Inter Regional Mountain Bike Championships

Post date: 09-Oct-2012 10:03:46

Lewis Champion and Mark McGuire were part of the North of Scotland regional team that won the UK Regional MTB Championships on the Olympic course in Essex. Well done to both of you. Lewis had written a report on their weekend below, and full detailed results can be found on the British Cycling website.

On Thursday the 5^th of October, Mark and I set out on our journey to the Inter Regional Mountain Bike Championships.

We arrived at Scottish Cycling’s headquarters at 3pm and got on the bus along with the other boys from the Scotland North and Scotland South teams. From there we drove all the way down to just out side Birmingham were we stayed in a hotel for the night. The next morning we got up at 7am, put on our new Scotland cycling kit and left the hotel for 8am. This was the day of the skills competition. When we arrived at Hadleigh Park (home to the Olympic mountain bike course) there was a buzzing atmosphere. We got all the bikes out of the van, set up our base and practised in the skills arena. Finally the time had come for us to ride our bikes!

Mark finished 10^th overall in the skills comp. I was off second and finished a disappointing 41^st. After the skills we put the bikes back in the van and headed to the Holiday Inn in Basildon for a good nights rest.

Saturday brought another early start. We ate breakfast in the hotel and then set off again the races. The first race today was the Dirt Crit, which was basically a 5-lap criterium on dirt roads with a bit of uphill and downhill. In this we had to qualify for the A, B, C, or D finals. There were 4 heats and 14 racers in each. You had to place in the top 7 to get into the A/B semis and the remaining riders would go to the C/D semis. In my heat I placed 2^nd so got into the A/B finals. In Mark’s heats he placed 2^nd as well putting him in the A/B’s with me. There were now 2 semis which would decide the 14 that go into the A finals. In this semi I was placed on the front row and came 1^st. Unfortunately Mark was placed further back in the bunch meaning he had to go into the B finals. In the A final I finished 6^th overall and Mark came 18^th overall.

After the Dirt Crit it was the Uphill mass start. In this there was only an A and B final. 32 riders are in each heat and everyone in both Scottish teams got in the top 14 in each so were in the A final. In the final I finished 5^th behind our other team mate Liam McLaughlin who finished 4^th. Mark got a bad start when a rider crashed in front of him placing him a wee bit further down the table in 27^th. After the races the hotel beds waited for us and we fell flat on our beds exhausted.

But there was no time for rest on Sunday as we had the major event of the weekend the Cross-Country Race on the Olympic XC Course still to come. In this, Mark would get gridded first and I would get gridded 3^rd for the team. The cross country was a hard 6-lap races which lasted over an hour. It was a really technical course which meant lots of crashes. All of Scotland North placed in the top 20, Mark 16^th and me 12^th.

All of these results meant that we were the best team in the UK!

All in all we really enjoyed the trip and had a great time racing and meeting new people. Really hope we will get to race the champs again next year. We’d also like to say thank to the club for sponsoring the cost of our kit.

Lewis Champion.