You can see Ross’s report on the National MTB Champs on the previous blog post. At the Brighton Mitre crit race, Euan was hoping to get his 3rd straight win there and with it the series. The race started off at a high pace with keeping near the front out of trouble on the twisty course. After about 6minutes of racing, Euan made his move over the brow of the hill near the finish to get an immediate gap on the field, after 1 lap another rider Phil Cloke had joined him and the 2 of them started to pull away from the rest of them. They were working well together and after 40minutes of fast riding, the 2 of them had lapped the field. A lap later and Euan attacked in the same place and caught Phil off guard to jump away. He rode the remainder of the 7 laps by himself opening up a lead of almost half a lap to take the win, and the first win in the new team kit. So with 3 wins out of the series of 4 (he missed one due to Mountain Mayhem) he took the series quite comfortably. Two days later he rode with brother Ross at the National MTB Champs to finish 18th in the senior men despite 2 rear wheel changes on the first lap.

Euan at the MTB Nationals

Vicky’s race report from Hamburg

“Well I wasn’t really expecting that! Training has been going great, and as I mentioned in my last post I was feeling pretty confident of a good race, but I wasn’t quite expecting to make such a leap forward! For those of you who have no clue what I am waffling on about, last weekend was the Hamburg leg of the World Championships Series and I finished 5th. Not only that but I ran for 9.7km with a lead pack of 7girls including the World No1, 2 and 3 from 2009 and only got outkicked when it came down to the sprint. Our run times were all under 34.30 and although I am not sure of the accuracy of the course, that is still 2minutes quicker than I have ever run before so it was a DEFINITE improvement!

I’ve never raced in Hamburg before (demonstrated by my booking a hotel in the red light district directly above and next to two sex shops…oops) but the atmosphere is legendry in the triathlon world. Basically the course is right in the centre of the main shopping district and every year thousands and thousands of people come to watch and I know the athletes love to race here. I was really excited to experience this atmosphere for myself and after watching the men’s race live on German TV the day before (it was too hot to go and stand outside and watch and certainly not sensible pre-race day) I was even more excited. I was 100% ready to rumble by Sunday and I was literally counting down the hours as I sat in our hotel room waiting for race time.

As for the race itself, the horn went and the fighting began. I’ve heard from several of my training partners that Hamburg is a notoriously hectic swim and this year didn’t disappoint. At around 200m in I was getting so smashed around that I could barely get my arms over so I took the fairly drastic decision to stop, wait for the pack to go past and then swim towards the gaps…which was pretty much the opposite direction! Luckily I was actually feeling really good in the water so managed to swim straight past a lot of girls and at the first turn buoy I had got myself onto the front pack. That wasn’t to last long as I got pretty beaten up around the top turn buoys – honestly, why do people think it will make them quicker to attack someone else by pulling on their race suit, their head or literally swimming over the top of them? I’m pretty sure it slows them down as well as me! Anyway, I had to work hard to get a reasonable place back and just as I did so we went under ‘the tunnel’ (40m pitch black tunnel that we had to swim under three times) for the first time. Now I’m not sure if some people got scared under there or maybe they thought that seeing as the cameras couldn’t see us it was just a free for all, but it definitely got more aggressive under there! The light at the end of the tunnel couldn’t come quick enough!

After the roughest (and dirtiest – ours suits got dyed a beautiful green algae colour) swim of the year I exited 16seconds down on the leader and hopped onto my bike just off the front pack. After a couple of laps we came together as a big pack with most of the main players present. The pace was relatively high but I didn’t feel like I had been too stretched coming into T2 for the all important run leg.

The lead girls ran out of T2 at lightening pace (no change there then) and I was struggling to find my legs so I decided to hold back, try to find some rhythm and then bridge up to work my way up as the pace calmed down. After around a km I found my form and started to pass people and close in on the leaders. Just before the 2km mark I made contact with the lead girls – I wasn’t exactly expecting to get right to the front but I decided to just try and relax into it and see how long I could hang in. Emma Moffatt was leading the charge and surged a few times through the 10km making it tough at times, but in general I think I was carried along by the electric atmosphere and the adrenalin of being in the mix with the best in the world. Every kilometre that passed I said to myself ‘so that’s 5km you’ve now run with these girls’ ‘now that’s 7km with the best girls’!

Vicky in the lead group at Hamburg

Photo courtesy of Thomas Sobczak www.foto37.net

I was expecting to suffer at some point and have to drop off but into the last lap, even though I was beginning to hurt I knew I could stay with the pace unless a massive surge went. 500m to go and I started to get a bit excited. The 7 of us – Emma Moffatt, Lisa Norden, Kate Roberts, Aileen Morrison, Laura Bennet, Andrea Hewitt and myself – were all still together so it was going to come down to a sprint – something I am normally pretty good at. Around the final corner with 300m to go, Lisa made a surge and everyone reacted. That’s when I knew that I wouldn’t be outsprinting many people that day! I’d ran the best 10km of my life (by a LONG way) but I had nothing in terms of a sprint finish – I guess that is the price you pay! I crossed the line in 5th, half a step behind my housemate and training partner Kate and only 4seconds behind Lisa who took the tape and the glory. Needless to say I am pretty much over the moon with the result. Pretty much.

