Plymouth Winter XC Series

Plymouth Winter XC series overall standings.

First ’08 series win for Altura/Patterson!

The Plymouth Winter XC series affectionately known as the ‘Soggy Bottom’ is held from November to February at the excellent Newnham private estate in Plymouth. Efficiently and enthusiastically organised by Martyn Salt and his crew at www.xcracer.com it was a pleasant surprise to see how well attended all three rounds of the series were (it was usual to be competing against 55-75 riders racing in the competitive Masters class alone!).
Round 1 featured many of the outstanding technical course features from the Nationals (minus the ‘chute’ thankfully) that mark this venue out as a real mountain bikers course, and one of the reasons it’s so popular. Handling skills are just as important at Newnham as fitness levels which is just how it should be in mountain bike racing!
The race started with the usual scramble for the front but an early and fairly protracted hill soon strung everyone out. Andy had me doing over geared hill reps in training and this proved really handy as I was able to move up to the front by the end of the first hill and didn’t look back for the next four laps. I held it together and was delighted to take the win ahead of solid rides by Mark Brock (Smart Coaching) and Anthony Bailey (Leisure Lakes) notching up times comparable to the Expert/Elite riders.
Round 2 was the wettest of the series but turned out to be my strongest ride. I felt good from the off and decided to try to get to the front and ride my own race. Again the early hill proved useful to get away. Mark Brock and Anthony Bailey were chasing hard and eventually reversed their previous round’s results. It was great to get the fastest rider (lap) of the day (by nearly a minute overall) and I managed to finish strongly (with my second fastest lap time in lap 4) and almost felt like I could have done another lap! I was under no illusions though, it was very early in the season and there was still the third and final round of the series to contest.
Round 3 was the toughest of the series. Martyn had reversed the course and it felt like it had a lot more climbing and had a couple of insanely fast descents. With no Anthony Bailey and Mark Brock on my tail, Jay Horton (Certini) stepped up his game which ensured a nail biting finish, as we tussled all the way round. It was only in the last lap, hungry for the overall series and with a huge effort that I managed to get away and steal the win. Or so I thought! Some tannoy confusion as I came in, lead me to believe I still had 1 lap to go. Knowing Jay was near and despite feeling fairly spent, I dug deep and tried to open up a gap. The course seemed a lot quieter and the only guys I passed seemed pretty strong and put up a bit of resistance, but at least it helped me keep the lead up. Arriving at the line knowing I had the series win in the bag was fantastic and helped stave off the pain from lactic laden legs. This was only slightly dampened by seeing Jay already at the finish line and eating Devon cake. As it turned out I had done an extra unnecessary lap after all but good sport that he is, he at least saved me some cake!
My thanks to Martyn and his team for an excellent series, to my fellow competitors who turn up and make it happen and to Andy and Jen at Patterson for their help and support. See you at the races!