Billy wins race 9 in the Beastway series…

The Brixton Cycles Beastway MTB Series continues apace and last week round nine saw regular competitors continue their battle for the overall title.

Held at the purpose built cycle facility, Redbridge Cycle Centre in east London, round nine was dominated by the young Billy Joe Whenman, who set a pace that few could match.

Bike Magic.

Read more @

http://bikemagic.com/events/beastway-xc-race-series-rnd-9-results.html

http://www.londoncyclesport.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4464:brixton-cycles-beastway-mtb-series-9-updated&catid=37:mtb-racing&Itemid=90

We recently unveiled  3 all new 2012 CX bikes at our product road show!

To read more about the event at the Renault F1 facility and to see a great gallery of images go to road.cc…

http://road.cc/content/news/38927-whyte-add-three-cyclocross-bikes-2012-range

National Championships

Aske, Richmond

Position 4th

The previous week I had been away with friends in the alps riding the Tour Mount Blanc.

I was unsure as to how this would affect my chances of having a good crack at the National Champs but wasn’t going to let that ruin my holiday.

We enjoyed a superb week away and my Whyte 146 outperformed itself, a bike perfectly suited to alpine riding (by the end of the week every member of the group was envious of the 146 J)

Back in the UK and I knew I the week away had done me good. Riding every day, most days at high altitude, certainly wasn’t going to do me any harm however I did feel really tired!

I deliberately took more rest than usually in the build up to the race and come Saturday I was generally feeling less fatigued. It’s always hard to know exactly how your legs are going to feel until the time comes however.

During the practice lap I consciously took it easy – this wasn’t a bad thing as it enabled me to take the course in. Due to the rain there was a couple of sections on the course which were causing quite a tail back as people waited to ride the challenging sections cautiously (sometimes more than once). Due to the changeable weather I was quite content with just knowing what the course was like rather than specifically trying to pick lines as one downpour could potentially change everything.

The allocated race time soon came around on Sunday and I was full of nerves.

Gridded 10th and the second row. Not ideal however given that the raced launched straight into two large climbs this didn’t bother me too much as the climbs would soon sort things out.

I managed a good start…Ed Mosely darted off and I joined around another 3 riders in the hunt to chase him down on the second climb and a couple of us passed him.

Heading into the first technical descent and Ed sneak back past impressively overtaking the rider in front of me and opening a gap by the time we exited the single track.

The gap was closed down again two riders passed Ed and I sat behind in fourth place.

As we approached the second technical descent Ed launched an attack into the downhill overtaking both riders in the process! At the bottom he’d opened a gap again and this time made it stick.

The remainder of the lap saw four of us in a group holding the gap to Ed at a pretty constant distance.

Heading out onto the big climbs for the second time and another rider made an attempt to bridge across to the lone leader.

The pace surged in an attempt to close the gap. Heading into a section of singletrack and the other two riders alongside me nipped in front of a rider from an earlier (junior) race .

At the time I didn’t see this as too much of a problem, although I hugely regretted not being more aggressive and getting in front of the rider when I exited the downhill to see the other riders had opened a large gap.

I closed one of the riders down on the following climb but this took a big effort and I suffered on the following section losing his wheel.

This left me in fifth place at the mid stage of the race.

I chased hard for the remainder of the lap but just couldn’t close the gap.

Heading out onto the third lap and my energy levels faded rapidly. I was now just riding my bike rather than racing it.

The toll of a heavy weeks riding in the alps was unfortunately becoming apparent.

I held fifth place until around half way on lap four when I was passed by another rider putting me in sixth place overall and fourth in the 30-34 category.

This would be my finishing position not a bad result by most peoples standards but when I had gone to the champs in search of the win I must say I was very disappointed.

After a bit of rest I know I’ll be going probably be going better than ever so watch this space…..

All the best,

Luke

Whyte Racing UK

Well done Billy…

To read about the race from Billy’s perspective go to his race blog @

http://www.billywhenmanracing.blogspot.com/