So after the Red Bull Hill Chasers on Saturday – we all headed to the first round of the Midlands XC at Hick’s lodge Cycle Centre in Leicestershire. The course was perfect for giving the bikes a good run in being mostly man made with some loose corners and some muddier natural sections. In the junior race Ed McParland managed to settle down into 2nd place, battling with Alex Baker of the Orange Monkey team. On the last lap he put a dig in and broke the elastic, managing to ride away to second. A Cracking result for young Ed in the first proper XC race of the year. In the Elites Gareth Montgomerie and Dave Henderson took up the battle. Gareth did not feel to good at the start of the, “I felt sluggish everywhere and there was no real rest on the course due to the flat nature of it. As the first couple of laps ticked by I started to feel a bit more comfortable and I was getting really annoyed with a rider who kept cutting sections out of the course and going the wrong side of the course markings, despite making it clear I wasn’t happy with him doing it he continued so it was time to get rid of him! With teammate Dave Henderson now on my wheel we pushed on opening up a gap on the one short drag of a climb. From here we rode together extending our lead over third place. With the final lap approaching things between Dave and I were twitchy, we both wanted to win the season opener! Luckily for me Dave suffered a mechanical at the end of the penultimate lap giving me an opportunity to go for the win solo. Very happy to take the win, posting the fastest lap of the race and keeping laps consistently within 15secs of each other. Dave took 2nd topping off a good weekend for GT Racing UK and the brand new GT Zaskar 29r”. Couldn’t Have said it better myself!

Midlands XC Series 2012, Round 1 Hicks Lodge from X Trail Films on Vimeo.