No West Mids this weekend, so a ‘local’ trip to Brecon for the Welsh League. Once again it was National Trophy, and looking at the line up I hoped to challenge for the win, if not win myself. I had done a day’s training with the Welsh Youth Squad the day before, so I knew that my legs weren’t going to be great, but I hoped I had recovered enough. The course was hard but fun, very technical and bumpy, probably the complete opposite of what the West Mids is like.
I warmed up ok and went to be gridded. The start was in a really awkward place, the start straight wasn’t very long and about 100m in there was a technical bank which you needed speed to ride up. My start went wrong and I was in 5th going into the technical section. George Marshall pulled away instantly and I knew that I was going to have to chase hard to catch up. When the straights came I wasn’t as strong as I hoped, and I could only move myself up into 3rd.
I realised soon after that my legs were suffering and I wasn’t going to move up much. On the 3rd lap a lapped rider cause me to crash going down a descent and suddenly I was trying to keep ahead of the leading U14. I managed it, but knew that I was a minute and a half further down then I’d have liked. I finished 3rd, not a disaster but not great, hoping for a much better race at the Welsh champs.