04
September
2011

I won a new jersey yesterday, the day of the World Champs. Of course, it wasn’t the rainbow strips, but the slightly more humble, South-West championships. 

After a few days off the bike due to feeling knackered after too many mountain bike races back to back, I went to the final round of the South-West series not too concerned for a result. I knew I had the series wrapped up so was just going to take the race as it came. I real ‘old school’ course (not that I can speak from experience of this!) lay before us. It climbed, descended, climbed, descended, climbed…repeat. One of the climbest courses I’ve ridden, with three or four climbs you’d expect once per lap in another course. To top things off and in classic style, the final decent was an old DH track.

First lap, the podium for most of the series, Sean Frost, Luke Eggar and myself, formed a group. I didn’t feel comfortable at all climbing but dug hard and tried to mask my struggle. I haven’t been building in my training for a long time due to all the racing so expected to lack fitness. 

Sean entered the DH track first and got a gap, he was really flying down it, literally at one point; taking a road gap to fast and stacking it, leaving Luke and me at the head of the race. Luke still seemed more comfortable and I was forever concerned of the elastic snapping. It was also a bit like trying to beat a Swiss guy in Champery; Luke is a popular guy down South! 

Towards the end of the race I had either warmed up or found another level to tap into as we were still together and I wanted to win! I started leading up the climbs and I knew the first guy into the DH would be in the best position of holding the lead to the finish line. I sprinted up to the entrance and got the lead I wanted. Half way down I was almost caught out by Luke as he tried an overtaking line but the ground was rough and he stacked it. Not an ideal way to leave the competition behind but that’s racing. 

A good end to a great series for me: 4/5 wins and series + regional champion. I had targeted the series at the beginning of the season and am glad I did. Every race has been amazing, all on new tracks to me and the kind of courses you’d actually go for a bike ride on - a pleasure to ride. I hope some of the courses can be adopted for the National series at some point. Thanks Hortons and their squad.

South-West Champion Jersey

John.