hiya everyone,
firstly i'll apologise for not writing a blog for nearly a month.

right, Lincoln. Lincoln was a windy day. Hetton and the North east were well represented throughout the age categories. u10's: Our ben, Thomas and Toby T, Tom finished 2nd, Ben did ok and finished about 6th and Toby was about 9th.
u12's: Joe, Emma and Matthew Worton, Not sure about the results here i was stuffing my face, sorry but matt had a pretty bad looking crash been brought off by another rider but has thankfully recovered now.
u14's: me :) Charlie T and Alex Hopper, it was a hard race made harder by the wind. Daniel Maslin attacked about mid way through the race and i went to chase didn't quite make it and I fell back to the group who seemed unwilling to chase dan and jake ragan who had joined him. The group settled down and left them two to it I ended up doing too much work on the front in the windy sections and got tired out when an attack went in I couldnt go with it, I ended up finishing 8th charlie t was 7 th and Alex had a bit of a mare outside the top 10.
U16 was harry and Adam it was a massive field on a tight track I think about 50 riders in total Harry had an excellent ride to 2nd I think and Adam was in the bunch.

After that there was the practice races at Croft which were really enjoyable a good fast pace for 1 hour and fifteen minutes all good fitness work.

Then last week I did my first adult Croft Race which was an eye opener we only did 12 laps because of the fog and the light but it was excellent we averaged 24.5 mph my fastest yet i beat my dad I finished 2nd in a preem lap I even made a bid for glory in the final lap but was swallowed up by some of the scratch riders and finished 1st overall junior! I was well happy.

After that we travelled down to Manchester on friday for the 2nd national youth circuit race we settled into the Hotel and I had an early night along with ben who had travelled down with dad and I.
saturady morning we were all up early apart from Uncle Tony Thompson who I believe had a self induced headache I wont say more! We were all at the circuit by about 9.00 O'clock signed on and camped out in the sunshine in Hyde Park. ben and I had a look at the course and neither of us were too sure about the corners as some of them were on a change of tarmac and one particularly tight hairpin the surface was quite loose. The course was up and down left and right all over the place which made for an intresting circuit it was hard work, you had to be alert constantly there was no where to relax and you had to be out of your saddle on every corner there was a longish climb which really made your legs sing!

We neednt have worried as you will have seen on Emmas blog Ben had a great ride and I had my best result to date in a national finishing 5th. I was really chuffed.

We set off straight away as my dad had said he wanted to get home to see mam who had stayed behind with jake. When we arrived home we were met by mam, dad had put the club gazebo up in the garden and had said it was for Jake and his mates to have a party. I walked into the garden and saw the door was shut i couldnt resist taking a look too see what jake was up to and saw all my mates were there! They had set all their bands equipment up in the gazebo plus junk food and drinks, mam and dad had organised a suprise party for my birthday! the band started and did about a twenty minute set with music from Guns and roses sum 41, bon jovi and finished with Metallica " Enter the Sandman" it was awesome! Apparently you could hear them a quarter of a mile away just as well they only did 20 mins!

All in all it was the best weekend I have ever had! Thanks to everyone that made it happen!

I am looking forward to Croft again this week as the weather looks good and The North East circuit Race Champs is at the "theatre of disasters" The Riverside Stadium hopefully see you all this week.

Cheers Josh