Soggy Bottom 2026 - Round 1

A muddy, slippery slap in the face to wake you up and say “Hi, welcome to the first race of the XC season”.

Newnham Park at its wintery best and a great course to race on. Most of the classics were in; Bluebell woods, the bomb-holes, the new-ish zig-zag descent back into the arena and the ever ‘popular’ Cliff climb. I think the only thing not included today was Cottage Return, but the course didn’t suffer from it’s absence. It was pretty slippery out there, even some of the ‘dry’ bits were treacherous if you didn’t hit them quite right. Plenty of roots, rocks and terrain changes to get under control, or not.

Nobody has National or Series point yet so it was free gridding in each age group, and with all the Open 40s and 50s bundled in together it created the usual ‘Aircraft carrier’ start. Full gas off the line straight into the Cliff Climb - well into the red for everybody for the first elbow to elbow ascent of the climb. There’s no such thing as an easy XCO race.

Will had some pretty close racing which meant no let up, not even a chance to fuel or drink. You needed to be in control for the steep or tech stuff, and the two short flats needed to be pedalled well over threshold to keep riders off your back. He set a whole load of power PBs. Full send right to the line fighting with the guy in the age group below. Will took 4th in the end, the 50s winner would have won the 40s age group.

Lisa said “Coming back into competitive MTB last year after an 18 year gap is still a shock to the system. The courses are much more technical and challenging and the bikes are full sus with wide bars”. She crashed a few times on the technical sections but tackled them with a bit more confidence. She has tweaked her bike to give herself better control saying “I’ve cut my bars down a bit and I’ve fitted some tiny bar ends (which is pretty retro)”! Lisa had a great race and said “finishing 3rd on the podium isn’t too shabby, I’m pleased with that”!

The great thing about being part of a team is the support. Today we had three other team members cheering us round; Mike our World tour Mechanic used to race here, Lucy raced her first CX race last week and wanted to see what XC was all about, and Lewis, our crit racer just loves to watch and support.