17/07/04 National Championships - Fort William, Scotland (Report by Kier McKenna)

This weekend was the national championships in Fort William, Scotland. I travelled up on Thursday with Chris, Giles and James (Chris's mate and driver/feeder!!) We arrived early evening and headed into the B+B for some food and an early night.

On Friday morning we got up and relaxed in the B+B. In the afternoon we headed to the race site for a couple of practice laps and to get ourselves familiar with the course. We also met Sam there.

The Course used was the brilliant witches trail, the same as is used for the world cup. It was made up of technical climbs and descents on singletrack and fireroad climbs. The course was dry and everyone was well up for racing!

I was first off on Saturday morning at 10.30. There were alot of good riders there and some Scottish lads who had not done any of the NPS series. The weather had deteriorated and wet tyres were put on. The course would be more challenging now. After a fast start up the first fire road things sorted out and I was placed 2nd going into the first technical climb. As we neared the top, five of us broke away from the rest of the riders. I was 2nd going into the first downhill. Me and the leader, Adam Turner, kept up a good pace and pulled away from the rest of the pack and I passed Adam on the next descent. I pulled out a bit of time along the technical sections but was caught by him on the fire roads. I crossed the line at the end of lap 1 with a lead of 10 seconds.

We began the climb again and I decided to take things easy as I knew I needed to save my energy for the fireroad climb. The third placed rider, David Fletcher joined us and it stayed like this to the very top of the course. We began the long descent back to the arena and me and Adam pulled away from David. On the descent I pulled out a small gap but was caught on the flat section back to the arena. As we approached the last bit of singletrack me and Adam were side by side. I just managed to get in front of Adam and held the lead along the short singletrack which lead into the arena. I kept my head down and sprinted over the line. I ended up winning by 20 seconds. Adam finished 2nd and David 3rd. Jamie Harris and David Sinclair had a sprint for the line which Jamie won and took 4th place.

I am extremely happy with the result. I had trained hard for this race and Chris had given me tips for the race. It certainly helped having 4 teamates there to give advice on the practice laps and support me during the race. It was even more pleasing as it was only my 2nd major race in team USAVE colours.

Next up was Sam in the Junior event at 12.30. This is a very fast category and there were a lot of contenders for the title. Sam had a good start and by the end of lap 2 had got himself up to 6th place. Unfortunately on the next lap Sam punctured and had a mechanical problem with his disc brake which took awhile to fix. He started his last lap at a speedy pace and maintained this until the end to finish in 8th place.

Chris also started 12.30. He started steadily up the climb and picked places off as the laps went by. He had been showing us how to ride the technical drops the day before so we knew he would make up time there!! He finished his four laps in 1 hr 52 mins to place him 12th. Another good result.

Last off was Giles in the hotly contested Elite race. Held over 5 laps of the now dry course, it was going to be tough. He started well and despite an off on one of the descents and an injury to his leg finished the race in 22nd place.

Overall it was a great weekend for team USAVE/ORANGE.

11/07/04 - Scotland Road, Aberfoyle (Report by Sam Thompson)

I arrived at Aberfoylie on Saturday night after travelling for 4 hours.

I did a practise lap early on the Sunday morning, ready for the race in the afternoon.

The course began with a 2 mile climb which was followed by some technical descents. After passing through the arena, we climbed for another 2 miles which was mainly single track. We then headed back towards the arena along yet more technical descents to the finish lap. The rain meant that the course was very wet and tough that day.

After an excellent start, I pulled away from my rivals and led the race from the start to finish.

After 2 1/4 hours and 4 laps I came across the line in 1st place, to my delight after such a hard race.

11/07/04 - Midlands 3rd Round, Wharnecliffe Road, Sheffield

The full team was out at Sheffield.

The day kicked off with Sam Thompson and Keir Mckenna in the Junior and Youth Races. The conditions were somewhat treacherous after the recent rain.
Sam pulled away from the start and lap by lap this lead grow, after 3 laps Sam won easily to finish the race in first place. With this win Sam is now back at the top off the British Ranking by 38 points in the Junior MTB division.

After a pile up at the start of the Youth Race, Kier rode away with two other riders at the beginning off the first lap. After a couple of place chances on the last lap, Kier crossed the line 4 seconds down from the leader and finished in 2nd place. Still a good result on a misable day of rain.

The afternoon saw Chris Truett and Giles Bett in their Master and Elite Races. Chris got off to a great start in a some what worsing conditions. The course was a wash out and the going was tough with the climbs getting harder to ride, and the rocky section getting slippier by the lap. Chris manage to maintain his pace and cross the line in fourth place after 4 laps.

Giles also found the afternoon conditions hard going in the rain, and after 5 laps in the hard going elite race he finished a respectable 5th place.

A good day overall for Team USAVE, with four riders in the top five with a first and second

26/6/04 - North West League (Report by Andy Nightingale)

Chris came along to support Keir and myself at the race but sadly forgot to bring some good weather with him it was chucking it down and mega windy round the circuit.

The first race was 9 laps long and there was some good under 16 lads in the field, after only 1 lap me and another couple of lads decided to put the hammer down and 4 of us manager to get away doing a constant trough and off until the end which by then we had a good half lap lead. Keir followed in the chasing group which contained most off the riders in the field. As we came into the finish the pace really started to heat up and i manager to get 3rd in a very fast sprint. Keir contested the sprint in the main bunch and managed to pick up 9th place a good result for both of us.

The second race was ran over 10 laps and the weather became even worse making it almost impossible to see from the spray of the rider infront. This race was ran at a more steady pace with most of the bunch staying together including me and Keir. As the race came towards the end i decided to have an attack with another lad in the bunch, with Keir doing a nice bit of blocking we managed to get a decent gap but down the fast back straight the group worked together and managed to pull us back. The group then slowed and began to do abit of cat and mouse for the last lap i decided to lead out the sprint over the bridge but was swamped by the group just before the finish and managed to hold onto 4th Keir was also in the group with a good sprint finish but im not sure of his final position. So in all it was a good days racing with some good results for me and Keir.