MTB Varsity match, 22nd Feb 2004
Just to let you all know what happened at the MTB Varsity today - I think
it would be fair to say that we annhilated Oxford...
The race was on a course near Reading, organised by Gorrick MTB club. A
heavily forested area, marginally more hilly than Thetford, but not
greatly so. A standard length XC circuit with some nice little bits of
singletrack winding through new plantation and old forest connected with
fast firetrack. Oxford had 12 racers out and we had about 13 or so. The
men's course was 4 laps and the lass's 3 laps.
We started en-masse behind the sport women's category and the race then
headed quickly down some firetrack before looping into the twisting
singletrack. John Binham from Oxford got off to a swift start, hotly
pursued by Andrew then followed by Joe and myself and Jon Ellis and the
rest of the field not far behind. Unfortunately the race commentary comes
to a stop here since I lost 5mins with an entanglement issue with the
barrier tape and my drivetrain just before my freehub kissed the world
goodbye and failed...
...Standing near the finish line, it became obvious by lap 3 that we had a
strong advantage. Andrew had dissapered in amongst the ranks of the class
that set off 2 before us with Joe, Steve, Jon and John B behind. Then
there was Jon Blackburn storming along followed by Ash, Chris, Howard and
the rest of the pack (sorry - name failure!).
In the lass' race Mathilde had pulled well away from the rest of her field and
won in a very respectable 1hr 19mins. Sarah Todd finished 3rd (I think)
with Rachel Fenton in 4th (I think).
Shortly afterwards Andrew came sprinting over the line, 5th place in Men's
Sport (despite starting 3 mins later than them...) and about 2 mins behind
their winner... nuff said... he won! 2mins later came Steve then a cluster
of riders - Joe, John Binham (Oxon) and Jon Ellis. Jon Blackburn came in
6th, Oxonian 7th (sorry - names again) and Ash in 8th.
An excellent race - many thanks for Oxford for a great day and congratulations to Andrew, Steve and Joe for
fulfilling the first of the two qualifying requirements for half blues.
Bart
|