BUCS “XC”

The BUCS mountain bike weekend kicked off last Friday (11^th April) with the downhill  practice and the optional £30 “accommodation package” welcoming happy campers to a muddy field for the next 3 days. Having gained selection for the Loughborough elite team alongside Harry Penn, Henry Sleight and Jon Pybus, (based on last week’s efforts at the Gorrick event), I skipped camping and arrived in Moelfre Sunday morning to witness scenes of fear and apprehension among the scores of XC riders who had already pre-ridden the circuit: it soon became apparent it was the sort of course that could only have been devised by a drunk downhiller, high on the fumes of his own front tyre.

The Garmin elevation map...

Starting at the bottom of the circuit, we ploughed through an off-camber muddy section before hitting the punishing ‘uplift’ climb - the route downhillers are driven up to reach their respective start line. The first section of the loose climb, saturated with loose rocks, hitting a meagre 15% before bearing right onto a gruelling 25% gradient, peaking at 35% before relaxing back into the relative comfort of a 20% slope to reach the peak.  With an average speed of three-and-a-half mph, and height gain of nearly 200m, the 22-32 sprocket was fully engaged for the duration of the climb, with the entirety of the sport race and majority of ‘elites’ walking the fiercest grades.  With the climb over you hit (literally hit), the downhill course. The twisty, rutted, rock-ridden, descent (the Garmin recording up to -40%!) providing much entertainment for the heckling downhillers. After a couple of drops, you emerged at the so called ‘carnage corner’ – the centre-piece no description could possibly do justice to:

BUCS 2011 X.C Carnage! from Joe Bowman on Vimeo.

After this we passed through a long off-camber straight before a fast run back to the arena to start Mount Moelfre again. For 6 laps...

Summiting the climb for the opening lap, I sat inside the top 10, and proceeded to pass fallen riders, while simultaneously being passed by the more technically able among us. With the field strung out and the laps passing, I continued to hover around the top 10, with any time gained on the climb, more than lost on the descent.

On lap 4 however, disaster struck, as taking a new found line out of carnage corner, I landed too heavily on my back wheel off the drop and instantly blew out the tube. Without any spares (in hindsight a bit of an oversight), I cautiously rode and ran back to the arena (much to the disappointment of heckling downhillers, who by now were throwing banana peels and water onto the easiest/least hard lines). Searching for a tube and a pump –eventually settling for a mini-frame pump after 2 attempts with the world’s most useless track pumps- I rejoined the circuit a lap down to complete the race, while managing to spectacularly launch myself over the handlebars after an inspired line choice. Eventually, I crossed the line in 30something place.

However, the weekend still brought in a good haul for LSUCC, with Jessie Roberts winning the women’s elite race and the elite men’s team gaining 3^rd overall (despite mechanical troubles for Jon, while both me and Henry were visited by the puncture fairy). Earlier in the day the purple and white jerseys of Loughborough dominated the sport race with Chris Irlam winning and Chris Reeves second, bringing in team Gold, while Christina Wiejak won the women’s sport event.

But please BUCS, can we have an XC race next year?