There are 4 matching posts.
The fourth round of the SXC was also the Scottish Champs. I was hoping to reasonably well, maybe get myself a top five. This didn’t happen for me, as on the day my legs were not enjoying the three big-ring flat sections, and I lagged quite a bit towards the end, eventually ending up in eleventh place.
The course was awesome though, with the super steep start section, then some of the climb from 10 Under the Ben two weeks before. Then into an awesome natural descent, full of stumps and dropoffs to catch out the unwary. I honestly wonder what it would have been like had it rained for several days before the event.
Muchos respect to Andy Barlow for finally adding the Scottish Champs to his Palmares.
The SXC site has results, and images are available from Colin Robinson.
Laggan is not usually one of my favourite races, the big-ring climb straight up a forestry road with a man-made descent straight back down is usually pretty unexciting. But for 2009, a few hundred meters of natural singletrack had been added to the climb, making things a lot more interesting, and leaving a few people like myself on the ground.
First lap was straight up the forestry road, with the singletrack climb only being ridden for the remaining laps. Thankfully everyone kept their heads on at this point, and we cruised up before having a bit of a sprint in the final few hundred meters for the holeshot into the descent. I got into fifth position, which I held all the way to the bottom.
Onto the climb again there was a little group of five of us, with four riders up ahead. I blew apart the group I was in with a big effort on the steep part, so as I could be first into the singletrack. This worked well, and only Jack Richards and Bruce McLeary were able to come with me. Jack had a little tumble on the exit to the forestry road, leaving Bruce and I to our personal battles.
On each of the remaining laps Bruce would gain about five seconds at the top of the climb, and I’d take it back on the bottom of the next climb. This continued until the last lap where I caught and passed him before the singletrack. Unfortunately I followed Jack’s example, and went over my bars on the exit, meaning Bruce could put a couple of seconds into me.
Bruce ended up taking 4th place by the misfortune of James Fraser-Moodie who had a puncture. I rolled in in 6th place overall, first Expert.
The SXC site has results, and images are available from Colin Robinson.
After my disastrous start to my 2009 SXC campaign, I was hoping for better at round 2. Things were looking up as soon as the course was announced way back in November; Aberfoyle! Compared to the berms, jumps and baby-smooth groomed trails of the likes of Laggan, Kirroughtree and Glentress, Aberfoyle is a mountain-bikers paradise. I shall bore you with descriptions of my pre-rides, the first was in heavy rain a few weeks before, which made the many steep and rooty descents slightly dicey, but altogether very good fun. The second was in dusty dry conditions a few days before, where even a sedate lap came in at under 22 minutes.
In true Aberfoyle style, it rained for the day preceding the race, and continued until at least midday of the race. Guess what? The course was even more fun! Mud made the previously easy bits between the steep bits into something technical themselves, and apart from one traverse which I chose to run most laps, it was all rideable and resulted in massive smiles on the faces of lots of riders. OK, so that’s the course looking good, how about the race?
I got off to a good start, settling into about 8th on the first forestry-road climb. For the next few laps I made pace with Dave Henderson (Pedal Power RT), sharing some embarrassing and at the same time funny moments on the traverse mentioned above. On the last lap I passed him going into the second singletrack climb, and put a bit of a gap in. We’d caught and passed Liam McGreevy (Banbridge CC) on the penultimate lap, but I could see him coming back, so I kept pushing hard up the last climb. Coming into the finish Liam was right behind me, and despite my best efforts (hampered by my choice to run large tyres finally causing my stays to finally fill up with mud), he came round me on the last corner to claim 5th, with me taking 6th (1st expert). Ace!
First year junior Kenta Gallagher (777 Racing) put in an awesome race to win the Expert/Elite category. Future superstar, right there!
Next up is the giant big-ring BMX course that is Laggan. Oh joy.
Results are on the SXC website.
Kirroughtree was a new venue for the SXC, and given my previous racing experience on the trails, I was looking forward to it. The course was a mixture of some of the red-graded manmade trails, some natural sections, and a whole pile of forestry-road. There was little climbing or technical content, so it was never going to be my thing, but it still made for good racing.
The field in Expert/Elite was pretty top-notch, with Paul Oldham making the trip north to give us all a kicking. I got a pretty good start, and was settling in nicely. On a short rooty climb my chain dropped over the back of the cassette, despite not having done this on a ride a few days earlier. I pulled the chain back onto the cassette, and ran up the rest of the climb. While remounting I ripped the scab from my knee on the gear lever, which required me to stand at the side of the trail and think for a few moments. Jack (Richards) told me to get back on the bike, so I did.
On the second lap the chain dropped again, losing me more time. After this I used the granny ring on the same climb so I could stay in the middle of the cassette. I did go slightly wild chasing people back after these two bad laps, a bad idea in hindsight as I suffered for it in my last lap, losing about 2 minutes compared to my previous lap times. The last two laps were contended with a deflating front tyre, control under braking was almost non-existent on the last lap.
I finished 13th, not what I expected given my performances in previous weeks. Hopefully the next SXC round at Aberfoyle will go better for me.
