Whyte Racer Luke Smith is not one to rest on his laurels. After a superb third in the appalling conditions in Thetford forest he rode two races last weekend – a Surrey league road race on Saturday and the second round of the Gorrick MTB series Sunday where he was back to his winnings ways despite being taken off course by a wrong turn and having to fight back to the front from mid pack. He is on course to win the series. These are Luke’s reports:

 

Surrey League road race – 16^th place

The race was 10 laps of a 6 mile circuit due to the amount of potholes caused by the recent snow. The first lap was neutralised so the lead car could point out the most hazardous areas – which there were quite a lot of!

 

The racing started almost immediately out of the neutralised zone with a few riders clipping off the front. A small acceleration in the main group quickly diminished what gap the breakaway riders had because of this reason I made the foolish decision not to make the effort to bridge across the gap despite the group being close and me feeling easily strong enough to do so.

 

Next thing I know the gap has increased significantly too large to now go across on my own, I attempted a few times with other riders but to no avail.

 

With the main group content with rolling round I used to remainder of the race as extra training attacking off the front at every opportunity.

 

Come the end of the race I still managed a reasonable sprint and finished at the head of the main bunch.

 

Slightly disappointed with the result but a good training ride all the same and a valuable lesson learned.

 

Gorrick MTB Spring Series Round 2 – 1^st place

 

Unsure of how I would feel after the previous day’s race I held back slightly at the start.

 

Although almost immediately after we got going I took to the front feeling remarkably good.

 

Another rider who I won’t name then took to the front – unfortunately he took the lead group off course by making a wrong turn.

 

Once we realised and turned round we must have joined the race mid pack.

It was definitely going to be a hard race now.

 

Working my way through the field of riders I came through the first lap in 5^th place – not too bad all things considered.

 

Next lap round and I had caught and overtaken the leaders. The next two laps I kept my head down and continued to enjoy the track, maintaining consistent lap times.

 

I finished the race a minute up on second place happy with the performance considering I had raced the previous day.

 

 

Luke Smith 

Whyte Racing UK

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