As a few of us had Friday off to travel up I decided we should warm up with a session at Stainburn on the way. This turned out to be a bad idea! :( We started off with a couple of red runs and then tried the black. I lead the way in but before we even got to the tricky stuff I had a crash. Just up a bit from the slab I went over a small drop (think kerb) but the front wheel hit another rock and I stalled. Went to put my right foot down and found nothing to put it on! Commence free falling backwards towards pointy rocks........ thinking: "oh sh*t! This is gonna hurt!".

I fell about 20ft and landed on my back on those pointy rocks. Luckily my video camera inside it's foam lined sandwich box inside my Camelbak acted as a spine protector! Both my back and the camera survived!! However I did enough damage to put me on pain killers for the rest of the weekend and play havoc with my mojo!

That's my excuses in.......

On Friday evening we all met up in the pub we were staying in and prepared in the traditional manner! :o After a leisurely breakfast on Saturday we registered and then did a practice lap taking in all the special stages of the race. All were pretty much the same as last year except for a few steeper, sketchier lines at the top of the first stage. After a spot of lunch (4 pints for some team members! :o ) it was briefing time followed by the prologue. This was much longer than last year being a full stage this time. Also unlike last year it was used as a seeding run to determine your start position for the main race. All of our team except for yours truly (hey! I've got my excuses in!) were pretty closely matched on this and did pretty well overall.

After more "race preparation" in the pub on Saturday evening Pike spent most of the night trying to regurgitate a Tequila worm! Us older folk slept better....

Sunday was race day and because of my lower qualification I got photos of the lads setting off before setting off about half an hour behind them. This made my race a little less enjoyable but I did bump into some of the team a couple of times where stages passed each other and the lads racing around me were a good bunch. Everyone was chilled and the banter flowed. Exactly what racing for the masses should be like. Pay attention any organisers out there!

Race wise all our team members did very well. I'll have to wait for the official results to come out before I can put them here but our very own "old fart" Mike got on the podium in the Masters over 50 category. This was despite a nasty crash on stage 6 which lost him time and damaged him in his own words: "Tw*tted Knee that stuck me to the sheets (it woz me knee honestly), b*ggered arm, black and blue all over and seeing double but hey ho!" Well done Mike on getting 3rd in your category.

Team mountainbikerides.co.uk results: