National Trophy Series Rnd 2 - Pontypool

A road trip to south Wales for Lisa and Will this weekend for round 2 of the National Trophy Series. A slightly disorganised sign on and then both riders out of course for a recce.

Lisa was up first.

The wettest course yet, but after a few laps it started to dry up a little which provided more grip on the muddier cambered corners. It was certainly quicker to ride these technical sections instead of running them… especially with my dodgy knees! I think I rode intelligently keeping rubber side down and held my position throughout the race. It was great to ride alongside some top quality competition and observe their lines.

The V40 Open dried the course up a bit more, and removed the last of the grass from the downhill S’bends before it was Will’s turn in the V50, 60, 70 Open.

A big field for the 50’s with 61 riders on the start line. This was my first National of the year so I was gridded on the penultimate row - no point in going for a fast launch from here, the risk of ending up on the floor was too high. Steady start and pick riders off when I could. For me, this was a great course; some very fast, flat corners where you could carry speed (if you dared) and some proper CX traverses. The one really challenging section was two steep, linked downhill switchbacks. As Lisa found, riding was faster than running (as long as you stayed upright - and not all the runners did either). I had some good battles with my contemporaries which really reminded me why I race and why I love these weekends.

I was running Challenge Limus Tubs, as were a number of the other Southwest regional riders and we all found they clogged. Sounds like the Tubeless Bite variants worked better.

A really fun course and well worth a revisit if they run it again.