Round one of the 2010 National points series was held at the popular Sherwood Pines woods just outside Clipstone in Nottinghamshire.

The Sherwood Pines track is by far one of my favourite race tracks of the season, I feared that this year would be a wet weekend leading to a muddy and boggy race. However after leaving a damp and miserable Buckinghamshire behind it was a surprise to arrive in a warm and sunny Nottinghamshire. First impressions of the ground on Saturday night were surprisingly upbeat with dry wood around the camp area and not a puddle insight!!

After pitching my tent it was time to head for the main arena to sign in. At sign in it was explained that the course was closed for the evening as the short track racing was going on. A little miffed that at 5.30pm the course was closed, decided to watch the short track action. When this had finished it was still only 6pm and was still bright so a walk of the course sounded like a good idea after less than a kilometre it was soon clear that the guy in the registration tent had no idea what he was talking about as bikes soon whizzed passed as riders got in the last laps of the day.

The course was vast improved and it seemed the last years course had given great building blocks for improvement for the 2010 course. A lot of work had been done in the area to build some great single-track in the woods. Certain tracks has been raised and built on solid foundations which allows the tracks to drain quickly. The wettest parts of the course were actually the areas carved into the thick pine woodland where sunlight never gets through and the peaty ground holds the water too well.

A great technical section was added this year with multiple “humps” which really got you thinking and had you moving around on your bike lots. As always the course offered up amazing twisty single-track, bermed corners, lots of log jumps and two sections of short sharp climbs and descents.

Like last year the course was in a figure of eight lay out that had the us racing out on to the longest of the fire road and onto the purpose built tracks before hitting twisty single-track and heading back to the arena area and through onto the short track course. Exiting the arena the final loop of the course had all the technical highlights and fast flowing twisty single-track. An interesting  inclusion for this year was to the areas of single track incorporate in dense woodland that gave the  option of two separate lines side by side, both lines just as twisty as each other before rejoining again as one track. A great idea for spicing the racing up a little.

Race day on Sunday was equally as sunny and dry and after doing a practice lap before breakfast in the morning it became apparent that the course was going to be fast. You could still carry speed even through the wetter sections of the track. On finishing the lap I found the bike was as clean as when I started which was a surprise as the course was not dry enough all the way around to run dry weather tyres.

After the practice lap it was time to have a look around the arena at all the demo bikes and cheer on the morning races. Bike companies on demo included Trek, Giant, Specialized, Genisis, Merida and Santacruz. There was a demo route heading out the other side of the wood to give you a chance for a full off- road test and each company had a large number of bikes from there XC race and trail ranges to try.

As far as the race went I had a good starting position on the second row, had a good sprint off the line moving up to 6^th but was too cautious in the opening corners and fell back and got mobbed on the long fire road climb. In the first bit of single-track I found myself at the back end of a crash at a bottleneck point and again was mobbed by riders trying to run around the crash but I was soon able to pick them back off and towards the end of the lap was in a group of four working together to catch riders in front. Buy the end of lap two I had dropped the group and was picking riders off in front. Lap three I found I had a soft rear tyre which I later discovered was a slow leaking puncture. This slowed me down somewhat by the end of lap four I was lapping two+ mins slower and rolled over the line 46^th.

Congratulations to Oli Beckingsale on his win in the elite group, he was looking strong as he came past me on the fire road climb!!

Best Regards
Kris
bucksmtb.co.uk