Midlands XC Round 2 Hanchurch

Reports from Smiffy:
Results are HERE
(how the others got on to add from results)
It was with not a small amount of apprehension that I approached the Hanchurch course for the first time. A round of the Midlands Series had taken place here last year, and Lloyd Bettles had declared his undying love for the place. I knew this meant one thing, it was a gnarly course – and I wasn’t wrong.

The first climb took riders up to some woods for a quick swoopy descent then more climbing to an open ridge, affording amazing views across the Potteries. No time for sight-seeing; the ridge was covered in bare glass-smooth roots demanding maximum concentration. This was followed by a quick fire-road blast before a mad downhill single-track, then more switch-back action along the valley side (including a wonderful banked downhill course ending in a jump down), before emerging into the most amazing flowing single-track that it’s been my pleasure to ride. More uphill-down dale action and single-track before the final climb to the finish ensured a varied and interesting course. The sheer variety and technical demands frazzled my brains on the practice lap, not helped when a stick tried to modify my rear mech. (see comments on Lloyds blog); I stopped to bend it straight, and once it settled down was better than before, bonus!

To the race itself, I was gridded – wahey! The gun went off, and I was 3rd into the first turn at the bottom of the first ascent. I went up it as fast as I could comfortably without burning myself out, and thus held something like 9th place into the first trees. I didn’t panic for a second; I hadn’t felt 100% at the previous Friday Night race, so I knew not to kill myself. The job now was to recover from the initial effort and start picking off other riders. Pretty soon I was up to 7th and following Paul Moss (unattached) through the fine single-track about 2/3rds through the lap. My Scott Strike was handling like a dream, nothing like the bone-chattering I got on Friday Night, so he couldn’t match the speed I could manage and I was easily able to pass him and set about the top 5. I didn’t get a good run through the ‘roller-coaster’ section before the lap end, so was off pushing – not good!

6th it was through the flag 1st time round, I passed Martin Crocket (unn) and Jonathan Marshall (Belper CC) on the next circulation to get 4th. The course was really coming to me, I was able to nail a lot more sections than earlier and as mentioned above, the Strike was letting me do it. Both Alison and Lloyd shouted encouragement from track-side; lap 3 was a glory of fast climbs and ever more confident descents. I caught and passed a junior rider towards the end of lap 3, but he wasn’t giving up without trying to snatch it back at the roller coaster….I soon left him on the following climb.

No matter what I did I couldn’t make any headway on the podium places, and when grand vet rider Roy Hunt caught and passed me with ease after I’d slipped off briefly on lap 4 I must admit my head sunk a little, not to mention catching traffic at the sandy descent and getting a right tank-slapper on! But what’s this? Previous round winner Geoff Giddings off his bike fixing some sort of mechanical at the side of the track (it turned out he’d crashed then punctured). He looked like he was almost ready to re-mount so I threw the coals on the fire and gave it the lot towards the finish. I needn’t have worried, he got 6th in the end, but I was 3rd over the line. I celebrated so loudly James Hyde thought I’d won it for a second. Inherited or earned, a podium it was – sweet!