Monday, July 18, 2006 - posted by Lee Bertram
A riders eye view of the UK National Championships
National Champs 2006 Moelfre, North Wales
The race venue this year was to hold both the Downhill and Cross Country events, which was quite nice to see different faces around the pit, that and the fact the weather was awesome all weekend, which reflected on the pit area also, with most riders opting to camp and chill out at the race site and BBQ and take full advantage of the English summer.
The race schedule was a little different to normal because of both events being run together, with practice and a qualification run on the Friday for downhill, which was a talking point around the pit as the top 50 riders in qualification would not be racing until the Sunday, having only a short practice on the Saturday morning to make way for the cross country race in the afternoon. Come Sunday and the course seemed to have changed quite a bit from all the riders from Saturday's racing and every one was up early and on the hill trying to get a couple of runs in before the race.
The course was bone dry and real dusty, the top section was a case of staying on line, only a couple of pedal strokes were needed off the start through the first two turns which took you off quite harsh rock drop when you were hitting it at race speed. Then down through some high speed turns and round a long off camber left turn which was really slippy. The next section was the same that used in the NPS round last year, but was being ridden totally different, nearly everyone opting not to jump the gap to a small shale downside, for one, there were big old braking bumps before the lip of the jump and, for two, if you did jump it you were going far too fast in to the next drop which was too flat, so tight to the post of the small part of the lip and a better straighter line off the next drop, which then led you down in to the most challenging part of the course. Some real tight switch back turns which got really loose and dusty, exiting the tight turns and across the fire road and a long camber which was flat out and loose towards the end now with the pit area in sight, a tight right turn and a hop to the down side of a big steep rock slab and a kicker immediately after into an off camber turn through a small stream into the last field and across the finish line.
Race run. Everyone seemed quite pumped up after a long wait at the top due to some timing problems, I watched Brendan at the top of the course and he looked real fast and smooth, no mistakes he looked like he was pushing hard putting in padals to keep good speed and was flat out through the switch back turns and brought it home with the fastest time of the day and winning his class with a 2.26 with a six second plus gap between him and second place, most of the Elite riders knew that would be really hard to beat. My run went good, pushing quite hard at the top section and into the tight switch back turns with 100% concentration through there, steady and back on the gas trying to get some pedal strokes in before the long off camber, keeping on line through tight single track hopping over the big holes and keeping off the lines with speed sapping bumps in, into the last section where most of the people were standing down the big rock slab with a little more speed than i had in practice, through the last turn, through the stream safe and pedalling to the finnish line and in to the hot seat with a 2.29, happy with that!
Brendan's time would have put him on the podium in the Senior Men, third fastest time of the day and only a fraction off second place too!
| FINAL RESULTS | SENIOR MEN | TIME | JUNIOR MEN | TIME |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MARK BEAUMONT | 2.23.350 | BRENDON FAIRCLOUGH | 2.26.373 |
| 2 | NEIL DONOGHUE | 2.26.367 | ||
| 3 | DAN STANBRIDGE | 2.28.655 | ||
| 4 | LEE BERTRAM | 2.29.392 | ||
| 5 | WILL LONGDON | 2.30.246 |