British NPS Sherwood 2012 By Hannah Ferguson

“Beep beep beep.” Half past 6 on any morning is bad enough but it’s especially bad on a Saturday morning. This was however the time I needed to be up at to be ready and left at 7 to travel down to Sherwood Forest for the first round of the British XC Series. I was staying with some friends in Edinburgh as I needed to be at the race venue early to have a team meeting with WXC World Racing. We hit the road (not literally) and our first stop was a bakers in Moffat to restock on food. 5 hours later we reached Sherwood Forest but because all of my kit and bike equipment was with my dad I couldn’t even sign on. I popped in at my team tent and had a catch up with Trevor and Keith before meeting a few of the new girls on our team I got given some of the kit I would be racing for the year and it looked so good that I couldn’t wait to get it on and go for a spin. The meeting had been put back till after the first practice session but I still had to wait for my bike to get here before I could go for a practice lap. By the time my bike arrived the sun was shining and it was shorts and t-shirt weather for our pre ride. The course was sort of what I expected from Sherwood; flat, non technical and suited for the more powerful cyclists but none the less it was still a good and challenging course. There were a few steep uphill’s that under race conditions would be easier to just run as people would be stopping. After practice we had the team meeting and were given the low down for racing in a World Cup team, there was lots of new faces for this year and although I only spoke briefly with them I am really looking for to getting to know them over the season. After our debrief we headed off to find our Travelodge and a shower and change before we went to find somewhere to eat. Presented with a menu in front of me I choose the gammon steak with an egg on top and all the sides. To the amazement of myself when the food arrived in front of me I was silent for about 10 minutes and the entire plate had been cleared, I am guessing I was hungry. Even managed to find a space for some sticky toffee pudding.


Race day. For the past few years Sherwood has fallen on the weekend when the clocks go forward and today was the same. We had to be left by 8 but my dad realised at 7:55 that he couldn’t find the keys only to find them in the room in his jacket pocket. Finally we got to the venue only half an hour late. No time to mess around today we had just over 30 minutes before gridding so it was a quick change and onto the turbo for warm up. Being one of the older people in the category I got gridded 2nd so could choose a good line for my start. The groups ahead of us started and soon it was us standing with the commissaries announcing the whistle would go soon. I got a good explosive start and was sitting in second going up the first fire road but people started overtaking me and I didn’t have the spark to stay with them or get past so I found myself at the back going into the first bit of single track which was not good and I could tell the race was not going to go as well as I had hoped. The one big change in the course was that there wasn’t as much fire road and a lot more single track which some people preferred but it meant there wasn’t much chance for overtaking. The number of laps we were doing had been reduced to two which in comparison to 3 laps feels more like a sprint. Going into the second lap I hadn’t drank much but decided to change my bottle anyway. I grabbed the bottle of coke from my dad which I was hoping to be flat only to find bubbles in my mouth which meant it wasn’t. I was getting caught by some of the youths so I managed to stay with them and push myself to the finish. The race had finished quicker than it had started and for once I felt like I could have done another lap but didn’t have time to moan about how bad my race went as I needed to cool down and get changed. The boy’s race would be starting soon so we grabbed a sandwich and went down to watch the start. The sun was sinning and I had packed my shorts so maybe a bit of tan time as well. The boy’s races proved eventful to watch as there were a few close finishes and quite impressive sprints for the line. Van packed up it was time for the 5 hour van journey back to Scotland.