Hugo rode the first round of the British Mountain Bike Series (BMBS) at Sherwood Pines this Sunday, here’s how he got on.

Sherwood Pines is different from many cross-country courses in that it’s rather flat. However, despite its mild appearance, when the gun goes and the race gets underway long fire road drags become leg busters and any entrance to tight singletrack becomes a fierce battle with fellow competitors and all too quickly you feel the taste of lactic acid and the bloody taste of lung lining. Altogether, not an ideal set of characteristics for my first MTB race of 2011 in the ever competitive junior category.

A pre-ride of the course at Sherwood confirmed the familiar style of courses at Sherwood; long fire road sections broken up with extremely narrow single track which this year featured lots of new trails of varying quality but overall produced a course with no big challenges. Dry conditions and fast running trails meant I ended up using a Fast Fred on the front and leaving my forks locked out for a lot of the course and came away from Saturday feeling confident in my own ability but still a little unsure of how strong any other riders were going to be.

After a night in Mansfield’s finest Travelodge, it was onto Sunday and race day. A slight panic in warm-up when my dad managed to knock a brake pad out of the caliper was the only real issue and before long the nerves kicked in as I lined up for gridding. As a second year junior having raced most of this series last year I was the 6th rider called up and so took a spot on the front row. The start came and I think my lack of MTB racing (none since September 2010) showed as I slipped back through the first chicane to about 10th place and then again some more on the first fire road before getting my head together and going into the singletrack in what must have been 8th place. The rest of the first lap is a bit of a blur, as it seems to be in most races, but I must have worked my way through a couple of riders as I ended up with Ryan Fenwick and Matthew Adair in 4th place.

With not much idea of the gap to the lead riders but in the knowledge that we needed to work together, we took turns on the front and we were soon clear from those chasing behind. A few expert riders (their race started 2 minutes before the juniors) who must have been struggling with the pace of their race got in the way and split our group slightly meaning that I had a tough job of chasing back to Ryan a couple of times, but I kept with him through the singletrack and then suddenly noticed that the elastic had been stretched enough for Matthe Adair to have been dropped. Ryan and I continued to work together although I wasn’t sure if I had it in me to stay strong until the finish, a problem not helped when I missed my bottle with 2 laps to go.

On the bell lap, I was in 4th place but I was feeling the effects of the course with a stiff back and Ryan was still with me, leaving me a bit worried about what tactics to use at the finish. My Dad shouted at me that the gap to third was less than a minute and this must have been enough to make me get my head down for the last effort to the line. Ryan and I pushed on and then suddenly caught sight of 3rd place (Ben Sumner) at the end of one of the many long straights. I gave my all on one of the slight rises through some singletrack and looked round to see I had a gap to Ryan behind me and that I was closing in on Ben. Ben must have been pretty cooked as I passed him quite easily just before the last bit of singletrack before going all out to the finish to claim my first national podium in a while with a pair of tired legs but pleased with what for me felt like a really unexpected result.

Thanks go to my Dad who I think was rather pleased to see me on the podium

So this weekend was the first round of the Junior National Road Race series, the Cadence RR in mid/south Wales, a race full to the brim with Juniors wanting to test their legs over 110km consisting of 7 laps of a mildly hilly circuit.
The race got off to a very nervous and shaky start what with 100 riders all unsure of where to begin and all wanting to be on the front for the slightest of corners or uphills I ended up sharpening the elbows and squeezing through a good few handlebar-wide gaps but it was not enough as I approached the finishing climb towards the back of the bunch. However, the enthusiasm of many of the less experienced riders in front of me quickly turned to gasps of breath and I snaked my way to the front using as much of the right hand side of the road as possible and rejoined the front echelon before speeding down the descent and onto the flatter part of the course. Here the peloton regrouped enough for a couple of riders to touch wheels before that ever familiar crash of carbon on ashphalt was heard and I found myself swerving through the wreckage as riders seized up and smashed into each other, fortunately most people were ok and only superficial damage was done.

Onto the second lap and the bunch had clearly calmed down as riders filled both sides of the road. I looked up over the mass of kit to see a mate of mine from the Glendene CC, Josh Hannan, just off the front with another rider. Having had enough of the nervous bunch riding I jumped across to Josh and looked back to see no response from the front of the peloton except for two riders who had joined my wheel. I bridged to Josh and the other rider and the 5 of us worked as a group enough to gain a good advantage and pick up the remnants of a small move which had escaped on the first lap, our group reaching up to 9 riders at on point as Ali Slater (Hargroves) and the super keen Alex Peters (CC Hackney) made their way across. Our group then worked together for the rest of the race as we ‘chainganged’ through and, with an average speed above 37km/h, the gap rose quickly to 2 mins 20 seconds.
For the rest of the race, we worked well but the finishing climb clearly took its toll and riders were dropped to leave our group at 6 with two laps to go and the gap at 1 min 55 seconds. By this point my legs were undoubtedly feeling the strain but I think we all knew that the finish was in sight and we got to the bell lap with 1 min 30 seconds adavantage. Normally at this point in the race riders start to think tactically and maybe miss a turn on the front but we were all 100% committed to getting to the finish and the through and off never stopped, this was until about 2km to go when 3 riders (Oli Rossi (Ciclos Uno) Jon Dibben (Hargroves) and Sam Lowe (Raleigh)) made the junction and tactical riding came to the fore until Jonathan Dibben dived across to the other side of the road in full flight, an attack that lead to his win. Our bunch reached the foot of the finishing climb in pieces and all I could do was uselessly fight the cramps on a finish which I felt suited my style to roll over the line in 8th place with a pair of very dead legs. Of course, I shouldn’t be too disappointed, I made the selection and worked well in the break and certainly feel like a contender for a podium place next time.
Thanks to my Dad for driving me to Wales and nervously standing around in a field for just under 3 hours, as well as all the other stuff he does.

Hugo Humphreys