Well the 17th March saw the first round of the much awaited (by me anyway) of the Mud Sweat and Gears series. There will be 8 rounds in all. There were 5 wheelers entered. Paul Barry, Matthew Denny, Paul Watson and Malcolm Macfarlane, myself and Barry Denny was there for moral support and watched us in the mud, sweating using our gears (I had 20 of them this year!).

The course was set in Tunstall Forest and I am sure the Trog guys help make the course. It quite flat but that does mean easy. Throughout the morning their were a number of races churning the course up but our races started at 2 pm. First the fast looking expert/elite category were called up then the Masters (that will be me then). Following were the Sport Male and Veterans, Grand Veterans and some other categories. It was a large field. The Experts and Mater were set of first followed by everyone else a few minutes later. The pace was too high for me and there was only one Master behind me. The first half of the course was either dry or just a little wet but fast rolling, good thing as was running tyres completely inappropriate for the conditions. The course took us through a  fast bomb hole (the route took us round its edge), this one was bone dry which was a good thing given how coming of would have had tumbling to the bottom. The course remains dry for a while and then it started, the mud. After one short climb that had everyone legs burning you had a choice of lines 1) left hand side which for me was like riding on ice, or right hand side and try to ride on the not so muddy edge of the trail. Neither was very successful. The flowing few hundred meters were mud plugging but at least there was a route on the edge of the fire road that had grass/brambles on it on which grip could be found. One the last lap I passed Matt Denny spinning out in the mud somehow he kept the bike upright and despite moving slower than snail, Matt managed not stop - a heroic effort of balance and bike control. Then the course took us through the second bomb hole or should I say mud pit. There was a get out route but that was worse (you had to cross a stream) and it was longer and more mud. The entrance to the mud pit involved a front and rear wheel slide down into the bomb hole which caught many out and then you needed to dismount CX style (well I did not do it with such finesse) and run out of it. The rest of the course was quite sloppy .

The winner of the Elite category lapped in 17-18 minutes. Paul Watson was the club’s highest placed rider finishing 4th in the Grand Veteran Race. Further down the order in the same race Malcolm Macfarlane was 20^th and Paul Barry finished in 27^th place.  In the Veterans Race, Matt Denny finished 46^th place out of 50 - 3 laps 1hr42mins21secs, I managed 8th place out of 12 in the Masters category- 4 laps in 1hr42mins54secs. We are all a long way of the leaders who managed 5 laps in less time.

A good afternoon’s XC racing.

So the next round will be at Codham Park near Braintree on the 21^st April. Come on wheelers get your entries in. I'll be there and it should be muddy!.

Malcolm Borg