Southern XC Round 2
East Grinstead: 14/05/06
By Warren Bates.
Calum was one of the first racers of the day in the Youth category (even though he looks older than me and Chris). What could have been a great race started in disaster with a puncture on the first lap. Calum was quick to repair and recovered well to finish a respectable 8th. Must get some thicker inner tubes for Margam Park!
Another early starter was Ben in Juniors. High on his form at the first NPS round at Sherwood, he stormed off the line and led up the first climb looking confident. Ben again rode a consistent race to just miss out on a podium against some strong competition and finish 5th. Oh, and Jay Spetch pulled out after a lap... Snigger...
Dean's Master race was the best attended of the day, so we knew he'd have a tough challenge ahead of him in this competitive class. After a bit of a break from training recently, Dean seems to have come back pretty strong at this race with some consistent lap times and a decent 11th place finish. This is an especially good result as Dean didn't really enjoy the course, falling asleep at the bars in the round the field sections is not good race strategy.
With the new format for the Expert/Super Master class we were all wondering how well the super Paul's would get on against the whipper snapper Expert field. Paul Hopkins proved his class and pretty much whooped their butts. In fact, one might describe his performance as opening a six pack of whoop-arse. Nice. Paul Howard also fared well even though he was stuck behind some typical roadies (i.e. if the going gets tough, get off and push). Frustrated to be stuck behind the pushers and losing time he rode a good solid remainder of the race chasing all the way to finish a strong 14th.
Chris' new training plan seemed to finally be having some affect. He rode a strong, consistent Sport race to finish in a respectable 16th position. If any of you are interested, his training plan has drastically changed this year to involve actually riding his bike. A novel approach that I think we can all learn from. I had a fun race. Starting quickly and then slowing a bit as it hurt too much (what a Jesse). I finished 10th, only 6 places in front of Chris, uh oh...he's catching me. Still, enjoyed it more than the flat plains of Sherwood Pines.
John was not in attendance at this race, probably off doing some secret training with some pros, sly old dog.
Also worth a mention was a great ride from my fiancee Catherine. She rode a strong race to win the Open Women category. Just don't mention the fact that she was also last. D'oh!
Pos Laps Time Time+ Name Lap 1 Lap 2 Lap 3 Lap 4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- YOUTH 8 2 00:52:38 09:26 CALUM CHAMBERLAIN 29:15 23:23 JUNIOR 5 3 01:09:29 05:28 BEN THOMAS 22:17 23:29 23:43 MASTER 11 3 01:12:56 07:11 DEAN MORGAN 23:28 24:33 24:55 EXPERT/SUPERMASTER 1 4 01:26:15 PAUL HOPKINS 20:58 21:16 22:04 21:57 14 4 01:35:08 08:53 PAUL HOWARD 23:57 23:49 23:39 23:43 SPORT 10 3 01:12:46 05:36 WARREN BATES 23:39 24:25 24:42 16 3 01:17:51 10:41 CHRIS WHITE 26:15 25:54 25:42