With the day starting bright and sunny and with the weather being unusually dry for this time of year, I knew the race would be a fast and hot one. With my practice lap done, my initial thoughts were confirmed but also with the sand soil around Aldershot it would be dusty and lots of loose sandy corners to catch people out.

Lining up, the good weather had brought out a lot of racers out (I found out later 100 starts for the open category) and plenty of young guns in the front rows – I would be happy with a top 20 finish from this race.

The start didn’t go particularly well – seeing me being mugged for places into the first couple of corners, getting stuck behind slower racers through the typical Gorrick tight single-track and avoiding riders washing out on the loose surface.

With some interesting line choices and some lung busting efforts, the first lap was done and I was up around 14th place. The second lap saw me claim down and put in a good effort which saw me catching and passing people on the fast flowing downhill section and single-track. But as with all this season, I was finding sustained climbing efforts to be my weak link – finding it hard to get up the climbs at any kind pace.

Passing the line for final lap I was surprised to hear I was now in 10th place and I could see the 9th placed rider just up course. So the game of cat and mouse started… I would catch up with him on the flat and downhill section but he would pull away once the course started to turn upwards. But with ¾ of the lap done he crashed on a loose downhill section and I made an extra hard effort to get a decent gap on him but my climbing “Achilles Heel” saw him re-take 9th on one of the longer, steeper climbs. I tried my best to catch him again on my stronger parts of the course but I did not quite manage it – finishing a very surprising 10th. Just 10 seconds behind 9th.

Hopefully I will be back for the second round at Crowthorne Wood but in the meantime more climbing practice is needed!