Month: August 2016

Last weekend we made the 430 mile trip to Cathkin Braes MTB Track in Glasgow, as used for the Commonwealth Games in 2014, for this year’s National MTB Championships. Due to some roadworks (where I couldn’t actually see any ‘work’ going on just miles of cones!) This took us almost 9 hours. When we finally arrived we had to unload Iain Webb so he could pitch up for the night before driving to Glasgow to where we would stay. A quick shower and a very nice Italian meal and it was time to get some sleep before the course practice on Saturday.

I arrived at the course around 10 to give plenty of time to set up my bike and relax before sign on and course practice opened at 12. Once practice was open myself, Holly Hoy, Nathan Gibson, Alex Dale and Iain set out for a lap, and I immediately knew that I loved the course, as it wasn’t long before we were met by some big rocks and drops (love it) and more technical features than you could ask for. The surface was similar to Hadleigh in the way that it is a gravel type all weather surface with mainly man made rock features so I straight away knew that the Mitas Scylla would be perfect.

After 3 laps of the course managing to ride all of the A lines successfully I felt good, lots of climbing and a great surface mixed with rocks would hopefully suit me well.

So Sunday it was race day. I was gridded 16^th and after making a good start found myself just outside the top 10 going into the first technical section. I lost a few places soon after this but found myself on a group with other riders sitting in around 15^th position before a chain drop on the second lap meant that they got away from me. I managed to catch 2 of the riders from the group in front but 3 had got too much of a gap into me for it to be possible to make up the time. After fighting for the whole race I finished in 18^th place, my highest national finish at the biggest race of the year!

George Crocombe – HMTBC Youth Team and BC Eastern Region Youth Team Member

The weekend of 30th/31st July was one of the best of my racing career so far.  On the Saturday I rode a couple of practice laps of the Hadleigh Park course alongside some of the world’s best, including Nino Schurter and Jolanda Neff.  At the end of my practice I met and had my photo taken with Nino Schurter, Jolanda Neff and Jenny Rissveds.

Sunday morning I arrived at the track early and signed on for my first international race.  At about 9.45 I went down to the start and warmed up whilst waiting to be gridded.  Each rider was introduced to the crowd as they were gridded and as it was my home track I got the loudest cheer.  Then we started, I got a good start and made up several places, although we had to stop at triple trouble due to the number of riders trying to get through.  The pace was fast, which I expected as I was racing some of the best Juniors in the world.  I finished in 28th place out of 35 starters so was pleased with my result.  I was cheered all the way round on every lap by the crowd which made me proud to be racing on my home track for Hadleigh MTB Club.

A big thank you to all those that came along and cheered me on, all the marshals from Hadleigh MTB Club and also to the club sponsors, Hardnutz Helmets and Mitas Tyres.

Robert Staines – HMTBC Youth Team Rider