Update on the MTB season thus far submitted.

RNRMCA Rider and regular contributor Rob Smith writes detailing the opening shots for the 2010 MTB season.

The clocks going forward means different things to different people; an hours less sleep, one less hour of night shift to work, no more commuting in the dark or the start of summer. For those mad fools competing in this year’s British Mountain Bike Series it meant the opening round at Sherwood Pines was only hours away.

Yep, clocks going forward means the start of the summer season only weeks after the last wheel had turned at the last round of the Soggy Bottom winter series so it was off with the mud tyres and on with the fast track semi slicks.

The first month was always going to be busy with round one of the Nationals followed closely by the opening round of the South West FullySussed.com Regional Series and the month ending with a mid week trip to Woodbury common for the RN/RM Champs,( an event open to serving members of all three forces plus associate members of the RNRMCA. )

Having done some seriousish training through the winter with Jay & Maddie Horton, the training Bullies from team Certini-McCaulay's, and ridden pretty well during the Soggy Bottom Series; this year I’ve taken the plunge, mortgaged the house, taken out a Masters Racing Licence and committed to racing as many of the National events as possible, the full South West Regional Series as well as various endurance events.  The season’s goals are top 50 at the nationals, top twenty in the regionals and to do as best I can soloing 12 hours at Twentyfour12. 

So round one.  Sherwood Pines is a venue whose topography suggests no need for a granny ring, flat out racing and drafting along the fire track. Driving up early Saturday meant plenty of time to get round for a couple of practice laps and get more of an idea how my new Epic Marathon was like having only recently picked it up following the sad demise of my hard tail Giant.  The lap; Plenty of twist tight single track and some cheeky little climbs which, I’m told, for Sherwood is quite surprising; it was going to be fun and frantic.

One of the good things about being in the Masters cat is the late race time, which meant I could indulge in the full cooked breakfast (race fuel of champs) before making it back to the venue in time to catch the end of the women’s and Juvenile race.  1300 and the main race of the day was the Elite, Expert, Sport and Junior men.  Ones to watch Oli Beckingsale and Liam Killeen racing in Elite doing six laps and Experts doing 5 and Sport and Junior each completing 4 laps of the 8km course, with conditions near perfect laps times were predicted to be in the low twenties.

All too soon it was the last race of the day with 70+ Masters (age 30-39), 70+ Vets (40-49)and 25+Grand Vets (over 50) all lining up at the start it was going to be busy out on the course with the older cat being started a couple of minutes after the Masters.  With such a large field all racers were gridded by race number with those already holding International points being on the front row. Oh yeh aside from the top racers in Britain I was lining up with some of the best in Europe as with the UK UCI world round happening in a few weeks time this would be one of the last opportunities to gain those extra couple of ranking points and therefore a higher grid position.  Anyway all this meant I was gridded on the 6th row with about 60 riders in front of me all visualising the first few flat out fire track corners. With the last bit of advice from Jay “if you aren’t in the tow on the fire tracks you’re toast” running round my mind it was count down to the start.

Gun went off and after a delay of what seemed like minutes we were off tearing across the scrubby grass like a Lycra clad multi coloured comet all chasing down the guy in front and hoping to get to the first single track un-scathed.  Up the first fire track and I went into overdrive to try and keep the tow of the guys in front and made it to the first single track, not leading but not at the back or in pieces either.  Despite the British predilection to queuing when the pack hit the entry to the single track there was no polite queuing it was every man for himself and I have to say I was far too polite (lesson leant!) and lost a few places.

As the pack stretched out I tried to calm down and find a rhythm that I had some chance of maintaining for the five laps the masters were racing.  I concentrated on being neat and tidy in the single track and finding a group to joining on the inter-connecting fire track. 

First lap came and went and the first of the Vets started to come up and pass me; amongst the early passers was Andy Plewes in his first outing in the Vets cat. Andy went on to finishing an extremely credible 11th. God they are fast but then they only had four laps to complete. 

With no major mishaps the subsequent laps continued in similar vain, maintain a pace, concentrate on being neat in the single track and remember to drink as the weather was being kind to us and the sun was shining and the wind had dropped.  My wife was doing the job of Pit Bitch/bottle queen, there were two feed stations/technical areas where assistance is allowed and Jane had taken post in the second one with my bottles, which she held out for me to grab as I raced through only thing I had to do was remember to drink and ditch the previous bottle.

Towards the end of the fourth lap I was lapped by the race leader which caused a bit of confusion with in my support team.  As other lapped riders were being pulled off the course, Jane and Jay assumed I’d finished and were walking away from the tech area as I came up to it on the last lap. Feeling very thirsty with my legs beginning to complain I was somewhat “disappointed” to see an empty tech zone as I approached, luckily Jay had spotted my unique pink top and they made it back in time to hand out my last bottle and energy gel.

I stuck the top of the much needed gel between my teeth and attempted to pull the top off, rip and that was the entire contents down my arm and not my throat, not good, off into the single track, over a small jump and I was overtaken by an RM water bottle. So no energy gel, no water, 2 hours into the race and still ¾ of the last lap to do, it was going to be emotional, time to man up and get on with it. 

No further mishaps so after 2:14:36 I finished in  50th position and it turned last man on course now I’m unsure if that’s a good or bad thing, but I’m happy with how things went, it’s only the first national I’ve raced and Masters racing is Tough.  The top seven Master’s finishers completed the five laps quicker than the winning time in the Experts!

Next national round is early May at Aldermaston.

Other RNRMCA riders included Al Lovell and Shane Lawton, who both unfortunately did not finish in the Masters' race due to technical issues, as well as Dan Mottishaw who also ran into trouble in the Sports' race.  Associate rider, Scot Easter, had slightly better luck, and fought hard for 20th in the very competitive Experts' race.