Midlands XC Round 1 Cosford.

A FNSS favourite course with a new twist. 3.6 miles long and a heap more climbing than usual. Good dry condtions and some fast riders in attendance.

Results
Big Ring Photos

Thrapstons finest.
Hollie grabs 2nd place still chasing beth Crumpton but much closer.
Megan gets 3rd in her first ever race in the U10's ....something in the water.
James Hyde put in a superb ride with some good lap times for 3rd in the Youth race.

Bob Mitchell 8th in Grand vets, a wheel full of tape didn't help his cause.

Lloyd 13th in masters, just cruising round for training but still lapping faster than any of us.
Stew 36th having a laugh and sticking the distance for a tough 1hr45 race.

Tom 18th in open

Smiffy does his first Vets race and puts in a solid ride for 4th, matching the 2 riders above him for the last laps. Jack struggled to get going then took 3 riders on the final lap to grab 6th, only 7 secs behind 5th. 1 minute faster on the last lap compared to the 3rd means try harder earlier.

Duston Triathlon

Today was my first attempt of a triathlon, it was a 400meter swim followed by a 20k cycle and a 5k run. after a dissapointing swim time i managed to have a good transition and got onto the bike to lay down some power, 37miutes later i was back into the transition and thats where it started to go wrong. i couldnt find my kit and spent about 2 minutes running around in desperation searching where my designated area was, after a frantik little while i was into my running shoes and out onto the 5k run. Supprisingly i felt very strong and managed to blast around in 19minutes.

much to my amazement i got 2nd place in my age group (15-19) and missed out on 1st by just 30 secounds ( BLOODY TRANSITION !!!!). Out of the 500 entered i came 43rd, very much enjoyed and deffently up for doing these more often.

also a big thanks to tom for lending me his road bike, it made me go extra quick

http://www.justracinguk.com/files/results/2009%20Results.pdf

HONC - The Hell of the North Cotswolds

HONC 2009


Honc number 3.........
3 of us Plumz riders fancied this, Bob, Dave and myself and we could not have asked for a better day!!! The sunday morning was chilly but glorious and a good days riding ahead of us!!
We all met up at about 8.30am with fresh faces and well up for the ride...Bob nipped off to take a quick pee and that was the last we saw of him til the lunch stop!!!!!!!! 37 miles into the ride...ooops, so dave and I set off after a quick look for Bob......we were both on single speeds and so the first few miles is always quite steady and just getting warmed up!!!
Then came the first climb.....oooooh morning legs.....this dragged on for about 5/6 miles and fairly steady with the odd steep bit, i was loving it, all those geared up boys clanking and clicking and puffin!!.....me, well i was out of the saddle and pumping all the way to the top!! It was mega, and no saturday sore legs!!!!!....Dave, however, decided to get off and walk to conserve energy and save his legs mmm!
So, once that climb was out of the way we got off and running..and all those boys we had overtaken on the climb were nailing it past us.....singlespeeders PAH!!! Until the next climb and here we go again....they span their legs we pumped past them out of the saddle!!!!.......and so it went on, flat riding they came by .....hills we went by!!!!.....the split off for the 50km came and went without either dave or myself noticing and we pushed with the totally awsome Garmin 705 route uploaded and leading us perfectly........37 miles in and we met up with Bob for coffee and cakes!!!! and a top up of bottles....we were all in good spirits and felt really good ready for the final chukka!!!
the last part of the ride was really quiet.....we rode most of the last part mostly on our own until we found a bunch of riders lost......Garmin to the rescue and off we trotted with all the others in tow!!!!
the hills kept coming and the single speeders kept leaving the others.... mmmmm my fave!!! Poor old Bob's legs at this point were tiring but he plugged on regardless.....shouting at us when he got to the top..."you guys are animals"
Dave here missing out the river crossing!


Well some of the riders look like they should not be there!!!!!!! why the hell not it's for all sorts!!!!



