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Our Wheelbase Castelli MGD team were at the 6th round of the National Cyclocross Trophy in Shrewsbury at the weekend. Three of our riders placed in the top 20 of a fiercely contested race, with Under 23 rider Tom Martin, back from a spell racing in Belgium, taking 16th place. Read Tom’s race report below:
So for the final round of the National Trophy series we headed to Shrewsbury for a pretty much completely different course to the past two additions of the race I’ve done.
Despite it being January we’ve had weirdly dry week so the usual mud fest that I was looking forward to didn’t happen! But saying that the course was running very well, nice and greasy with some sections that had started to chew up and becoming rutted. A few challenging slippy off cambers, short steep banks, steps as well as a fast wooded section all made for a challenging course – if you couldn’t get all these dialled you’d be left having to make up time on the road sections or draggy straights that’ll only sap up much needed energy.
So after the usual pre-race rituals it was time to go… I managed a safe start from the 3rd row of the grid despite a 250m sprint straight into a slick off camber corner and I held my start position for first lap and I could still see Lewis so it was going well! After a few laps of tussling in a group of riders Giles Drake came flying past on a road section but my legs weren’t having it, which meant I couldn’t close onto the group of 7.
After 10 mins of groveling round I over cooked a corner, loosing grip and sliding me into a metal fence shoulder first.
With a slightly sore shoulder I pressed on and started picking riders off as I worked my way back up to team mate Giles Drake and then on to pass a few more riders in the final laps. I finished 16th Elite and 5th U23.
Attention now moves to Gravesend for the National CycloCross Champs on Sat Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 January. More info at British Cycling.
Photography from Dan Monaghan, Cadence Images.
