Conventional wisdom has XC racing as dead and buried, at least in the UK. But after over 600 people turned up for the final round of the NPS and Trek 642 series, it looks like XC is in rude good health after all.

There are a lot of factors required to make XC racing successful, and the Sherwood Pines venue seemed to have most bases covered. A fast flat course with enough wiggly bits to keep the interest high, and all in close proximity to a motorway. Ideal, then. Yes, there were no serious lung-busting climbs, but we’re happy to let that slide.

Saturday

Liam Killeen took a break from world cup riding to take the Elite win from Oli Beckingsale and Steve Roach in an extremely close race. Killeen waited until the last lap to drop the hammer and open up a two-minute lead that would be too much for Beckingsale to bridge on the final lap. In another close race, Jenny Copnall kept Jenn O’Connor at bay to take the top spot.

At a slightly more sedate, but still overwhelmingly fast pace, Luke Smith finished first in Experts, with Simon Burgess and Nick Collins in second and third. In the Sport class Andrew Cockburn finished ahead of Daniel Troitino and Nathan Wilson. Geoff Beetham beat Ben Dale and Paul Hopkins to first in the Masters.

In a changing precedent, there was a big turnout of women racers. Jules Toone took the win ahead of Gemma Carter and Paula Moseley. In the Sport category Verity Appleyard crossed the finish line 30 seconds ahead of Fran Moore, with Ivy Berkshire a little further back.

Full results at TimeLaps.

Sunday

Some frenetic action in Saturday evening’s Short Track before the campsite fell silent, many of Saturday’s racers stayed on to take part in the Trek 642 enduro. Just over 200 people raced in the six hour, four hour and two hour races, either soloing, in pairs or a four-person team, around an extended eight-ish mile track.

Though the course was mostly flat, the pace was right up there and some sections of the singletrack were characterised by their bumpy nature, and this combination eventually took its toll on the lower backs of most riders, those on hardtails anyway. It was enough to take me out of the racing after four hours, but testament to the fast guys and gals for persevering through to the finish.

ExtremeEndurance.co.uk took both of the top steps of the podium on the 6hr solo expert cat. Richard Wood finished ahead of Rob Lee who finished ahead of Adrian Scott. The women’s race was something of a procession, with Jenn O’Connor and Kate Potter riding together for the duration and taking the win together, side-by-side.

TimeLaps have got the rest of the results.

The organiser speaks

After the racing we caught up with the organiser, Martyn Salt, to find out how the series has gone

BM Sherwood Pines and Thetford both had good turnouts, when compared to, say, Builth Wells earlier in the year. Would you put this down to the series gradually getting more popular, or could it be that XC racers aren’t prepared to travel a big distance to race?

MS I think it’s partly down to geography, partly down to it getting more popular and more marketing, partly down to new riders being less intimidated by taking on Sherwood Pines than somewhere like Builth.

BM Generally, are you happy with the progress you’ve made in reviving the national XC race scene?

MS Have we done that?! Just joking. Yes, I am really. It was quite a challenge and I remember our first round last year we had loads of prior emails and people saying this would be the final nail in the coffin because of Saturday racing, so I’m happy that we’ve turned that around. But there’s still a lot of attitudes to change from people that haven’t taken part.

BM Any big plans or changes to next year? Can we expect the venues to be the same as in 2005?

MS Some plans in the pipeline but I can’t say too much. We’re going to sit down with Trek and British Cycling in September and see what we can do to keep it going forward. We try to seek as much feedback as we can and take it on board. It would be easy to say, well people are happy, but they won’t be happy next year with the same so it’s got to move forward, and it will. At least one venue will change, maybe more. The success of the Marathon Champs shows what can be achieved and we’ve been to a couple of brand new venues who are keen to get involved – our venue needs are quite specific and varied. In addition to a great course we seek venues that we would want to spend a weekend at ourselves, as that’s always been an integral part of the event package. Then you need good parking, camping, water, good road access and we try to find venues that offer a lot more than a field and a racecourse.

BM Anything else you would like to say?

MS Huge thanks to Trek and all our co sponsors – Muc-Off, Club La Santa, Bontrager, Torq, WhatMTB and XCracer.com. I have a crew of about eight people who help with each round and they all keep coming back for more and frankly we’d be stuffed without them. Thanks also to all the local course designers; Keith Clark at Plymouth, John Lloyd at Builth, Paul and Paul at Thetford, Steve Williams at Margam and David Fletcher at Sherwood, their local knowledge is invaluable to getting the best out of the venues. Finally thanks to all the riders who have supported the series and who seem to appreciate the effort we’ve put in.