Whyte Racer Luke Smith is shortly off to defend his African national title on his Whyte 19 but is still getting his eye in the UK where conditions have been a little colder than the sun-worshipper can expect on the sub-continent! At the Third Round of the aptly named Brass Monkey Luke managed another podium finish despite learning a lesson about mixing old parts with new. This is his report: Brass Monkey Round 3

Second race of the year…and thankfully after slogging around Thetford for four hours last week the reward was a slight increase in race fitness.

The conditions were absolutely freezing at the new venue in Aldershot but that didn’t affect the size of the field for this race. With the four- hour from last week still fresh in my mind I decided to opt for ‘just’ two hours this week.

The field was full of strong riders and I knew the racing was going to be fierce from the gun.

The circuit started at the foot of one of five large climbs. Quickly the field was strung out and I was sitting in a lead group of five riders.

Upon hitting the second climb a couple of riders started ramping up the pace. I tried following only for my gears to start skipping and playing up.

A small gap opened up which I managed to close on a fast and technical descent. Unfortunately on the next climb the same situation unfolded – but this time the gap was just too large to make up.

I had to ride as smoothly as possible to compensate for my jumping gears. New chain plus old block equals school boy error!

I held a good pace throughout the remainder of the race thoroughly enjoying the course, the descents proved very sketchy in the freezing conditions however the bike felt fantastic unfortunately as the temperature increased so did the vast amount of sloppy mud – once again the mud clearance on my Whyte 19 carbon proved beneficial.

At one point on my second lap the fourth and fifth placed riders made their way back to me, but a solid third lap saw me pull away again.

Going into the fourth and final lap I was confident of holding onto third place despite the gears winding me up something rotten.

I finished the race retaining third position behind the current master’s national champion. Confident in my current progress of form I feel we could well have a good race ahead of us in two weeks time at the first of the Gorrick Spring Series races.

Thanks again to Bex and my Dad for standing out in the ice cold conditions supporting and feeding me…it’s always massively appreciated.

Also thanks again to Whyte for a storming race machine.