Ok ok, I really have no justification to be disappointed (and really, disappointed is too strong a word), yet there is this nagging voice in the back of mind saying ‘yeah it was good, but you were only two seconds off the podium and four seconds from winning the thing’. I guess sometimes it’s hard to be so close to the ultimate glory and not quite be able to seal the deal! It’s all to do with the competitive instinct that is part and parcel of any sportsman and in truth I am glad that I am not 100% satisfied with this result as otherwise where would I go from here? Instead I am pleased with the progress I have shown but am now even more driven to progress and most importantly….find my kick! Next time Vicky, next time….

So a great weekend for me and also other Brits too – Tim Don was 3rd in the men’s race on Saturday, Jodie Stimpson took a fantastic victory at the French Grand Prix in Paris and the in the men’s FGP the Brownlee brothers dominated once again. In terms of D-Squad…well I think it’s safe to say we dominated in Hamburg with 1st, 4th, 5th an 8th – half of the top 8 ain’t bad!! Well done one and all!

Next up is the London round of the WCS this weekend in Hyde Park. This is arguably the biggest race of the year so far – the field is the strongest it has been all year (29 of the current top 31 in the world will start) and being the home leg for us GB athletes it is really exciting. Coming off my race in Hamburg I am more confident than ever in my running so with some good recovery this week I am hoping for another great day in front of the home crowd which will include some of my loved ones who are coming over to watch. Let’s hope the people of London come out to support this race just like in Hamburg – now that would be really special.

Finally, thanks for the many messages of support and encouragement that I have received in response to both my last blog and the race in Hamburg. I appreciate them all .”

And as she mentioned, she also raced the London Hyde Park round of the Triathlon World Champ Series on Saturday. With a much stronger field than at Hamburg, Vicky had an amazing race to finish 6th 45s off a podium. There will be a full race report from Vicky coming soon, but in the meantime you can watch highlights of her race here, and an interview with Vicky by British Triathlon here.

National Champs on my Whyte 19

Sunday 18th July was the day I had been targeting all year, the day of the National Championships. This year they were held at the Pippingford Estate, about 10miles from Gatwick Airport. After riding well at the Southern XC Series event on the same course in May, I was quietly confident that I could achieve my aim of a top 10 finish. My Whyte 19 was running smoothly after Sean had put some new bearings in the bottom bracket (Thanks Sean!), so there would be no excuses, the only thing that would affect my finishing position would be my legs.

I travelled over to the the race on Saturday afternoon and rode two laps of the course at a steady pace to wake the legs up a bit, and to get used to riding off road again. The course was slightly different compared to the one I raced on in May, the main difference being that a section called “The Quarry” had been placed in the middle of the lap, as opposed to the start, where it would cause a bottleneck if 50 riders hit it 2 minutes after the start. I really enjoyed the course, the climbs were long, but not too long, and the downhills were nice and fast, with big berms allowing you to carry your speed through the corners. I came back to the caravan happy; a good course and legs that felt good too.

Race day dawned cloudy but dry, and keen not to carry on my tactic so far this year of taking 2 laps of the race to get going, I went out for a 30min spin on the road after breakfast. As the race didn’t start until 2:30pm, I didn’t want to hang around all day and then get to the start and discover my legs had been asleep all day… The other challenge with the later then usual start was eating. The trick is to eat enough to get you through the race, but not so much that you feel full on the start line, as that can have some rather unpleasant consequences. So after a few more sandwiches than usual, I started my warm up 45mins before the start of the race, to make sure I was raring to go from the off.

For the first time all year (and ever!), I was gridded on the front row of a national level race… and I completely messed up the start, missing my pedal engagement and ending up sat on the crossbar as half the field came past. The National Champs is not a race you want to make harder for yourself!  With my foot safely in the pedal, I entered the first bit of singletrack just outside the top 10 and quickly settled into the race. I was feeling good on the climbs and more than holding my own on the downhills. After 2 laps of the 6 lap race I was riding with Chris Minter and Dave Collins, and still going strong. Coming up the final climb to the finish at around half distance, Dave upped the pace and broke clear from Chris and I. However, we could see him for the majority of the lap, and I was confident that I could make a move later in the race to get up to him. However, not long after this it became clear that I hadn’t quite eaten enough before the race, and was becoming reliant on the PowerBar energy gels to me through the race. The new plan was to blag it, and hope Chris didn’t realise I was on the verge of blowing out of the 2nd half of the race! If he pushed the pace, even slightly, it could have been a messy ending for me! As the last lap approached, I was surviving. We were riding for 6th place, and thanks mainly to the caffeine gels, I was still going OK. Up the last climb on lap 5, Chris managed to pull out a slight gap, and in the over eagerness to catch up on the downhills, I slightly overshot a corner, and washed out. I managed to stay on the bike, but lost precious seconds. Perhaps more importantly, my legs made a different movement to going round in circles as I dabbed the ground. My legs only go round circles (just ask my girlfriend how much I dislike walking!). A twinge of cramp caused the last lap to be an even greater battle for survival, but survive I did, crossing the line in 7th place, a whole 7 places better than my previous best at the National Champs! With Euan riding brilliantly for 18th, despite two wheel changes on the first lap, it was a great day for the Red Kite Cycles Race Team. A good Nationals debut for the new kit too!

Now it is time for a rest! And maybe a few road races if I can find any 1st cat races close to home…

ROSS ADAMS