Just like the last two years, the first round of the SXC was held at “Laggan Wolftrax”: http://www.laggan.com/wolftrax.htm. No worries with the course then, the same fast fire-road climb, followed by the long rocky singletrack descent. But then there was the snow, which had fallen over the day before and morning. Luckliy by the time we got to race in the afternoon, there was only meltwater on the track, but a trip off the track would land you in snow. Fun!

The expert (yep, I got me an expert license finally!) race got off to the usual fast start, big ringing it most of the way up. Andy Barlow and Hamish Creber both made a good gap on the rest of the field by the top. I got into the descent in a fairly poor position, but wasn’t impeded too badly on the descent. For the next couple of laps I was loving it, doing the climb with Richard Macdonald, dropping him on the descent, then getting caught again on the flat sections. By the fifth lap, I was pretty cold, and was starting to lose my enthusiasm. I also had to stop a few times and pull my knee warmers up.

On the last lap I saw Alex McLean making up time on me round the top section, so I had no choice but to give it guttie and hope I could hold him off. He caught me just as we joined the bottom section of fireroad, but some sprinting action saw me keep my place for the lap. 13th place, not brilliant, but on-par with the sort of placing I had last year, albeit with only a month in the saddle this year.

Bring on Dalbeattie!