NPS XC R2 - Drumlanrig

Round 2 of the XC NPS returned to the foothills of Scotland after an absence of 2 years, with Drumlanrig Castle providing a stunning backdrop for a weekend of what turned out to be some of the hottest racing so far this year, most literally.

Hundreds made the pilgrimage to the birthplace of the modern bike, ready to tackle one of the most technical courses used on the NPS circuit for many years.

Course designer Rik Allsop has over the years crafted a superb network of natural trails that thread themselves for miles around the grounds of Drumlanrig and a crafty 7.5km loop including rock gardens and plenty of rooty action was highlighted for the XC riders to fight their battles round.

Robin Seymour

“Yeah that was hard a tough course, all up and down, no where to get any rhythm, I’m just happy to be back on the podium its great. I’ve not graced the top 3 since Checkendon 2006, I didn’t get on the podium at all last year, so it’s been a while. It’s good, I’ve been working on the courses at home Kcapital and I’ve got a job now, so I haven’t had much time to train. I’ve only really started now after those races finished, so it’s taking me a while to get back in shape. I mean I just haven’t had any good form at in April. I’ve been sort of blagging my way through the races, with 20 years in your legs you can get away with an awful lot. You don’t have to train that much to keep a reasonable level but you’re not quite quick enough to be competitive though.

I’ve not really had a break after CX I just kept it going to get me in form for our selection races, and that really catches up with when you start racing and travelling you just get tried.

It always happens when Oli’s in a race, everyone tries to go fast from the gun and the race then sort of detonates, so I couldn’t stay with the pace on the first lap, I just went through the horrors, the usual, just keeping in contention in the top ten with people snapping at my heels, I was thinking this is disastrous. But I actually started to feel better on the second lap, I was struggling but I was getting it together, then after that each lap went a bit better, I started to catch people picking my way back to the front.

Field had a good ride, he only came past me on the second lap and it’s good to see him having a good ride, as at the last round you could see he was frustrated, it didn’t have the best of years last year, and it’s good to see him start to stretch himself again.

The last two laps I was riding with Gareth, he was pulling away on the climbs and I was coming back to him on the descents, I thought he was mush stronger but he started to suffer he didn’t get away from me on the climbs anymore and he skipped sideways on one of the corners and I managed to get round him and on the last piece of singletrack I just put my head down and went for it”.

If you’d like to read more about this race click on the British Cycling link above.