The championship racing started with all U-16 riders competing in the BC National Trophy race on Saturday afternoon. The weather forecast was looking horrible but the course had been cut up and got very muddy as the race schedule proceeded for the day. The course was basically split across two large fields on a hill.
First up were the open riders, Ollie Larner, Arthur Oliver, Ben Whitehouse and Ben Bramford-Hale. A great start was made by all of them but then the Ollie got a flat which meant he had some running to do to get back to the pits for a bike change. The course was proving to be very tough on our young team but they dug deep and all finished respectively in what was a strong big field.
Now it was the turn of the females, once a gain a big strong field of all the Nat Trophy riders plus more. Scarlett Ford, Mia Lewis, Jamie Downing and Sophie Jacobs all rode amazing, but this was really hard for everyone and you could see it on their faces. The weather and storm Darragh had moved in and both wind and rain got worse during the female’s race. They too had a great race result, but at the end the girls were very cold and wet.
There was a now time for them to get some nutrition, dry off and stay warm before the evenings floodlit sprint race, which was on a shorter section of course that was not part of the main race earlier except for the start straight and first hill.
The scene was set, dark and floodlights illuminating the course along with some small floodlights in other areas of the course. A total of eighty-eight riders were assembled (female’s and open riders) on this dark early evening race, 5:30pm start time. The wind was blowing hard still and this course was pretty much all up and down a hill and an average lap time of something less than 3 minutes. Race duration was set to a max of 10 minutes because of the weather situation and the tiredness of the riders.
Ollie got a fantastic start and was in 4th place till bad luck prevailed him again, he slid off and his bike continued to slide down the hill. He retrieved it and made back into the race. In the meantime, Ben Whitehouse was having a super race as well Arthur Oliver and Ben Bramford-Hale.
The atmosphere from the cheering parents across all the eleven regions was great. BW finished 13th of 44, OL 14th, AO 21st and BBH 31st
Next up was girls, and same as earlier that day, the weather turned for the worse. All the girls made a good start but conditions now became very challenging with all the off-camber sections. Sophie managed a good finish 21st of 43, Jamie 23rd, Scarlett 26th and Mia 33rd. Once again, all the girls looked very tired and very cold.
At the end of Day 1 WM were 8th overall from 11 regions. It was time for everyone to head back to where they were staying to get cleaned up and get some hot food and a good night’s sleep.
During the evening, a number of messages had been sent out from the event organiser regarding the fact that the weather had been so bad a couple of trees had been brought down in the top field area and some very near misses with parents. Therefore, BC and event organisers had no option to cancel Sundays racing which included the elites. Th IR racing would continue but the skill course which was set up in the top field would have to b relocated to the lower field and the relay course now would only use the lower field too.
Sunday started by rebuilding the skills course in readiness for a 10:30am start. This basically is a course of 20 gates set on a sloping field that riders have to pass through. Something like the Kayak racing you see in the Olympic games There are not allowed to touch them, miss them or go in the wrong way etc. This proved to be harder than it looked. I don’t think any of riders actually did a clear run.
Both our Open and female riders did a fantastic ride on the skills course which elevated us form 8th to 5th overall with only the relay race to go.
The results above show that the top two teams are in definite podium position, and NW have a decent gap to. Then us and Wales and few more regions were closely grouped. So, our goal was to try and get into the race for that 4th place if we could. The relay starts where the region who is leading sets off and all the other regions go off based on points converted to time. So, WM and Wales were starting 27 secs behind Southern. Our team race order was selected to try and get us into a good position and hold it for the end. Therefore, Ollie was lined up next to one of WMCCL competitors Noah White. This was going to be something as each team rider had to complete one loop of the main course on the lower field and it was tough with a lot of running to be done. As each runner returns to the start area which was the pits they “tag” the next rider. The team that would be the first team to finish with all riders back in the pits. As predicted both Ollie and Noah were having a mega battle with each other and were now tying between 3rd and 4th positions. Next was Sophie who rode a superb lap but a couple of the stronger open and female riders got passed her but she then handed over to Ben BH, he went off super-fast and tried in vain to hole the stronger teams from coming back. He actually did an amazing ride. He tagged Scarlet who rode a nice strong lap and now the team were back up to 5th place so once again we were back in the game. Next to go was Mia, she too had dig deep and be strong to keep the team in that chasing group which she did brilliantly.
Next up was Arthur, who had been riding really strong all weekend, a gap had opened up in front of him so he was having work hard to chase back and close the gap, we were almost in touching distance again of 3rd place. Then our luck turned against us again as Arthur had got tangled up in some tape, in fact when you saw how much tape was around his rear wheel you may thought it was. Tape from a complete lap. His wheel was locked up totally and a kind marshal tried to help by pulling on the tape trying to release it whilst Arthur was running only to hinder Arthur more. It was along uphill run back to the pits for the next person to go.
Jamie was next off, unfortunately now she placing 6th but the gap to next rider in front was too much even for Jamie to pull back, she tried valiantly and stayed in 6th spot when she tagged the last rider who was Ben W. Now Ben flew off the start what seemed be a mission to close the gap to 5th and 4th. He rode strongly and extremely hard but could not do anything about it.
The team finished a fantastic 8th but not without eight amazing rides by our team. They gave everything they had left in that relay. Once again, the parents chasing from side of the course to cheer their team on, added to what was a brilliant atmosphere.
What a weekend that was, superb and such a great team from WMCCL.