Hi all

I wasn’t that sure I’d made the best possible preparation for the Southern XC at Checkendon this weekend. As it’s been dry and warm, and because I broke up for Easter at lunchtime on Thursday, I ended up doing rather a lot of riding; some 24hrs and 250+ miles, all off road. This included 84 miles over 7 hrs on Saturday round all the trails on the N Downs, so as I said I wasn’t hopeful of feeling fresh for the race as I tucked into my (home made) chicken, bacon and leek pie and a glass of Icelandic Einstock ale (highly recommended, even though I hardly drink at all this is lovely, plus I’ve been to where it’s made in Akureyri) on Saturday night.

Turns out I couldn’t have been more wrong….

The course was totally flat and very slippery, a sort of icy, slidey, surface over hardpack, which made cornering at speed a bit of a lottery. In the race, I ended up in a group of 7 riders covering 4th to 10th after 2 of the 6 laps. Worried about the impact a slip might have on position, I raised the pace on the open sections, sprinting out of every corner, and managed to break up the group to only me and 3 other riders. We continued like this until the final lap, where I really started launching it down the straight bits and field edge – you couldn’t ride that quickly through the woods due to the risk of crashing. Still the other riders stayed with me… Chris Minter got a flat which was a shame, so he dropped back. A newly promoted young rider in our group managed to get ahead going into the final bit of trail, which was frustrating both as I thought I had the moves covered but also as he hadn’t been doing any work on the front for the whole race… I stayed calm and stayed with him; he was really pushing on through the last bit of trail which I knew was dicey as it was so slippery. The inevitable happened and he crashed out on a corner, leaving it wide open for Mike Cotty and I to contest the sprint. As I said last week, I don’t lose sprints. As soon as it opened up onto the finish field I absolutely gunned it to the line to finish 4th – happy days!

It’s 3 weeks until the next National race in Cornwall; after having a break for a couple of weeks due to racing, now it’s time to get back down the gym and start on the weights and intervals again. Fun times.

GB

Nice report. No false modesty, no stupid boasting. Keep them coming, I can vicariously enjoy the racing without the pain !

And no cheesy list of sponsors forced into every sentence… I think after all these years people know what the best bike brand is already.

I should thank John Newport for continually being a legend and handing out bottles for me at almost every single race, even though I’m not on his team.

Not the best job – standing in the mizzle waiting with bottles…

Wasn’t aware there was still a course at Hammond Farm. The Ratz club doesn’t exist does it?
I managed my 1st ride in months on saturday very nearby. Good to be back!

It was a good course yesterday, it wasn’t too bad for the first lap or so of the open race but by the last lap it was starting to get pretty slippy so must’ve been pretty bad by the time the elites got out.
One thing I learned from yesterdays race is that singlespeeds are no good for sprint finishes, I got done by half a wheel on the line 😆

Anybody know how to setup an automatic photo finish system? There were loads of close finishes yesterday – no arguments though thank goodness 🙂

OP I was expecting you to say you won it as I read on!
Well done anyway. 🙂

@zbonty – no Ratz is no more – its morphed into SMBC who organise SouthernXC (everywhere) and XCRampage races (at Checkendon). Much smaller course than the old days but still fun.

Which bike did you use – the A la Carte?

What class were you in?Never to keen on checkendon found it was a roadies MTB course if you see what i mean.Liked Puddletown and Encombe best.

He’s an Elite.

Back in the day when there were long field sections I’d maybe agree, but it’s pretty tight and twisty these days. There are far more ‘roadie like’ courses IMO.

I am going back to the 90s when it use to go from one wooded area to another and if you missed the lead group you were knackered, difficult to get back to them.Dont know alot of Elite riders anymore.Use to race against Tim Gould/Baker/Davies/Hinton etc.That was a while back.Happy days though.Clipstone and Thetford are more roadie.

It’s pretty twisty, nowadays totally flat as they’ve lost the use of the hillsides, which is no bad thing as the last couple of years there those bits were just terrible getting back up again; really boggy. This year’s course was the best for a few years – certainly since they lost the bit with the bridge.