Luke Gray rides & writes……….Sunday was round 4 of the National Trophy Series at Temple Park in South Shields. It's a very long drive for my Dad and I to get there so we travelled to the race on Saturday.
There was no course practise on the Saturday as there was a local league race being held at the same venue with a different course set out. When we arrived at Temple Park we managed to see the last lap of the race and it was very muddy with so frozen sections.
On Sunday morning I did a couple of practise laps of the course, it was a tricky course to learn because some of the corners were hard and frosty with almost no grip, while others were softer and muddy with more grip, but this even varied depending on which line you took around the corner. I choose to practise on mud tires because the sun would only soften the course.
The temperature was very close to 0 degrees if not below, but still the majority of riders chose to race in shorts, I was glad I choose to wear my legs warmers along with Pro MTB rider Oli Beckingsale (Endura MTB Racing) who also made a wise move. Later on the temperature dropped very quickly half way through the Elite race.
I didn't have the best of starts, I was fumbling a bit on my pedal and lost a bit of ground but past a good few riders later down the start straight once I was all clipped in and made up a few more in the early turns on this mainly flat grass course.
The pace seemed pretty fast on the first lap and I didn't make many more places up, I think I was sitting in about 7th or 8th. There were a lot of crashes early on that I saw, either down to bad tyre choice, or just because of the slippery frozen corners and of course just racing incidents. I managed to keep upright all race, although I would lose my front wheel a few times it was nothing a leg dab couldn't save. I steadily moved past riders and after about 20 - 25 minutes I found my rhythm and felt like I could ride harder. There were 6 riders in the group I was leading but only 4 riders a little way ahead. It was about this time I came in to the pits for a clean bike. Once on the fresh bike I pushed on hard and soon made gaps appeared in my group which whittled the group down to 3.
In the last 20 minutes the course was refreezing making the soft corners with grip now very slippery, and I had to be very careful of the now frozen tram lines appearing in the grass. The time was fast approaching 4.00 pm and the light was also beginning to dim. I was now riding with just two others, former Pro MTB rider Nick Craig (Team Scott UK) and Lewis Craven (Wheel base.co.uk). Lewis was just hanging onto the two of us and Nick would only pass me when I slowed up, but I wouldn't have been able to escape the two of them without a really big effort but I was still thinking about catching the riders ahead rather than fighting for 5th place.
When there was just two laps to go Nick was keen on taking the lead and applying some pressure in an attempt to break away from us, but I hung onto his wheel although Lewis lost contact somewhere around that lap. When Nick eased up or there was a passing place I took the lead and pressed on but we couldn't loose each other. The last lap was just a fight to drop each other; I knew where I'd have to use my sprint to take the lead because overtaking was very difficult near the finish. Nick who was leading at the time choose to use his sprint in exactly the same place as me, a long soft energy sapping grass section, I didn't get past to my surprise. But no matter as I managed to take a better line around a series of bends and accelerated out and passed him, after that Nick sat up and didn't attempt to out sprint me at the finish.
I finished 5th overall and 2nd under 23 behind Floris De Tier who won overall, last year he was my team mate in the Belguim Baboco Team.
It felt good to be back on the National Podium and for the second week running be the top British U23 rider. In the under 23 series Adam Martin took the Leaders green Jersey from Steve James who had one too many heavy crashes on the frozen course.
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