NPS Round 2 Cornwall

My latest race was the second round of the national series which was taking place in Redruth, Cornwall. It was a big drive to get down there but we found the course and had a quick look around to see it was mostly in an old quarry with lots of little technical features and short climbs. We did some course practice on the Saturday and then headed to the hotel for a good night’s sleep before race day.
There was no international competition for this round so I had a gridding of 5th and that allowed me to start on the front row which is nice. The race began fast with a bit of a battle to get into the first descent before it settled down and a group of four of us formed at the front. It was a windy day and with it being 7 laps of a short hard course I decided to be careful not to use too much energy early on in the race. Four turned into three after about halfway through the race which was me, Kenta Gallagher and Hamish Batchalor. It stayed like this until just over a lap to go where I decided that I needed to have a go early before it came down to a sprint, I managed to open up a small advantage on an small climb on the run into the finish and from there I was able to build up a small lead into the final lap. I went hard through the whole of the last lap but also careful not to make any mistakes which might cost me and I managed to hold it to the line and take the win. It was my first mountain bike win in the Elite category so I was very pleased. Next up for me was a training camp with Oli Beckingsale which was very good and enjoyable camp before I head of to the first rounds of the World Cup next week.
Thanks for reading
Grant

NPS Round 1 Sherwood

I started my season at the first round of the national mountain bike series in Sherwood pines, Nottinghamshire. I have raced there lots before so I knew what the track would be like with its fast and twisty single track but that was not to be the case this year with lots of cold weather and snow forecast for the weekend. So after an eventful day of travelling to get to the race I found it under 6 inch of snow which meant it was going to be an interesting race weekend. It was going to be my first race in snow and with temperatures around 0 degrees it wasn’t what I was expecting for the end of march but considering the weather I have trained in at home in the past I was well up for it. I figured that the amount of time I had spent riding in snow and telling myself that one day it might snow in a bike race and all the big boys who had been living the dream in the sun all winter wouldn’t know what to do, this was a good time to test my theory. So I did a couple of laps the day before the race then went and found some big jackets and kept warm until race day.

I headed to the race in the morning to sort my bike and get a warm up in before my race started at midday. It was a Uci cat 1 race which meant there was quite a big field with some international guys who had come across as there was good points available. I was gridded on the second row and ready to go. The race started straight into a snowy field with people everywhere trying to move up and get good position for the first single track. I started well around 8th place then slowly moved up through the first lap to come round in the front group of 5. It split up over the next couple of laps and I managed to ride across to the front of the race and ride at the front with a Matthias Wengelin who was a Swedish cyclist. I stayed here until the last lap where we were joined by Paul Oldham from hope and it all kicked off. Paul attacked straight away with me and Matthias chasing before he went over the top and on to win the race and me an Paul raced it out for second place with Paul being stronger and taking 2nd and me rolling in to finish in 3rd place which I was pleased about as it was my first podium in an Elite race. Next up I have the second round of the national series in Cornwall later in April.
Thanks for reading Grant.