Round 1 of the BMBS hit up Sherwood Pines. The course wasn’t really my cup of tea; very little climbing, nothing technical, and fast forestry-road followed by tight singletrack with no passing.

I didn’t get a great start, and despite being gridded on the third row, I got into the first singletrack in about 40th place. This made the first two laps very frustrating, as I had to jump whole groups of people just before every singletrack to save getting stuck behind them walking or just going slowly to get a rest in.

By the third lap I was with a group going at a similar pace to mine, along with some other Scots; Greig Walker (ERC), Jack Richards (Deeside Thistle), and Steven Halsall (VCM). JoJo was doing my bottles at the second feed zone, so I decided not to have a bottle for the first lap as it would be very close to the finish. This plan worked against me though, as I dropped my last bottle shortly after the feed zone, meaning I had to do a lap and a half with no bottle.

Going into the last lap Greig was pointing at his rear wheel frantically, making sure I got into his slipstream before we hit the forestry road and the headwind out of the start-finish area. This I did, and we jumped the rider we were drafting about halfway along, and powered into the singletrack. Halfway round Greig popped out of his pedal on the only steep climb of the race (Still big-ring material though), so I went around him and put the foot down. I gained a few more places during the remainder of the race, placing nicely in 9th, within my target of a top 10. Greig finished in 11th, Steven in 17th and Jack in 22nd.

Results can be read over at Timelaps.