With severe weather warnings in place and some of the worst gales and rain blowing in, you wouldn't have been far off the mark to reckon that the opening round of the popular south west XC series, Soggy Bottoms, would be living up to it's name! With this in mind, riders still poured in (pardon the pun) from near and far, armed with their biggest mud tyres and state of the art wet weather gear.Pre entries for the Soggy were running at a healthy 200 mark, with a stunning 50 ‘fun' riders eager to come and give XC racing a go! As riders arrived they were greeted not only by steaming hot mugs of tea and coffee and lashings of bacon butties, but also by blue skies and a gentle breeze! A complete contrast to the raging storms that hit the area just hours earlier. With the weather in mind, organiser Martyn Salt put his extensive knowledge of the area to good use and with reputable course designer/builder Paul Davis created a 3.2-mile course that took in all the favourites that Newnham is fabled for while missing out on the mud!

The cruellest section had to be ‘Cliff Climb' a real knee trembler/heart pumper of an uphill that started just meters from the start, rising quickly from the arena providing very little traction with a lovely covering of marble sized loose gravel. Just when you thought you'd reached the top, it kicked up once more for a final fling before you could finally take a moment to catch your breath and start admiring and enjoying the singletrack. A quick sortie into Bluebell woods, via the plantation brought riders into the whooping dips of the bomb holes before shooting them down the infamous ‘Cottage return' a long ribbon of technical singletrack on a fast downward trajectory. However what comes down must also go up. The course circumnavigated the river over a bridge before heading off to the Pipeline Return hurtling down to a very soggy second river crossing, before threading back to the finish to start the lap all over again, beginning with that dreaded climb. In the course of the day many a race, along with a few wills to live were won or lost on that climb!

Jay Horton - Master Winner

“That was excellent out there today, it's the first time I've been out of breath since riding the BMBS here in September, so I didn't know what to expect, so I just went really hard from the gun and yeah I pulled it out of the bag! I was lined up in about 20th spot and sort of cruised around for the first lap then I quickly realised I was with the leaders and just found myself going from 4th to 1st in one climb. I went for it on Clif climb and that was it I was out on my own and on for the win.”

If you’d like to read the rest of the report click on the BC button above.

If you’d like to enter any of the remaining Soggies visit www.xcracer.com for more info.