The ride meandered nicely for the last 6 miles with a great down hill section towards the finish with bob and me full pelt and slightly out of control at one point....we held it together and the last part of the last descent was bloody swamped....Bob and i pelted through it at mach 2.....and ended up getting caked!!!!!...Dave tootled through and did not have a speck on him.......3 miles to the finish and medals and tea and buns!!
Wicked days riding, weather good and good trails........now i have the start of that cough bug!!!!!!! Bugger

British MTB Champs Round 1 Sherwood Pines

Sherwood Pines Round 1
BCF Report HERE

Lloyds view from the races:

What a days racing, weather, course, record spectators, results, all brilliant, the BNPS got off to a superb start.

Hollie was fantastic she really mixed it up with the best girls in the country to achieve an amazing result. This was Hollie's first ever National race and she was a little nervous to say the least but as soon as the gun went and she knew she could stay with the leaders her confidence grew with every pedal stroke. The course was pretty flat and very fast but with extremely technical sections in the forested areas including two log jumps and two returns to the arena it made for some real close exciting racing.

There were 12 girls signed on for Hollies race and unbelievably 5 of them were on the Olympic Developement programme so to get any sort of result was going to be hard. After the first lap three girls had got away with Hollie in fourth and chasing hard, the leader Bethany Crumpton was in a league of her own with some fantastic lap times.

Lap two saw 2nd and 3rd place tiring slightly giving Hollie who was feeling stronger all the time the opportunity to close in on them, just as she was about to close the gap another rider crashed in front and Hollie had no choice but to stop, by the the time she got underway again the gap had re-opened but she never gave up and by the finish line was nearly upon them again.

Hollie was over the moon with her result, 4th place and only 19 seconds off the podium (if only). To cap her ride off she was the only one in the top six NOT on the O.D.P. amazing!!.

I also had a great race achieving my best ever result at a National, I'm not a great lover of flat courses but at the start line I felt I was well up for it, the first lap got underway and to my surprise I was able to stay with the leaders ( something I'd trained for over the winter) the pace was real fast but as we all settled down I was pretty comfortable.

As the laps went by we all split into groups and ended up jockying for position amongst a group of 6 or 7 all contesting for a place in the top ten we all took it in turn to test each other but I was easily able to adapt to any change of pace and I became more confident of my own strength the longer the race went on. By the time we hit lap 4 I was pretty sure I was the strongest in the group as every time I put in a little dig I would open a gap, but I didnt feel I could just ride away from everyone as they would take it in turns to pull me back, so as the last lap approached I started to plot where i could make my move to give me enough time to get a gap but not to far from the finish.

Just as I was about to make my move I made a mistake and went off course but luckily I kept my cool and after a miniute or so I was again on the back of the group, there wasnt much time left so I moved to the front and after taking a look at everyone in true Lance style I gave it full beans and immediately got a gap no one could react I gave my all around the last few bends and came across the line in 9th posistion.

Master - Male
1 Matt Barrett K.T.M-Pod - 5 laps in 01:39:43
2 Stephen James Torq - 5 laps in 01:39:44
3 John Veness Pendragon-Kalas - 5 laps in 01:39:45
4 Rob Enslin Aw Cycles / Giant Bikes - 5 laps in 01:39:46
5 Mark Hutt Aw Cycles.Co.Uk/Giant - 5 laps in 01:39:51
6 Andy Plewes Rnrmca - 5 laps in 01:42:05
7 Dan Lewis Raf Ca - 5 laps in 01:42:05
8 Paul Hopkins Offcamber - 5 laps in 01:42:13
9 Lloyd Bettles - 5 laps in 01:42:18

Youth - Female
1 Bethany Crumpton Halesowen A & Cc - 2 laps in 00:47:03
2 Lucy Garner Leicester Rc - 2 laps in 00:49:25
3 Hannah Barnes Pinarello RT - 2 laps in 00:49:28
4 Hollie Bettles Xcracer.Com/Trek - 2 laps in 00:49:45

Open male
20 Tom Wright Numplumz.com / Pitsford Cycles - 4 laps in 01:43:36

Vet Male
81 Jack Peterson Numplumz - 1 laps in 00:31:09 (Slacker ;-) )