The 2010 British XC Champs took place at the weekend (July 18^th) at Pippingford Estate, East Sussex. Since I was on annual leave we decided to travel down earlier in the week and to visit Becs`s family. This allowed me to focus on good preparation for the race having done the long drive and having no distractions like working on the house.

A practice lap on the Saturday revealed why the Southern XC Series use this course so much! With sweet singletrack, bomb holes, super fast descents with berms that forced you to hit even harder each time, jumps and a river crossing, this was shaping up to be a fun course. Oh and of course some climbing in between, both short energy sapping power climbs as well as a couple of longer slogs. Hard to believe we were in the south of England!  I have to admit it, I was pleasantly surprised! All the hype was justified. I knew one thing, regardless of the outcome I was going to enjoy this race... it was an awesome course.

Race day

The sun was out so I tried to stay in the shade when possible. I was unhappy with my warm up at the last BMBS race at Dalby so I made sure I was organised in plenty of time to achieve a thorough warm up. Also, at the last two BMBS races I had poor starts so I wanted to focus on starting well today. Thankfully this was the case and going into the first section of singletrack I was within the front of the field. I continued to push hard for the first lap both gaining and losing a few places to start my second lap in 6^th position.

It was now time to settle into a rhythm, trying to save energy where I could and pushing where I should. Oli Beckingsale (Giant Racing) came past me on the fourth lap having had a mechanical. I tried to go with him but couldn`t! He seemed to effortlessly float away from me. I focused back on myself; pushing on the climbs, trying to stay smooth through the singletrack and avoiding making any mistakes.

 

The course was fun yet brutal with six laps in the scorching heat. I eventually came over the line to take 4^th position, my best result to date. I am really happy with this result but perhaps more importantly I am happy with how I rode.  

Liam Killeen destroyed the field to retain the British Champ jersey and despite Oli Beckingsale losing approx 5 minutes due to his mechanical, came second with Paul Oldham taking up the final position on the podium. Full results and more can be found HERE

Thanks again to Becs and her family for the support and giving me encouragement when I was really hurting – it really does help.

Next race will be back in Scotland for the 5^th round of the Dales SXC Series on a new course in Perth which “promises to be a cracker”. More details can be found HERE