English
66
After a confidence boost at the Brentor 60, followed by another good week of training including Castle Combe Crit on the Thursday evening (finishing 8th), left me happy that for pretty much the first time this season things have actually gone to plan with no hi-cups. After a lazy ride Friday morning we headed for half the trip where we stayed in a Travelodge before heading the last half of the journey on the Saturday morning…destination North Yorkshire for the British Cross Country Champs!
Oli Bekingsale & Liam Kileen was out in front closely followed by Paul Oldham, but then there were quite big gaps to the rest of the field. 2nd lap I lost contact with the two leaders after my early efforts but was still riding ok. By the 3rd lap I was joined by Paul, but I felt I was riding the short sharp climbs well and pretty soon managed to break away and start chasing down Oli in 2nd.
By ¾’s of the way round lap 4 (of the 5 lap race) I had got within 10 metres of Oli but in all fairness he put in a good spurt of speed and regained a 30seconds gap which he held to the end of the race, where despite having twinges of cramp I finished strong crossing the line for the last podium spot. I was pretty pleased with the race as it’s been the first race this year where I feel I’ve been racing closer to where I was expecting to be this year and only hope that I’ve shifted the bad luck for the rest of the season and can continue getting good race results.
