Monday 23 January 2012

First race, first win! Brass Monkey 22 January 2012

First races of the year are always nervous days, no matter how well your training has gone over the winter there’s still an unknown of how well your body will cope with racing.

It’s only down to the hard work of all 16 sponsors that I made the start line today, last year I didn’t get my race bike until early April so I have to thank all the sponsors for meeting the tight deadlines which I was pursuing. Thanks also to Mountain Trax for getting the bikes built so quickly.

Starting the season at a Brass Monkey race has become a tradition for me over the last 3 years since the race series began. These races have helped me build early season form and I’m convinced racing these events on wet winter days was a huge help towards my success at last years Kielder 100 in those torrential conditions. No such bad weather on Sunday though as patchy blue skies and mild temperatures warmed the race arena.

Having missed the first 2 races of the series opting to train through the winter I wouldn’t be gridded at the start and therefore found myself back on the third or fourth row. Off the start I managed to negotiate my way through the pack and took a wide line around the first left hand 90 degree turn on the fireroad passing loads of people who choose the tight inside line.

By the time we entered the first singletrack I had the leader in my sight and sped past at the first opportunity. From then onwards I kept the tempo high edging out a lead over the chasing riders. My biggest troubles for the remainder of the race were negotiating hundreds of backmarkers and lapped riders which can prove pretty tricky when people are getting tired in a long endurance event.

Over the first 4 laps my lap times were nearly as quick as the 2 hour winner which was good news. The bike was fantastic and worked perfectly, I choose Kenda Slant Six tyres which hooked up well in the dry conditions and rolled really quickly. The race course was fantastic fun with the 29er Hope wheels and Fox F29 forks ironing out the bumps.

It was great to win the first race of the season and I hope it’s the first of many victories this year. Next up I have another hard 2 weeks of training before my next race which is the first round of the Gorrick Spring Series.




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Sunday 15 January 2012

Progress

It’s a new year and a new set of sponsors have been announced, Ben Thomas Racing has no less than 16 sponsors. I’m really happy to have the sponsorship line up sorted and think you’ll agree that the sponsors are some of the best brands in the industry.

Having Mountain Trax as title sponsor didn’t take much persuasion, leaving TORQ and returning to my original team felt like returning home. It’s going to be a great place to be and hopefully having the support from Mountain Trax, team director John, and my friendly teammates will help push my results to the next level.

I have some key goals set out for the year ahead, I’m not quite ready to tell all about these but the crucial people on the team know what these are and are ready to help me get there.

Hopefully you’ve found the facebook page, if not head over there now and click the like button. https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Ben-Thomas-Racing/330790256947713

I’ve just finished my third block of base training and have totalled my biggest training hours ever for November and December so things are going well. After a weeks recovery I’ll start to introduce some speed work and then the racing will begin, see you on the start line!

Over Christmas I joined the Mountain Trax team for a team ride and skill session. Here's a little video i've put together, filmed by Chris White.





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