National Trophy Derby

[PatHayes]

Brilliant course which included a fly over at Moorlands leisure centre for first round of national trophy .

Very heavy dew meant slightly slippery with surface cutting up a bit for the vets race which started at 10:15 . This meant changing the Chicanes for Fangos which were fine at 40psi.

Course had everything a cross course should road , steps , big hurdles and lots of off camber plus the flyover .

Our race started very fast and I was quickly in the red anf lost a few places on my gridding position on first lap and never got them back . Really enjoyed race but course probably too fast and flowing for me as need more slogging either up hill or in mud at this level. Finished 34th which wasn't great but better than debacle at Southampton last year.

Given how close Derby is surprised that only Simon Hime and me there from Eastern region .

C stuck at it well in women's race though still fading after 30 mins in the for her longer format .

Senior race spiced up by a couple of Marlux riders one of them who Yorben Van Tichelt left Ian Field for dead on first lap

[StevenDrew]

Nice one, Pat. I was tempted but the overnight stay wasn't an option last weekend. Not sure I'm fit enough for Trophy at the moment although I would very much like to ride the Derby course in the dry. As Stuart, Neil and Bruce will confirm, it does tend to get a little mucky there in JAnuary.

Interesting that Fieldy latched back onto Van Tichelt. But then lost out on the final lap because he ran the hurdles rather than bunny hop them as Van Tichelt did.