A whole heap of firsts
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Blink and you’ve missed it - where did April go? The past month has seen a whole lot of firsts and now I’m just waiting for the inaugural sighting of Bluebells in my local woods (not sure if they’re a flower you get in the ‘States, but in the UK they signify the arrival of spring and those few weeks when the soil is that perfect tacky consistency that equals masses of grip).
To begin the month, the first round of the Midlands XC series - which I co-organise - took place. 180 riders was a great turnout for us, with Oli Beckingsale(UK national champion) taking the men’s elite win and Jenn O-Connor(’07 New Zealand national marathon champ) taking the women’s elite win.
Next up was ‘Early Dawes’. Overnight snow nearly caused the event to be cancelled (for any Canucks who want to laugh at our ineptitude - there was about 2″ of the white stuff at most) and scared off a few people, giving me a rare chance to be first into the singletrack. Not something I usually experience, but definitely something I’d like to taste again!
The following weekend the season truly got underway with the first round of the national points series. With lots of people having moved up a category, I got gridded first! It may only have been the sport category, but that front row is an intimidating place! I’m not a superstitious person, but I never do well on courses that run anti-clockwise and if I don’t get clipped in on the first pedal stroke I know it’s going to be a losing battle. Any ‘Maurice Greene head down style’ start line visualisation of leading from pole to finish flag quickly evaporated though, as I received a thorough kicking from my fleet footed opposition despite keeping it in ‘the big dog’ for the whole four laps…
With lessons learnt, there was little time to re-group before the UK 29er crew’s first team event of the year - G2 Revolver, round 1 ‘The Nightrider’. Held in the middle of Sherwood forest (insert your Robin Hood pun of choice here) on a course designed by team-mate Paul Errington, we were under orders to win. A show of brute force by Phil Morris (he’s Welsh and built like a rugby player, so I doubt he finessed his way round) led us to the win, with the three of us trying and failing to match his impressive lap times. Not pre-riding the course was a bad idea and my first lap was a prison break dash of skidding into corners, knuckles skimming trees and fearfully looking back for searchlights chasing me through the trees.
Then finally, after four weekends of racing, my first free Saturday of the month. With all my riding buddies from Uni now getting tied down with ‘other commitments’, it was refreshing to find that there was interest among them in meeting up for a ride. Out of nothing, a plan formed for ten of us to meet at the North Downs to check out the closest proper countryside London has and somewhere I’ve never ridden before.
Even Andy (pictured) who rarely rides for more than 30 seconds at a time down a 4X track was persuaded to make an appearance! It was great to catch up with friends I hadn’t seen for six months and the quality of the singletrack added to the occasion. With a promising weather forecast proved correct, it was the first ride of the year with knees and elbows exposed. 50km of trails later and 3 trig points bagged I’d made a good start on my farmer-boy tan lines and slept contently on the train journey home, happy that I’d made the most of the first free weekend of the racing season.
