1st race of the year - Southern XC or Southern Trail ride

ashleymp777

Mmm, I'm torn between the Southern XC race at the Wasing Estate or the Southern Trail ride on the South Downs. I want to go to a slightly 'racer' environment so am I better off doing the Southern XC race?

Help!

JasonRwmb

I am sure they will both be good, but will be very different. Southern XC will be a proper race with everyone riding flat out. The trail ride will be a good route, but not competitive at all.

I am going for the 132km Bucks Off Road Sportive on the Sunday.

njee20

The BORS should be a great event - excellent promoting club ;-)

I'll be at the Southern XC. If you want a race that's the one to go for. Decent course too, good fun.

ashleymp777

Southern XC it is! What category are you going for Nick? I'm torn between the Open (3 laps) or the Masters (4 laps). BTW what is the approx lap length? Do you know?

ozzzyosborn206

let us know how you get on, there are some guys from guernsey going over, Rob Smart won the master race in the first round, fingers crossed he can repeat it in the second

ashleymp777

I will do indeed. Plan of action is to start slowly and get slower! Ha

njee20

A DNF then was it? Mechanical problems?

I plodded round near the back in Expert, dropped a bottle on lap 3, so backed off slightly to avoid cramping, as is often the way it made no difference to my lap times!

Great course though I thought, really enjoyed it, fast and flowing. Could've done with more doubletrack for drinking and overtaking, particularly for the NPS. They've added some singletrack and taken out a fireroad over last year.

ashleymp777

Ha, I wish! I lost my bl**dy car key somewhere on first lap so spent the next 3 looking for the damn thing. Stupidly I didn't zip up my pocket and it fell out. Needless to say my phone, wallet, warm clothes etc were all locked up in the car for good measure.

Had to borrow £40 from the organisers to get home and come all the way back the next day with my spare key to get the car. Miraculously one of the organisers found the key after I left. And it literally was just a key, there weren't any keyrings or other keys attached, just a solitery car key on its own.

Never again will I ever race with the key to my car in my pocket!

I would like to publically thank the organisers of the Southern XC race for their patience, understanding and the loan of £40. So if you know them please do let them know. They were fabulous.

njee20

Same thing happened to a friend of mine at a race in Janurary, a valuable lesson learned there!

konarob8

Shoe lace round your neck, inside your shirt.

njee20

Just give it to a friend/partner/registration people!