Two races for Dan last week. So at this moment he is lying in his bed for the next three weeks ;)
First race, Thursday 20th of June: Manchester Midweek Madness round 2. This is a local series and really good fun on short courses set in the many parks of Manchester.
Chorlton Water park was the venue and it is flat with only 15metres of climbing per lap, which comes with 3 short steep ramps all one after the other....then it is flat and super fast. There was a good turnout of people and the rain kept away for fast dry racing. Dan is using those races for fast top end training as he usually struggles to hold his pace and concentration during a XC race.
His plan was to ride full gas and really concentrate on hurting himself. Dan knew it would be difficult as he was in the middle of a training block between the National XC races.
From the Gun he took the lead and brought Chris Lever with him. He has been racing Chris for a few years now and this year he has stepped up a level and on a technical course he is a real threat (he has been seen doing suicide no hander’s in his lycra!).
On this non technical flat course Dan was confident to pull away if he kept the pace + and the pain high.
It took him 2 laps to form a gap, Dan kept pushing and concentrating on hitting all the corners and sprinting the climbs as hard as possible.
This all resulted in another win, a free beer at the end (yeehaaaa!), and £40 winnings. Dan was super happy and totally wasted from the effort. Which is always a good feeling after a couple of hours ;)
Second race, Sunday 23rd of June: Midlands Series Marathon 70km : Hanchurch Woods
This is Dan's local Race course, he started to build single track sections there when he was at University, since then the local club have taken over and made some excellent trails. (you're welcome!)
Race day was typical of a British summer: 10degrees, raining and strong winds....Great.
The 70km race was 4 laps of the course and Dan knew it was 95% singletrack and it was going to be really wet and muddy He made the decision to race with a rear mudguard! He hasn’t done this for over 10 years!
The racers were split between Elite/Expert and Senior/Masters. As Dan is contesting the National Masters series he was in the B group. So we set off 10 seconds behind the top guys including Dave Fletcher (World Cup podium U23 )and Dan Fleeman (2010 Tour of Pyrenees winner).
The course was excellent but quite tough as the weather had made it very slippy and with little forest road there was not much rest.
After 3 hours and 50minutes of effort Dan rolled across the line as 1st Master and 5th overall, to be only a few minutes behind the Leaders in the Elite race. This all made him super happy.
Two another great results for the CubeNutswerkteam !
First race, Thursday 20th of June: Manchester Midweek Madness round 2. This is a local series and really good fun on short courses set in the many parks of Manchester.
Chorlton Water park was the venue and it is flat with only 15metres of climbing per lap, which comes with 3 short steep ramps all one after the other....then it is flat and super fast. There was a good turnout of people and the rain kept away for fast dry racing. Dan is using those races for fast top end training as he usually struggles to hold his pace and concentration during a XC race.
His plan was to ride full gas and really concentrate on hurting himself. Dan knew it would be difficult as he was in the middle of a training block between the National XC races.
From the Gun he took the lead and brought Chris Lever with him. He has been racing Chris for a few years now and this year he has stepped up a level and on a technical course he is a real threat (he has been seen doing suicide no hander’s in his lycra!).
On this non technical flat course Dan was confident to pull away if he kept the pace + and the pain high.
It took him 2 laps to form a gap, Dan kept pushing and concentrating on hitting all the corners and sprinting the climbs as hard as possible.
This all resulted in another win, a free beer at the end (yeehaaaa!), and £40 winnings. Dan was super happy and totally wasted from the effort. Which is always a good feeling after a couple of hours ;)
Second race, Sunday 23rd of June: Midlands Series Marathon 70km : Hanchurch Woods
This is Dan's local Race course, he started to build single track sections there when he was at University, since then the local club have taken over and made some excellent trails. (you're welcome!)
Race day was typical of a British summer: 10degrees, raining and strong winds....Great.
The 70km race was 4 laps of the course and Dan knew it was 95% singletrack and it was going to be really wet and muddy He made the decision to race with a rear mudguard! He hasn’t done this for over 10 years!
The racers were split between Elite/Expert and Senior/Masters. As Dan is contesting the National Masters series he was in the B group. So we set off 10 seconds behind the top guys including Dave Fletcher (World Cup podium U23 )and Dan Fleeman (2010 Tour of Pyrenees winner).
The course was excellent but quite tough as the weather had made it very slippy and with little forest road there was not much rest.
After 3 hours and 50minutes of effort Dan rolled across the line as 1st Master and 5th overall, to be only a few minutes behind the Leaders in the Elite race. This all made him super happy.
Two another great results for the CubeNutswerkteam !