Island Cyclist Paul C Smith showed that his winter training efforts look to have payed off at the first round of the 2008 Scottish XC Mountain Bike series at the weekend.
The event saw hundreds of riders of all levels compete in what could be described as harsh wintery conditions at the Laggan Wolftrax course, just south of Newtonmore.
Despite initial fears of the event being cancelled due to snow, the course thawe
d out enough to allow the racing to go ahead, which made for a very cold and muddy race.
Paul, who competes as an Elite rider (the highest National level), lined up at 2pm for seven laps of the 6km circuit, with some of Scotlands top racers, including riders from the Scottish Olympic development squad.
A very fast start saw the bunch drive the pace up a long fireroad climb, where Paul used his climbing abilities to gain 3rd position by the top of the climb.
He then entered the fast technical single track which wound its way back down to the bottom of the course, and ran the first two laps with the leading pair, before dropping the pace slightly on lap 3 to conserve energy for a strong finish.
Paul rode solo until lap 5, where he was joined by ex-scottish champion and world cup rider, James Fraser Moodie of Pedal Power.
James proceeded to lay down some tough accelerations up the climb to try and shake Paul, but he responded to the attacks and held pace every time.
However, despite plans of a sprint finish, Paul experienced a slight mechanical fault on the last lap which cost him time, and had to settle for 4th, 15 seconds clear of 3rd place, and only 2mins behind the leading duo after over 2 hours of racing.
A great result indeed for the first race of the season.
For full report, see this week's 'Gazette'.
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