British XC Round 2, Wasing Estate, Reading

After racing the world cups the last couple of weeks I was confident that my race pace would have increased since the first round of the British XC series. I was excited about the race and hopeful of a good result.

From the start my legs felt pretty good jumping up the grid well into the top 10. After a bit of argy bargee where I probably wasn’t aggressive enough to hold my position a group of 5 riders quickly began to escape. Over the next few laps I caught and overtook riders who were beginning to suffer on this tough course which sapped all your energy. Going into the last couple of laps I was catching riders capable of winning a national quality race, I was in 6th place and just 20 seconds from the podium. Gareth Montgomerie was in 5th place and my target. On the last lap I got within about 5 seconds of him but wasn’t able to close the gap any further. It was a massive pleasure to ride over the finish line to collect 6th place, especially this early on in the season. My training has been going well but this result now gives me even greater motivation to break into the top 5 to reward the team and sponsors for the commitment they’ve shown. Bring on the next set of races!





Thanks to John Newport for the photos. See www.newpee.com for more photos from this and other events.