BMBS Round 4 and season so far...

Kirroughtree was a fast and dry track back on April fools day when the Scottish MTB round was there but this weekend it was far from those conditions with a couple of days of heavy rain the track turned into a very muddy and unpredictable affair!
Race day I got up to watch first race of the day at 9.30 to see what the course was riding like and to cheer on a rider who will be joining the team in 2013, Frazer Clacherty who put in a brilliant ride, finishing in 12th place and racing the majority of the race in contention for a top ten place! And for a first year youth in only his second national round it is a result that he should be proud of and one that I think he can definitely improve upon, so a rider to keep an eye on!
My race was at 12.00 and starting on the first row and with the course conditions being sketchy I knew how important it was to get into the first piece of singletrack in a good position, I had a good start and got off the line first and after a long fire road climb I entered the singletrack in 3rd position, after the 1st lap Alex Welburn got away with me and Harry Franklin in pursuit around 20 seconds behind with riders just behind me and Harry so we knew we had to push, as the second lap went on me and Harry were catching Alex and the gap was around 8 seconds, we both knew we could catch him and as we hit the descent to the arena he was at the side of the course with a ripped front tyre, he did manage to get a new wheel and finish the race in a respectable 15th place. It was then down to me and Harry, I had done all the pace making throughout the race and knew at some point Harry would attack, we got close to the finish and he attacked before the final swooping descent, he got in front and couldn't get around him even in the small finishing straight so he took the win by a second, he deserved the win as he rode well from the gun. I was really pleased with the result.
I now have a 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th in the series with one round to go, and with 4 out of the 5 rounds to count to the overall series it is still all to play for with many riders in contention for the overall series title.
This season I have also been very proud of being selected to ride for GB in the junior ranks at 3 rounds of the UCI MTB XCO World Cup Series, I rode in the 2nd round in Houffalize, Belgium which was a shock to the system, starting 105th on a grid of 140 riders, the start is absolute madness, i eventually finished 88th on a challenging course, an experience I loved, just to be riding round in practice along side the best riders in the world! The next two rounds were just a week apart and after finding out I had being selected I was delighted. The 3rd round was Nova Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic, voted the best round in the 2011 season and home to the World Champion Jaroslav Kulhavy! The course was truly incredible and the temperature was really hot, Race day I woke up to pouring rain and at breakfast the coaches had to break the news to all the Junior riders that all the bikes had been stolen, we were so shocked! with hours before the race we all had to make do on borrowed bikes that we had never ridden before! Again the race was mad, with over 120 riders, I rode feeling strong to 49th after being gridded 65th. The week after i was racing in France and after a couple of days at home Debbie and Ian at Richardsons were on it, to get a bike ready for me, one which I was familiar to and one that would be up to standard for the race in France and the British round a week later and after hours searching and working for me they could not find a solution within the few days that I was going to fly back out to France. Luckily the owner of Godleys cycles owned a bike which would do the trick for France and would give Debbie and Ian time to get a serious race machine ready for the British series a week after France. The race was mad again, 128 riders took to the start and gridded 78th, with some mad descents and gruelling climbs under such high tempertature under a beating sun I managed to ride up to 54th, again a result I am very happy with!
I know have 2 main objectives left of the shortened MTB season due to the Olympics, Firstly the last round of the national series on the 15th July near Essex and a week later the MTB National Championships at Wasing Hall near Reading, with around a month to these two important events I will now enter a few weeks of very hard training!
I would like to make a special thanks to Debbie and Ian at the shop as otherwise I would be seriously stuck, the bike they have managed to put together is truly a beauty, a very nice bike which I will keep riding to its limit to get the results it deserves! The support from both of them has been more than I would ever have expected and I hope I can do them, the shop and the team proud in the remaining races.
I will write up after the National Championships in July.

Mike Thompson

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.

British XC Race Dalby 21st-22nd April

Round 2 of the British XC Series was this weekend on our local doorstep - Dalby Forest.   This round we opted to pay for an arena spot right next to the course.

By 11am on Sat we were set up right next to the course.  The arrangements for the team were more relaxed so riders were to appear throughout the day for practice and get off home when they could.  This was because it was a local course that everyone knew and also the weather forecast for the practice day was grim and I mean really grim - rain and worse was to come.

Alex team mechanic was a bit late - slept in after a night out in York however to his credit he had not been drinking on the night out due to the race commitment (well so he told me).  He was soon into action with pad changes and fitting of a new drivetrain for one bike.  He had been busy all week building a bike for Nick and some work for Bob.  He really has been a huge asset for the team this year.

The weather on sat started ok - we got the gazebo up then it rained and then hailstones and more hailstones.

Not only were riders getting soaked out on the course and coming back cold but the course was changing - the debate started mud tyres or not what pressures to run etc...  Also a new right diagonal line had appeared off Worry Gill do they ride this or the zig zag alternative routes which was faster.  Alex and myself looked at the lines we timed the riders through and gave our verdict.

Sat was also the fun races so managed to see club riders- Dan Joyce race in the Open class and also Martin Allanson who won the fun class. Also Jackie and Matt Hough popped along to see us and bought us coffee.

At 5.30pm Mark attended the managers meeting.  Again Juniors were to have technical assistance from two areas one at the top of the course the other below Medusa's drop. This proved to be a huge asset for one rider on race day. Laps were to remain as published unless the weather got much worse.  Riders were briefed by phone from this meet.

Sunday - race day.  Weaher looked good on the Wolds but as I arrived in the Forest it was raining.  The course was going to be tough. Scott was off at 9.30am for the Youth race.  He had a much better race a good solid start passing some riders on the last corner.  He had 3 laps to complete and came in as 19th on the first lap, 17th on the second lap but faded on the last lap after some calf cramp and came in at 26th placed rider.  A much better ride than the Sherwood round and improvements since that race.

Midday was the Expert race and Junior race.  Bob Hewitt was off first looking to improve on his 23rd place in the Sherwood Pines Round.  Bob had a great race and took loads of riders to get into 5th place for 4 laps he faded slightly on the last lap and came in at 7th place.  Bob had also been complaining of back pain so since the practice laps he had been using ROCK TAPE to alleviate the pain.     

Junior race was were the excitment was......Sam Roper hit the first lap too fast and had to stop for a few seconds at the bottle feed but came back stronger to get to 22nd pace.  A good result on this hard course.   Mike was off to a good start in the same race he was gridded as 3rd rider and after the first corner the bike slipped and Mike lost about 6-8 places he entered the single track around 10th place.  He had some ground to make up.  He rode hard to come in at the end of lap 1 in 5th place.  Then after the 2nd lap he was 3rd place right next to 2nd and 1st placed rider. However on the next lap nightmare puncture near the top of the boardwalk.  He ran worry gill on the mavic rims heading for the technical area where Alex was awaiting with spare wheels.  He had everything to ride for this race as the outcome could affect selection for GB to ride in the World Cup.    He ran Medusas drop carrying the bike and reached Alex a smooth change by Alex and he was off but had dropped to 5th place.  He started to make time up but could not catch 4th placed rider Iain Paton -  Iain then crashed into the barrier on the final lap 100m from the finish his back wheel dropped out so Iain ran to the line but left the back wheel on the track.  Rules state you must have a complete bike.....everyone shouted at Iain to go back.   Mike appeared on the final straight could he take 4th!  Iain ran back and came in on foot with the wheel to take 4th so Mike finished in 5th place.

A real shame for Mike.....he was in good shape and was riding well.

2.30pm was the Vets race some 80 riders in this field.  Nick was on his new bike and rode solid from the off to secure 31st place and he will surely reach top 20 next round.  Again an improvement over the last round.

Overall some good results from the weekend and improvements all round for the riders (excluding punctures).