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National Points Series Combe Sydenham Rnd 4

28th and 29th August 2004

All pictures courtesy of www.phatphoto.com

The 4th round of the NPS and good result was needed by Stef and Gummy to ensure their 1st & 2nd place National rankings remained intact. The course was good with plenty of sections to give you more than the odd palpataion!

Stefan Gleed, Paul May, Phil Mowatt, Greg Pickles and myself were their to open a can of wuppas......or was it gonna be 'asswupped'?

So what was the the pre-race analysis? Well Gummy hasn't raced since he broke his collar bone at Abercarn so I expected a slight lack of confidence and speed from him, I was still astonished by my pathetic result at Gethin and the sad realisation that my recovery time yeilded a mid thirty's groth spurt in the belly region! Phil and Greg seemed to be pretty chilled and revitalised from some hardtail tomfoolery over the last couple of weeks, and Stef seemed relaxed and unfazed.....

Saturday was dry and perfect conditions to rag the course like it was designed to, it was quite a challenging course with slippy roots, big drops, huge step downs, and awkard jumps. Most of the team felt pretty confident come the afternoon with only Gummy raising the odd doubt about his forthcoming performance.

Seeding time and a chance to see how you fared against the oposition, I felt pretty confident and nailed most sections missing only a couple of lines and coasting the pedally bits, I qualified 13th knowing there was a fare few seconds in the bag for later, a top 10 was looking like easy money.....Stef had an off in the woods which left his time a couple of seconds faster than mine qualifying him in 12th, he still felt a good result was more than achievable and the confidence was still there. Phil had a steady seeding and posted a good time and Greg appeared at the bottom buzzin about how he enjoyed his run......all in all everything still seemed on track.

Sunday came and the rain started, oh dear! The gnarly track just became an ice skating rink with many riders crashing and sliding all over the shop, I came down for my final practice run and struggled to stay upright at any speed on some of the sections. Practice was over and everyone was looking a bit tentative as the conditions we had been practicing all Saturday bore no relation to the race conditions, still it's the same for everyone I guess.

Phil managed a semi clean run with no huge issues posting a time of 3:22, this was faster than his seeding run which was in dry conditions and put him in 17th in Seniors, good lad! He reported no big moments and was generally happy with the outcome. I on the other hand managed to hit a tree head on near the top of the course twisting the bars and putting me down the bank and out of the running....what a shocker?

I rolled down the rest of the course and to my horror I came upon Stef who was covered in mud at the side of the track, he had a big off in the woods right in front of Greg who was holding the video camera, unlucky mate! With Stef sidelined my heart sank.....he's now out of the running for 1st place in the Nationals on his returning year in DH, though he would never admit it I know he must be p*ssed. The team's holiday in France clashed with the Innerleithan race which had to be the round we obviously dropped in the series, this left no margin for error for the final 2 rounds.

Gregg slid down the course pumping and flowing over the crud and generally enjoying his time in the saddle, he was happy with the time he posted and thouroughly enjoyed himself in the process, well that's what being a Development Rider is all about....enjoying yourself and developing you skills, bike skills that is Greg not drinking skills! At least he's in one piece which is not always garaunteed, this course claimed many casulties over the weekend.

It was all down to Gummy (Paul May) but this is his first race back after breaking his collar bone, not to mention the fact he has already stated he felt off the pace in practice.....we all waited in the finish arena as he crossed the line in 5th place with a great time of 3:10, so he wasn't a million miles off the pace and will be back collecting silver very soon I'm sure. The final run wasn't his cleanest or fastest of the day but still an amazing result given his condition and the state of the track, top marks geezer!

So Gummy keeps the Gold title hopes alive for the team while the rest of us recover from the the weekends experience, well you can't win every race in a sport that has you riding on the limits on gnarly tracks in differing conditions, some you win and some you lose!

After Gummy's and Stef's unbeatable double 1st and 2nd in previous rounds it was a shame it didn't work out in for Stef in round 4, but hey that's racing....Round 5 of the National Points Series is at Caersws, this is the final round and we'll be there to do battle again.