Onto round three and already halfway thorough the South’s new series, many expected this event to be the best of the season.

Held in Bristol on the hallowed trails of Ashton Court, each lap was just three miles long and very quick thanks to the recent spell of good weather. The course itself was wide fireroad and grass-track for the first half, followed up by an uphill slog, before being thrown into technical singletrack, which definitely favoured those on full suspension rigs: rocky and rooty was the flavour of the trails.Laps were being put in at around the 15 minute margin which meant an additional lap or three for most riders, depending on which class you raced in.

The usual suspects were out in force in the hotly contested Youth category, with John Smedley beating David Sinclair by one second. These close racing conditions were to set the scene for the rest of the day with the Junior race being taken by Cliff Langdon, ahead of series leader Tom Budd.

In the Masters Mark Chadbourne raced away to beat Stuart McGhee, with Roland Tilley putting the cat amongst the pigeons by beating pre-race favourites Mick Bell and Mark Cracknell. Clive Rhodes took the Sport race, over a minute ahead of Paul Byrom.

The Expert men had seven laps to complete instead of four, but that didn’t seem to make any difference to Jonathon Locke who roared to victory, taking Mike Jackson and David Millar out of the game. In the women’s Expert race it was Sophie Johnson who again dominated throughout and kept her 100% series record. Tracey Fey and Pippa Langdown weren’t far behind though, so first place is not yet a foregone conclusion.

The final race of the day was left to the Elite Men, who as always put in some silly-fast lap times. Dave Collins blew Southern XC regular Chris Minter away on his way to victory. Willaim Bjerfelt continued his good form by placing a solid third.

there were some grumblings that the lap was too short but there was no doubt that the singletrack section sorted the pros from the cons.
The next round is being held at Chaecendon and will incorporate the Southern XC Title, as well as the point series.