RRP Midlands XC Series RD1
Cannock Chase
20th March 2011

Report by: Aidan Bishop
Pictures by: Sarah Bromley
Video by: PinkBike

RapidRacerProducts Title Sponsor for the Midlands Series

Well, this past weekend was the big re-match between the northern and southern divisions of the RapidRacerProducts race team. As title sponsor for the Midlands XC series this year, the boss Craig was looking for a good team turn out, and that it was with 9 team members getting stuck into the racing, a good showing indeed!

 

Aidan strugling with empty legs

Saturday evening and the southern (Gravity) division made the journey up to the land of the funny talking lot, with the Gleed family, myself, Gummy and Barbara being welcomed by the Bromley’s hospitality (much appreciated).
After a good catch up and bit of banter it was time to get our heads down before the race on Sunday. It was a morning race at 10:30am where the vets set off along with juniors, youths and the women’s categories where Barbara was competing in the 3 lap sport female race. Then there was the 2pm afternoon race where elites, experts, masters, sports and go race categories set off with a minute separating them each time.

Stef at the end of the race, shortly after ejecting his stomach contents....NICE!

 

The boss sliding it in as usual....

So Myself, Gummy and Barbara headed out early in order to practice the course before her race. We were happy to see the weather looked to be dry, if a little chilly (but we were up north I suppose!). The course at Cannock Chase was a good one overall, a long wide start then into some quite tight singletrack then some nice up and downhills. You then hit a climb that kicked up steep and loose near its end which had you concentrating to keep traction. This was followed by ball busting section of singletrack where you just couldn’t get any kind of good rhythm going at all due to its undulations, this lead onto another quite long climb that took you past the finish arena at about halfway round the lap. The second half of the lap had some nice technical ups and downs followed by a considerable amount of open fire roads that brought you round to the finish. Now, the master’s category had to complete 5 laps so I was presuming the course would be short by comparison to others but judging by practice it didn’t seem short.

Barbara riding hard

So juniors set off, followed by a large Vets field then it was Barbara’s turn in the sport women who set off with juniors, expert and go race women. It was only her first full year of mountain biking and her 3rd ever race she started, Barbara did well keeping herself mid pack. Due to the technical nature of the course and the over bearing other racers shouting to get past in tricky places she had more than her fair share of thrills and spills, but kept battling all the way to the finish and her lap times getting quicker each time and eventually finishing 6th. A good effort showing determination and good endurance, more technical riding will bring her race speed along lots I think.

 

Daz loving his XC.....NOT!

2pm came around and it was time for the rest of the team put their money where their mouths are! In the masters category was myself, Matt and Gummy lined up with the rest of the team, Craig, Stefan, Tony, Darren and Ben lining up in the sports category. Elites went first then Experts, Masters, Sports and go race. Continuing on from Craig’s imaginary pairings, I had a score to settle with Matt and Craig was looking to keep ahead of Stefan. Matt must have blasphemed recently as retribution came on the Friday before the race when two nuns managed ran him over, they knocked him clean off his bike, Matt somersaulted over the roof of the car leaving his bike in 2 pieces!!! So, he was a little unnerved still and battling on with a sore hand and arm, lucky it was just that really by the sounds of it.

Ben Colley improving all the time

Craig had been training hard and was riding a 6 pound lighter bike than Stef, so Stef was going to have his hands full beating him today!

Masters set off for our 5 laps, I stayed near the front with a lot of hustle and bustle. Matt blasted past me not long after the start, so there was big chain of us going hell for leather. We hit the first long climb that kicks at the end, where Matt Dennis came through strong (Eventually winning by nearly 3 minutes!), I stayed on his wheel to slot into second by the top and follow him through the awkward singletrack. The first lap passed quite quickly (around 19mins) and my legs were feeling empty unfortunately, and so a train of 5 or 6 riders came through (including old friend and competitor Ed Moseley) strongly on the flat sections. From this point I just tried to keep them in sight so if I felt better later in the race I may be able to claw something back. As the race progressed I did start to feel a bit stronger and managed to pass back a handful of riders to eventually finish in 7th place, Matt was strugling with his injuries and a bit of confidence and ended up a credible 14th (good going considering two days before he could have been hospitalised!), and Gummy came in 32nd, some training still to be done for him.

 

A rare off day for Matt, well at least there were no Nuns on the course!

In the Sports race, they set off a similar hectic pace with the course really testing everyone’s heart capacity, Tony and Craig then got stuck in a big crash at the start hammpering their progress. Stef, Daz, and Ben managed to avoid the carnage for a good start. Craig had an interesting race by the sounds of it, getting in the mix with all sorts of riders pushing his old DH skills to the limits trying to keep up with Avalanche shredder Alex Stock, Tony was following Craig very close and descreetly (the boss had no idea he was behind!) until Craig averting a stump right at the last minute only to leave a surprised Tony behind him catapulting over the bars and out of the race, he suffered a bang to the head a front puncture and a snaped chain. Craig was the first RRP rider through in 8th place with some fast lap times. Ben was next showing he's come on loads since he bought a road bike, and Stef kept Ben in his sights most of the race pushing his heart rate to ridiculous levels for the final few minutes of the race, Ben finished 19th and Stef 20th only a few seconds behind, Darren was next across the line coming through in 34th so a good overall team effort was complete. There were a lot of super fast riders in all categories, this is either the norm in the Midlands XC series, or as I suspect was due to the top guys stretching their legs prior to the National XC race next weekend.

Unfortunately no podiums for the team this weekend, but you can’t have it all ways...... (apparently!) So everyone was aware they had been in a race that’s for sure. Matt was off to celebrate his birthday belatedly and deservedly. With the southern riders hitting up the Bromley household for some more hospitality before heading back down for the warmer climate of Berkshire!!

Next week, Myself, Stefan and Matt have signed our lives away and entered up for the first National XC race at Sherwood Pines (why!?!). So we’ll be reporting back from there once we’re done.

CHECK OUT THIS SHORT VIDEO FROM PINKBIKE OF THE EVENT HERE

Liam Kileen (former Olympian) takes the win in Elites riding for Giant Bikes