National XC Championships 2010

In the Senior men's race, Liam Killeen was involved in a tight battle with great rival Oli Beckingsale for some three laps before Oli began to encounter transmission problems, which culminated in a snapped chain, costing him some five minutes. Killeen was thus able to ride away to a very comfortable victory.

Beckingsale fought back having dropped well down the top ten and came through to claim a very impressive second place. Paul Oldham caught Adrian Lansley, who was up into second for a time, to claim the third place on the line. Both Killeen and Beckingsale spoke later of their frustration at not being able to complete their epic battle which should have gone down to the wire on a course which suited their contrasting talents equally.

Last's win in the senior women's race was relatively trouble free and she was soon in the clear off the start and was never seriously threatened thereafter. Jenny Copnall, officially retired and absent from this season's national scene, took time off from her wedding preparations and surprised herself with third place. She was up into second for a while until Maddy Horton caught her - Copnall's lack of training left her flagging a little at the end of what was a very long race for the women. Sally Bigham didn't make the start after illness struck, whilst Sue Clarke was also absent, injured.

As ever, the national championships produce drama and glory in equal measure. For Isla Rowntree, there was both as she made her first competitive appearance on a mountain bike for something like a decade and walked - almost literally - off with the Veteran Women's title. Having planned to just give the race a go for fun, her planned bike wasn;t ready in time and she found herself out on a singlespeed steed, not really ideal for the undulating course. However, when race leader Jane Cumming punctured, Isla found herself in the lead and never looked back, though she admitted walking the final climb to the finish after the slogging singlespeed finally took its toll on her.

The Junior Men's race was always going to be a great battle and Steve James and Grant Ferguson duly served up a classic. James got away from his rival on the second lap, but Ferguson came back at him and on the final climb on the last lap they looked more like track sprinters than XC racers as they almost came to a standstill trying to tempt each other into committing to the final sprint. In the end James took it by a narrow margin.

Carl Sturgeon's win in the Masters' race had seemed most unlikely as he drifted over 20 seconds behind the leading bunch on the opening lap. However, Sturgeon had a plan and he calmly picked off his rivals over the next lap or so and went on to coolly claim the title by almost 2 minutes.

Finally, in the Veteran men's race, Paul Hopkins was very keyed up but found himself in a massive battle with Alex Glasgow, the Scot who almost made his long trip down from the Highlands pay off as he went through the first two laps at the front with his rival. Finally, Hopkins managed to get free on the third lap and was a relived man when he came in with just over a minute to pare to claim his first Veteran's title.

To see rider interviews click on the BC button above.

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