Dalby NPS and Ster Van Limburg

The weekend of the 16/17 was the second round of the national MTB series at Dalby forest in Yorkshire which is also the world cup course, a good track! We travelled down on the Friday and there was a big Scottish crew camping which was a good laugh, after a couple of laps pre ride on the Saturday I was ready for the race.  The first round had been a close race between me and Matt Sumpton so I was excited for this race. The race started midday Sunday and I had a good start leading into the single-track, after half a lap there was me and Matt away again and did two laps together before he suffered some issues with his chain and I got a gap that I managed to improve through the race to win the second round. Next up was a trip with Scottish cycling to Belgium to compete in a road stage race, Ster Van Limburg. A team of 5 of us headed over with the youth team, it consisted of me, Stu (Hairy stu), Taylor (Old Man), Jack(Baby Face) and Ryan(Baby Dino). It had been a while since I had raced in Belgium on the road with a field of 200 of some of the best juniors in the world and with it hitting 30degrees it was going to be a hard race. First up was the 5km TT, a lot of the teams with TT bikes meant that we were at a slight disadvantage but keen to make an impact. I started as hard as I could and ended up finishing in 82nd place 30 seconds of the leader. Next up was the first road race of 60miles; it was flat out from the start and was crazy! Crashes everywhere and a average speed of 27mph.  A small break got up the road but I finished towards the front of the front of the bunch in 47th place. After plenty of food the next stage was an 80mile road race, the longest race I have done so far this year and I was very tired by the end. It was again a mental start with lots of people trying to attack of the front, same as the day before a break of 20 got up the road and it was sprint finish in the bunch, using the pavements I managed to finish in 52nd place. The final day was the main day of the stage race with some mega cross winds and some hills. The first section of cross winds lined out the whole race and splits started to form, I managed to hold the wheels after the hills I looked back to find there was only 65 people left in the race and everybody else had gone out the back. With only 30 miles left it was a smash fest all the way to the finish where I finished in 36th place just ahead of the bunch which moved me to 52nd in the overall classification. Also well done to all the Scottish Lads and the team, was some quality banter and teamwork throughout the race. Next up was the Isle of Man Junior Tour.
Cheers
Grant