Midlands Round 2 - Hanchurch Woods, Stoke-On-Trent

A good chunk of the team made their way up to Hanchurch Woods, near Stoke for the 2nd round of the Midlands series, which also doubled up as the Midlands championships and with one of our riders (Chris Andrews) eledgible the team were upbeat about their chances of success.

After a morning of pre-riding the course the riders had only positive things to say about a good course with a mixture of short sharp climbs and technical root filled decents and singletrack.

First of our riders to take to the line was Alex who has had another wonderful season so far with top 5 results coming in his first year as a Youth rider and on top of an operation at Christmas! It was another routine race for the youngster as he battled at the front end of the race finishing second to a storming Matt Sumpton. A podium in the first race!

Next to go were at two in form Juniors who had a game plan! This plan was working well as the two lead the race from the start until a crash ended Nat's race, much to his dissappointment. Ben was on a mission though and kept the pace too high for anyone to respond, his downhill skills helping him pull away and take a much deserved win by well over 2 minutes!

With Paul taking a rest and helping our mechanic with set up and feeding it was now the turn of Chris Andrews to take to the line in a strong Elite field. Chris had been targeting this race from pre-season as he dreams of becoming Midlands champion. Our very own Brummie started off well but a succession of problems on laps 5 and 6 hindered him and he eventually finished in 7th position which was a good result all things considering, now it was a question of the championship places as we waited patiently for the results to be calculated. chris missed the podium by just one spot as he finished 4th in the championship! Although disappointed, the result is a reflection of how far Chris has come since joining us at the beginning of the season. He is sure to be the champion before too long, and not just of the midlands!