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Midland XC Series Round 1, Sherwood PinesAfter a successful days drinking on the Saturday, Mick, Pete and Duncan decided a nice ride in the park was in order on the Sunday, and there’s no better ride in the park than entering round 1 of the Midland XC series. Stating ride in the park, that’s not to say it’s an easy race, far from it as we found out. Last year the race was a decent 7 odd mile course and you did two laps. A good workout but not too much to kill you. So the boys went down to Sherwood Pines expecting much the same. However to their surprise the race board stated that it was a five mile course and riders were expected to do 6 laps. The maths didn’t work out, that’s 30 miles in total. That’s not a Sunday morning ride. After recovering from the shock and an extortionate £17 out of pocket the boys lined up on the start line. For the first time in a long while there was quite a lot of banter from the fellow riders. Normally there’s always some serious bloke on the start line putting a stop to any banter. Then the race began. Elites first followed by experts and then us Sports dudes behind. Although looking at the Shockwave website Pete, being an old git, should have been in the Masters line up (check it out). The first couple of corners were on loose gravel. No major crashes happened though. Then came the single track next to the fence. Single file is not good when there are around a hundred bikers trying to get through. Pete came out of the queue first, Duncan second and after a bit of a wait Mick third. The course then flowed really well. There was everything from flowing single track, fire roads, short sharp climbs, loose climbs and even the dual descent was built into the course. A real nice combination for everyone. Even the sun was out. As ever all the elite riders were flying, lapping the boys after around three laps. They finished the race before the team completed the fifth lap so in the end 25miles were completed by the boys. Thank god was the general consensus. All in all a really good race, a bit pricy though, particularly if you only aim to do one race from the series. The team results were 1st Pete, 2nd Mick and 3rd Duncan. For the complete results click here and then click on the relavent Excel link. (30-04-2004) |
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