Weekend for Round 3 of the National Series

This weekend is the 3rd round in the National XC Series at a new venue at Hopton Woods in Shropshire. Once again our sponsored riders on the TEF Richardsons RT will be competing.  Unfortunately its not a full team fot his one with Riders Nick Wilson and Bob Hewitt unable to make the journey down due to Nicks family wedding and Bob suffering from illness.

Also the support team is unable to make it with Mark working away in Manchester with British Cycling and team mechanic Alex committed elsewhere.

The venue is not known to any of the riders but with this recent good weather set to remain the team are expecting a dry and fast course however the technicality of the course features is the biggest unknown.   The riders will still be calling Mark on Sat night to discuss their individual race plans and goals.
Mike Thompson is riding to win the Junior race and this is welll within his grasp - he will know be on his brand new 2012 Giant hardtail (thanks to Debbie for sorting this quickly after the theft).
So Good luck to Scott, Sam and Mike for the weekend. 

UCI World Cup

Well done to Mike Thompson 55th in Round 4 of the UCI XC World Cup in La Bresse today.
He was also riding a borrowed bike after his 2012 bike was stolen in Czech Republic.

Nutcracker ASKE Round 2

Sunday 13th May 2012 ASKE Round 2 of the Nutcracker.   Mike Thompson was missing this one for his GB commitment in Czech Republic.  However the rest of the team were present at the event.  The course was a mixture of roots, some deep mud and steep hills.  Added to the course charateristics was the days high winds. 

Scott Woolley was well gridded and started on the front it was a head wind for the start and Scott put in an attack on the first hill and struggled to get into big chainring.  this dropped him to 5th place and lost contact with the front 3.  Scott managed to take 4th place after passing Rob Armstrong. 

Sam Roper had a bad race with a snapped mech hangar in the first lap.  He retired extremely disappointed and decided to ride from Leyburn home on his cross bike with ahead wind all the way - I think this was some self inflicted punishment!

Bob Hewitt in the expert had another good race and held 3rd place until a nasty crash late on in the race and dropped to 4th place.  Still a good result for Bob.

Nick Wilson in the Vets was unable to get into the top 10 as anticipated and he was another TEF rider to crash on the slippy root section.  He snapped a buckle off his shoe and finished 11th.

TEF Team will be riding on 27th May at the next round of the British XC Hopton Woods, Shropshire.  

Mike Thompson in Round 3 World Cup

TEF Rider Mike Thompson has been away this weekend racing as a Junior for GB in round 3 of the World XC Series. The round was being held in Czech Republic.  Mike kept his cool after all the Junior Team Bikes were stolen before the race.  All managed to compete on borrowed bikes and Mike did a good ride finishing 49th.

Report from British Cycling:

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/gbcyclingteam/article/gbr20120508-UCI-Mountain-Bike-World-Cup-XCO-Round-3--Nove-Mesto-Na-Morave--Czech-Republic-0

Northern Downhill Trail Bike Downhill 6th May

Only one member of the team raced here (I, Scott Woolley) ,Hamsterley Forest in County Durham.
This was the second Northern Downhill race i have raced and it was a great event on a great track.

Course walk was at  8am so there was an early 6am starrt to the day. First impressions of the course were good as it looked nice and pedally for me as a cross-country rider. 9am was first practice run and i felt fast on the course.

1pm race run. I was the 5th man down the hill and had the current fastest time by more than 35 seconds which was huge. And i held the lead with that time in youth. However as there was small numbers at this race the podiums where just fastest under 18's and fastest man and woman. after all the juniors came down i was in 2nd place 11 seconds ahead of 3rd and 2 seconds behind 1st on the 4 minute track.