Joe Pitt, Alex Salmon and Jordan Beighton all entered their first National XC race last weekend and what a place to start, the Olympic Course at Hadleigh Farm. Joe had managed to get in a training session during the previous week on the site whilst Alex and Jordan managed to practice on Saturday afternoon. With some welcome guidances from some of the Aspire coaches on site, they were all riding the A lines on the full Olympic Course.
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| Alex comes down Deans Drop |
The start line for the race was situated at the bottom of the hill leaving the lads with a very tough climb at the start of the race. Joe had a good start but was soon left trailing after being held iup in a first lap accident on Deans Drop. Alex managed to avoid the carnage by taking the B line and in the process overtook a good number of riders. Joes bad luck sadly did not end there, after battling to make up time, he came off in the rock garden on the second lap forcing a retirement.
Joe Climbs Snake Hill |
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Jordan was in the Youth catagory in which there was a smaller field and started a couple of minutes behind Joe and Alex. It was clear in both classes that, as you might expect, there was some very stiff competition on a very demanding course. Jordan was achieving his targeted lap time of 20 minutes but was trailing off the very fast pace of the leaders ending up 15th place overall and proud of the fact he had ridden the complete course and knowing that some more training is required to get up to speed.
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| Triple Trouble for Jordan in practice |
Meantime, Alex was managing to achieve a fantastic ride with 18 minute lap times. Sadly fate was to strike again on his 4th and final lap as he puntured on his rear wheel and was forced to limp home loosing a good number of places in the process, his 29th overall not really representative of his times in the first three laps.
Well done to all three, a fantastic experience to have enjoyed, looking forward to next year already.
