleep under my belt and was feeling reasonably fresh for the day ahead. During breakfast I was pleased to see Ben (Ben Jeffery – Team Wiggle Mechanic) turn up to support me and Matt Page for the whole weekend. For me this would make race day a lot easier by having less things to worry about leading into the race. After setting up the extremely impressive new Wiggle easy-up and signing on I was able to get in another few practise laps around the course before putting my feet up before the team relay at 5:15pm that evening. The course itself which had clearly had a lot of rain in the days leading up to the weekend was holding out reasonably well and mostly hard pack, and with it being a flat course with huge amounts of singletrack it would make for quick close racing.

In the final round last season’s series I was asked by the organiser Martyn Salt if I would be a guest in his xcracer.com team for the debut of the team relay, which I agreed to and thoroughly enjoyed, so the plan was to do it again this year. At 5:15pm 6, 4 man/women teams went head to head in a 8 lap short course around the arena which was great to be a part of and I’m sure was just as much fun to watch. I enjoy racing the relay as it’s a blast which I know would open my lungs for Sunday’s race, but at the same time wouldn’t drain anything from my legs, just wake them up. Not only that, our team managed to win and bag £100. Not bad for 5 minutes work!

Sunday 28th March – Race Day.

Come race day I was quietly confident that I was in healthy shape to pull off a good ride and I was feeling reasonably relaxed before the race. I sat there Watching Ben make last minute tweaks to both mine and Matt’s bike’s with ease, while thinking “Well…this is easy” an’ just passing by the morning by putting my feet up and putting a few tweets via my twitter account. Pretty laid back approach really! Placed 6th on the grid and on the front row I knew I would be in a good position to get a good start and get to the singletrack near the front if not on the front, as its the type of course where its easy to get stuck behind riders. Then gaps apear and they are almost impossible to close.

I did get the start I wanted and led out the pack up the fireroad and entered the singletrack in 3rd…good position. There on was a lot of shifting positions coming in and out of the singletrack sections, but I always kept myself either on the front or in the top 3. By the end of the first lap a group of six riders (myself included) had broke clear from the rest of the field and was pushing on.

By the third lap me and Oli Beckingsdale were putting a bit of pressure on the rest of the group and every lap there was one less rider in the group. At the back section of lap 5 of 6, Oli put in a big effort and pulled a 20m gap on me and the last lap came down to a chase. I tried hard to pull back but Oli was slowly creeping further away, and I had to settle for 2nd position 30 seconds down. However, I really enjoyed the race as the best result I’ve ever had at Sherwood Pines is 14th and it was nice to get a result on a course that’s never been that friendly to me in the past…positive start to the season!

The next few weeks is going to be another strong push in training with my next race being a round of the Southern Series in two weeks (11th April), but all part of the build up to the first round of the World Cup in Dalby Forrest, Yorkshire in four weeks (25th April).

Race Report
www.new.britishcycling.org.uk/mtb/article/ReportBritish-XC-Series-Round-1-0

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