This year things began in Essex, and the Naked Bikes Haibike Impsport team were well represented, with Matt, Nick P, Josh and Ross in action.
Star of the weekend was Matt, who decided to prove exactly what he could do on his new Haibike Greed!
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| Matt storming to 2nd in Masters |
Matt:
"The first round of the national mountain bike series was in Braintree Essex. I hadn't raced at national level for 2 years and I was quite nervous. My category for the day was masters so that's 30-39 year olds, being 38 there was a lot of younger riders in my category.
I was gridded near the back because I hadn't raced for a while so I had a lot of work to do. The race started on a grassy climb, so my idea was to ride on the outer rough edge where no one else was riding and hope to get past them all, luckily this paid off and I was in first place a minute into the race.
The first lap in I had one other rider for company but I decided to attack on a long climb on the back end of the course and got a good gap, over the next few laps I was out on my own riding my own race but on the last lap another rider caught me up and we just spent the last lap upping the pace trying to gap each other. In the end it came down to a sprint and I was on his rear wheel and became boxed in between him and the barriers. I took 2nd place but that's bike racing anything can happen and I had a great day out.
My new 29er Haibike Greed rode really well on a fast course I am surprised by how well a big wheel bike handled through the technical sections "
Josh:
"The first round of the national mountain bike series was in Braintree Essex. I hadn't raced at national level for 2 years and I was quite nervous. My category for the day was masters so that's 30-39 year olds, being 38 there was a lot of younger riders in my category.
I was gridded near the back because I hadn't raced for a while so I had a lot of work to do. The race started on a grassy climb, so my idea was to ride on the outer rough edge where no one else was riding and hope to get past them all, luckily this paid off and I was in first place a minute into the race.
The first lap in I had one other rider for company but I decided to attack on a long climb on the back end of the course and got a good gap, over the next few laps I was out on my own riding my own race but on the last lap another rider caught me up and we just spent the last lap upping the pace trying to gap each other. In the end it came down to a sprint and I was on his rear wheel and became boxed in between him and the barriers. I took 2nd place but that's bike racing anything can happen and I had a great day out.
My new 29er Haibike Greed rode really well on a fast course I am surprised by how well a big wheel bike handled through the technical sections "
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| Josh (looking at his stem? :)) |
"First round of the national points series this weekend was a lightning fast course, tough transitions with semi technical aspects. Race as a whole was definitely an eye-opener to the series. Top three riders rode off from the beginning with me grovelling, stem chewing behind. Crashed hard on the second lap and lost roughly 9 places and only went backwards. Not the ideal start to a season but a start none the less. Looking forward to the technical round 2 at Wheal Maid."
Nick P:
"No problems on pre laps, but race wheels with Thunder Burts proved too slippy on the BMX trail so I changed to Ralph rear and Ron 2.1 front. Schwalbe said I needed a Ralph 2.25 which was faster on the front so they gave me some new tyres which worked better.Warm up went well watching elites start - that was so fast!!
Then my go - got gridded 19th so happy with that on the third row. Tried to follow someone fast in front of me but that did not work as he wasn't the best choice, so when we hit the climb I went past him. First lap was good 17.45 - 1 min 14 down on the leader, the pace was high (it's the nationals!) 2nd lap went and I was able to overtake on the BMX course. 3rd lap I eased back to push on last 2 but on lap 3 climb I could not stand as cramps were working into my legs so I ended dropping back with a 19 min last lap. Glad I finished and did not cramp up.
21st in the end out of the 60"
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| Nick P outsprints the tree |
"No problems on pre laps, but race wheels with Thunder Burts proved too slippy on the BMX trail so I changed to Ralph rear and Ron 2.1 front. Schwalbe said I needed a Ralph 2.25 which was faster on the front so they gave me some new tyres which worked better.Warm up went well watching elites start - that was so fast!!
Then my go - got gridded 19th so happy with that on the third row. Tried to follow someone fast in front of me but that did not work as he wasn't the best choice, so when we hit the climb I went past him. First lap was good 17.45 - 1 min 14 down on the leader, the pace was high (it's the nationals!) 2nd lap went and I was able to overtake on the BMX course. 3rd lap I eased back to push on last 2 but on lap 3 climb I could not stand as cramps were working into my legs so I ended dropping back with a 19 min last lap. Glad I finished and did not cramp up.
21st in the end out of the 60"
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| Ross |
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