For 2023 Prison Service Cycling hosted the Mountain Bike Championship. This was the first time the race has run since 2019 and the iconic venue of Newnham Park near Plymouth was the place for an epic battle in both the short course and XCO.
Saturday evening saw riders take to the start line for the short course race, a 20-minute race of full on flat out racing around the course that took less than 2 minutes per lap. From the gun a sprint to the first 180 degree off camber hairpin near ended in disaster for Prison Service rider Paul as he dived to dive bomb up the inside, only to find a tree as the pack cut him off. The first few laps were fast, non-stop sprinting out of each corner and feature. The lead was contested with Simon (Prison Service) and Roy (Police) driving up ahead. The two worked well together to get a gap which got bigger and bigger as the race went on. With 3 laps to go Simon attacked on the start/ finish straight, a small gap slowly got bigger on the fast back section but a lapped rider crashing just in front of Simon, saw Roy back in contention. With the gap now down to 3 or 4 bike lengths at most, Simon pushed again on the back straight to get the winning gap which stayed to the finish line.
A fantastic way to start the weekend off for PSSA Cycling with Simon taking the short course win and Paul putting in a cracking stint to hold onto 3rd after his early whoopsie.
Sunday saw the Cross-Country Olympic distance return to the race calender for the first time in 2018. Five PSSA members were down to race but due to car issues, the team were down to 4. The weather wasn’t playing ball with the morning consisting of heavy rain. However, at mid-day as the course opened for practice, the rain cleared for a dry afternoon. 15 riders took to the start line. As the gun went, it was a mass sprint to foot of the climb where things would then settle. At the top of the climb, the group were all close together entering the first single track section. This is where the damage was done as riders slipped on the wet roots seeing a few riders go down. At the end of the first lap 3 riders, 2 from the Fire Service and one from the NHS had a clear lead. Simon was in the second pack of 3 riders who took their turns to try and pull the leaders back. Steve was unlucky to get a flat tyre on the first lap which saw him DNF. Tom and Paul were in a great battle with two from the Fire Service and one from the Police as they swapped places multiple times.
As the race went on, the course conditions improved which saw faster laps. Simon had managed to attack just before the 2nd climb to have a clear gap and chase the rider in fourth. But the leaders were now down to two. Steve from the NHS and Anthony from the Fire Service were having a proper battle with each other for the win, with neither rider giving an inch. However, on the last lap Anthony had a slip of the wheel which was enough for Steve to get a 17 seconds gap which he held onto for the overall vets win.
Tom suffered some bad luck seeing his bike brake and had to run, push and free wheel back to the pits to jump on his second bike to finish the race in 9th with Paul not far behind him pushing him all the way for 10th. Simon managed to hold onto 5th place to round off a successful weekend for the team.
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