{"id":480,"date":"2009-04-07T22:02:52","date_gmt":"2009-04-07T21:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/?p=480"},"modified":"2009-04-07T22:15:03","modified_gmt":"2009-04-07T21:15:03","slug":"race-report-nps-1-sherwood-pines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/?p=480","title":{"rendered":"Race Report – NPS #1 Sherwood Pines"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nSunday brought the first round of the revamped 2009 National Points Series for Cross Country Mountain Bike Racing. After a poor end to the year in 2008 it was great to see a full entry list for the first round, which was held at Sherwood Pines Forest Park near Mansfield.
\nI decided to ride it blind as didn’t have time to go over on Saturday evening for practice. I’ve ridden a Midlands XC race there in the past so knew what to expect, ie not much climb and fairly intense riding through narrow singletracks, in and out of the trees.
\nI got there in time for the Women’s prize giving, seeing British Orienteerings\u00a0MTBO Team co-ordinator, Hillary Bloor, get 2nd place in grand vet. I then watched a spectacular crash at the start of the Men’s Elite race with fellow MTBO team mate Sarah Bayliss (who raced vets):\u00a0bodies and bikes were\u00a0flying all over the place before the peloton disappeared in a cloud of dust out onto the 6km course.
\n\"\"<\/a>The mens elite train was awesome to watch as 6 riders in line, wheel to wheel, lapped at around the 19 min pace. The race was\u00a0only decided with a sprint for the line on the last lap. A bag of nerves, I lined up for the start of the Masters (over 30s) race amongst a sea of sponsored riders. However, just before the start I was nicely distracted by the marshalls chastising a very ‘cool’ looking rider dressed in complete replica rainbow world championship winning kit complete with matching helmet. He eventually turned his top inside out after being threatened with a \u00a32000 fine with lots of giggles and comments from those around him.
\nThe start was bonkers with 80 riders sprinting for the gateway, then out over the dusty tracks to the first climb. I think even at that point I knew I was riding beyond my abolity. A quick glance at the heart rate monitor showed I had over committed but I had no choice but to keep going (it was that or\u00a0to pull off and let everyone go by). The singletracks got a bit bottlenecked but after the first loop the field opened up and I tried to settle into a more comfortable race pace, but I still much faster than I should have been. A steady flow of riders overtook me, perhaps 1 a minute until suddenly I had about 20 pile past me with shouts of ‘on your left’, ‘on your right’ and ‘rider’ as the tops Vets who started a couple of mins behind masters caught me.\u00a0 I did my best to keep out of the way and got quite a few “Thanks”, so I dont think I held anyone up for too long. By now the excess’s of my first lap were beginning to tell and I started to lap slower and slower, with only\u00a0one familiar face from the Watt bike league cheering me on about\u00a0half way around the course where he was marshaling.
\nMy last lap was a whole world of pain and to be honest at that point I wasn’t sure how many I’d done, but was dimly aware as I got lapped by the\u00a0winning masters that\u00a0it meant I didnt have to do the 5th lap and I could stop in a few minutes. So 70th with lap times of 24, 25, 26 and 28 mins against the best mountain bikers in the UK, for my first NPS race, Im quite pleased, although\u00a0with a spring and summer\u00a0of quality speed training\u00a0ahead I’m sure\u00a0there is plenty\u00a0more to come.<\/p>\n

Full Report on British Cycling <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday brought the first round of the revamped 2009 National Points Series for Cross Country Mountain Bike Racing. After a poor end to the year in 2008 it was great to see a full entry list for the first round, which was held at Sherwood Pines Forest Park near Mansfield. I decided to ride it … <\/p>\n

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