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Preview: Midlands XC Round 1

Posted March 18 2011

Entries are flooding in for round 1 of the 2011 RapidRacerProducts Midlands XC Series which takes place at Cannock Chase this Sunday, with the event already 70% full on pre-entries alone.

The race is based in the Tackeroo area of Cannock Chase, located off Penkridge Bank road (postcode: WS15 2UE) and just North of the Birches Valley visitor centre. The new location means ample hard standing car parking and on site water, plus the ability to have a spectator friendly clover leaf shaped course. Camping is available on the Saturday night, contact midlands_xc@hotmail.co.uk to get a ticket.

Local riders from RapidRacerProducts and Cycle Shack recently met up to preview the course and were pleased to find they could still blast round on summer tyres despite overnight rain!

Here's some snippets of what they thought of the 6km lap: "great course, combines a little bit of everything", "killer climb at the halfway point - that's gonna hurt on the last lap!", "cool technical sections that you can attack and get a 20 second gap on riders" and "good fun, time for another lap before coffee and cake at the cafe?!"

Cross Country (XC) racing is lap based with the number of laps varying for each category, all the way from Elite riders doing 6 laps to Juvenille riders completing 2 laps. Top Elite and Junior riders will be aiming to clock a sub 20 minute lap, with average lap times expected to be 25 minutes. The course does not use the waywarked 'Follow the Dog' and 'The Monkey Trail', so if you have any energy left after your race, there's lots more singletrack still to be ridden!

SCHEDULE
09.00 - Registration opens. Course open for practice.
10.30 - Morning Race (Race 1) - Under 18's and over 40's male categories. All female categories.
13.00 - Short Track XC Racing for Under 12's and under 10's (entry on the day only).
14.00 - Afternoon race (Race 2) - All senior male categories (Elite / Expert / Masters / Sport / Go Race).

At 09.30 and 13.00, the guys at The Bike School will be leading a course ride - perfect for picking up some tips to find some free speed in your race! Space is limited, so make sure you head to heir stand to reserve a spot.

Podium presentations will follow each race. Female podiums will be combined if there are less than 3 people in each category. There will also be spot prizes for the Go-Race category handed out at each podium presentation.

Thanks to the following local companies and riders for their support of the event:

Rapid Racer Products
Cycle Shack
The Bike School
BETD Goldtec
Chase Trails
Rob Crayton Photography