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NPS Round 2 Wasing Park

May 9th, 2010 - Posted by Mike - RKC Owner

On Sunday, Ross, Euan and Rich headed to over to Wasing park near Reading for round 2 of the National MTB Series.

The course wound its way through the pituresque estate, taking in very little climbing but this didn’t make it any easier. The first half of the course was very heavy going through tight loamy singletrack and steep banks, opening up into a very rapid second half of fireroad and fast flowy singletrack through meadows of bluebells. Considering the rain the previous week and on the saturday, the course held up very well.

In race 2 we had Ross competing in the Elites and Euan in the Experts. With gridding based on UCI points Ross was gridded back in 33rd despite finishing 13th at the previous round at Clipstone. From the start the pace was relentless with Liam Kileen (Specialized) and Billy Joe Whenman (Whyte) forcing the pace at the front. Ross picked his way through the riders, riding strongly up to 10th at the end of lap 2. By the end of lap 4 he worked his up to 7th place, riding with Andy Blair (Torq), these 2 battled their way round with Ross edging him in the sprint to finish 7th, his highest finish in an Elite National race. This also means he’ll gain some valuable UCI points to work his way up the gridding for round 3 at Margam in 3 weeks.

Euan was gridded 12th, which meant a place on the front row. After a strong first few pedal strokes, Euan struggled to get his left foot clipped in and dropped a few places, getting safely tucked in the first section of fireroad. After getting held up in the first few sections of singletrack, Euan chased his way through the field coming in 10th after the first lap, just off the back of the leading group. Over the course of the next few laps the leading group split up and Euan managed to pick off a number of riders after some very consitent laps times. By the last lap he’d caught up a group riding for 4th place, but after a few gearing issues and fatigue setting in he had to settle for 6th.

In race 3 Rich was representing in the Masters category. This was to be Rich’s first race of the year after having to sit out round 1 due to illness. What Rich was lacking in speed in made up for in determination and technical skill. He rode strongly throughout setting his own rhythm after the race was upted from 4 laps to 5 after the quicker than planned lap times. He came in to finish 52nd in a very quality field, hopefully with some more training he’ll be placing much higher at round 3.

The next round of the series heads to Margam Park in South Wales in 3 weeks, for a hard weekend of racing on a proper MTB course, fingers crossed we’ll be reporting some even better results. 

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