Xc NPS Rd4 Lady Dixon Park

So Round 4 in Lady Dixon Park. This time around it was a one day job as a few of the others on the team were in the middle of exams. Lady Dixon last year wasn't a good race for me as on the first lap I got a puncture and had to run the rest of the lap and then had to ride out the race on a borrowed wheel to a 9th place. This year I was hoping the race would go a bit better. Now the course isn't my thing, it has a lot of climbing and flat grass sections and not much downhill or much technical stuff in it. Dad and I left the house at 8:30 and arrived at 10:30. I got signed on and then got my new Squad gear. After getting sorted I went on a practise lap with Jon. This year the course was slightly longer than last year with some more climbing and a little bit more single track. After the practise lap, Luke and myself watched the U16/U14 races. There were great results for the team with and 1,2,3 for James,Paddy and Conor in U16, 1st for Shannon in U16 Girls and 1st and 2nd for Jamie and John in U14.

So at 2'oclock we lined up on the start line and were ready to go. I got a good start off the line and got 3rd into the first section of singletrack but was soon squeezed back to 5th. For the rest of the first section of singletrack I sat in 5th behind Darnell Moore. As we came out into the first open grass section I passed one rider but then was passed by Daniel Brickenden and Anthony Quinn. So In 7th now and just tried to push on. The lads in front of me started to pull away and I just couldn't keep with them. So the rest of the laps went by alright, not making any time on Anthony and Dan ahead of me but not losing time to Luke behind me. On the second I had an off on the wooden bridge over a fallen tree and managed to knock one of my shoes off. After getting that sorted I kept going. It was quite warm out racing so at the end of the second lap I poured the end of the water bottle on my head. Third lap was much of the same just getting around and trying to keep up my times. On the last lap Niall Horgan from MAD MTB caught me. As he is someone I'd ride with a lot I gave him a bit of a race. I sat behind him till the only bit of Downhill, at the bottom of it I made my move back past him. Coming to the longest climb on the course, he went back past me for a short time but I wasn't gonna let him get away. I put a move on him just before the last climb to the start finish line. So I came into the finish in 7th, a couple of minutes behind Anthony in 6th.
                                                        

Overall My race wasn't great but at least the race is over and were on to the next 2 races which are a lot more technical and to my liking. Big thanks to Spin 11- High performance Custom Clothing for the amazing gear which looks great and is really comfortable to wear. I'd also like to thank Adam McGarr for doing bottles for me and Xmtb for holding the race. Finally once again I'd like to thank Jon for organising the Gear for us and
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Scott