British Mountain Bike Series Round 1 - 27th March 2011 Event Review View from the pack This weekend was the first round of the British Mountain Bike series held at Sherwood Pines, the traditional venue for the series opener. This years course saw a variety of new sections linked together with about 80% of the course being different to previous years, much of this was for the benefit of the elite race which for the first time was a UCI cat 1 race. For the elite riders meant there were more international ranking points on offer, an incentive that had brought several elite european riders to the race. Despite the re-working of the course the heart of the Sherwood course remained the same, flat, fast and very tight twisty singletrack. Sherwood pines its not a particularly technical trail par se, that is until you start trying to ride it at race pace when there are plenty of trees, roots and tight turns to catch any lapses in concentration. Its flat nature means that it tends to suit the more powerful rider. This was my first National series race as an expert and therefore I got a lowly gridding, starting on the fourth row. I got an ok start, not really moving forwards or backwards, racing towards the first section of singletrack and with it a bit of a bottle neck of riders. Once out onto the fireroads again things soon opened out and allowed me to start making my way past riders. By the end of lap one I had made it forward about ten places to 27th. From here on I tried to ride a consistent race riding as smoothly as possible in the single track and using my form which I have been building on the road bike to get across gaps on the fire road, in last two laps I found myself making significant headway and passing several riders who had gone out too hard and where slowing down, while I was doing the opposite and speeding up posting my fastest laps in laps 4 and 5. At the finish I had moved up to 17th, a respectable position in my first expert race, especially as I was 24th in the Sport category last year, so I am optimistic I can build on this solid start and aim towards some stronger results later in the season. In the past I have not really enjoyed the Sherwood course finding in too flat and struggling in the tight singletrack, this year however I felt much more relaxed and enjoyed the race much better, there is still much more work to be done but if I can improve on my results on the courses that are less favorable then if nothing else it should be an enjoyable season. In the sport race Chris was hoping for a good race as he had been working hard on his form in the run up. Sherwood also happens to be his favourite race course, two practice laps on the Saturday had left him feeling both excited and optimistic of a strong result on the Sunday. Ultimately bad luck in the form of a snapped chain on lap 2 cost him and he had to retire from the race. At the time he had been sat in about 38th place, cruelly denied the chance to find out whether he could live up to his target of a top 30 placing. watch out for him at the first round of the Southern XC series next weekend (April 3rd) as I am pretty sure he will be super motivated to make up for his bad luck this weekend. Full British cycling report: http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/mtb/article/20110327-MTB--Euro-Stars-Light-Up-Sherwood-0 Race results: http://xcenduro.co.uk/racing/lapbylap/BritishMountainBikeSeries2011Round1.asp Best Wishes Mark | BucksMTB Racing for Spirit/BucksMTB     [Forum] [Contact us] [About us] [Website Links] [Bucksmtb Race Team]