MTB XC Nationals Rnd2 - Cannock Chase

Round 2 of the National Points Series meant a road trip to the Midlands for Lucy, Lewis and Will. Cannock Chase is a classic MTB race venue and this year we raced on a variation of the 2022 Commonwealth Games course. Friday night was the Short Track; Will has raced this before, but for Lewis this was his first taste of National level racing. Saturday morning was course walk followed by a ride to test lines and tweak bike setup. Lucy and Lewis went first in the afternoon and Will’s Master’s race ended the day.

Lucy said:

My first XC Nationals race was all about taking the pressure off and seeing what I could do on a national-level course. I lined up in the Women’s Fun race, taking on three laps of the same course the experts and elites were racing—and I absolutely loved it.

We had the chance to walk the course in the morning and spend a good hour and a half practising lines and the technical sections, which really helped build confidence going in.

With the sun shining (for most of it!) and great support from teammates—especially Will on the sidelines and my fiancé at the start—it made for a really enjoyable day. I wanted to put my recently developed skills to the test, and they paid off with a 2nd place finish.

A brilliant first Nationals experience!

Lewis said:

First national XC event in the bag. Good to get amongst it and put my name on the start line.

Coming in with no expectations as my focus is on the road this year.

Happy to finish mid pack in the sport category. Had a great race overall. The fitness is there on the climbs managing to bridge up and drop riders on the climbs. I was super impressed by the way people can ride downhill I have a bit of work to do.

A good lesson and a super fun weekend.

That conculdes 4 races in 7 days.

All eyes on the Cream first series starting in 2 weeks to secure the last 3 points to move up a Category.

Will said:

What a weekend!

I love Short Track (XCC) and going back to Friday night racing meant I could race it again. It’s brutal, it’s 20 minutes all out racing. The course isn’t super-technical so it’s gas, gas, gas all the time. No freewheeling, no recovery, just smashing it. Think of your worst FTP test, strapped to a bucking bronco and trying to dodge trees with your vision blurred by the effort. If you don’t finish tasting blood then you’ve not gone hard enough. On the start line one of the other Masters riders asked what it would be like - “The youth race was fast, it was all snot and tears by the end and riders needing hugs from their mums. Well the Masters race will be exactly the same”.

Walked the big course with Lucy and Lewis on Saturday morning. It’s an important thing to do: going round with less experienced teammates is valuable for them, but also really helpful for me too because I get a different view of the features. Thankfully the three of us walking over the features riding invisible bikes and visualising how we’d ride it wasn’t caught on camera. The practice laps that followed were.

I pitted for Lucy and Lewis in their race, started my warmup and watched Lucy cross the line in 2nd place and Lewis finish his race a little later. Then it’s my turn. Big field for the Master’s race with the usual mass crash off the start line. There was a lot of running at the various choke points on the first few laps but after that it opened up and I could really blast some of the sections. It was an amazingly fast course with some super-fun features. It wasn’t until I saw some of the photos and videos that I realised how much the bike was sliding around underneath me. So glad I didn’t know what was happening at the time.

Great to race Cannock and share the whole experience with my two teammates as they took on their first National level race.