Sherwood Pines - Hugo Humphreys
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