Hi everyone. The first round of the national points cross country series was on this Saturday. There was a good turnout of Hetton riders there, with at least one rider in nearly every race. Normally I would travel down to the course on the Friday during the day so that I could ride the course the night before and get used to the conditions and any technical parts. Unfortunately, I was getting my brace removed so we had to leave later. The McLeans and the Rowlands made it down in time to ride the course, but Alex left his shoes in the hotel and had to stand and watch! Everyone thought it was a tough but fun course and I was looking forward to the next day. My dad and I arrived at the course fairly early to find that the Hetton tent had already been put up by the Rowlands and the Homes. It was in a good place, right next to the feed zone in view of the start / finish straight. It looked pretty professional witht eh bike rack and turbo trainer set up inside. Just after I arrived, I was about to ride the course for a practise lap. My dad was tightening my stem up after getting my bike out of the car and one of the bolts snapped! I rode round with one bolt in for the practise lap and then we went into the team tents to try and get it fixed. One of them had the right sized bolt and gave it to us for nothing, so thanks for that. First up to race was Ali in the juvenile (U14) category. He got a really good start from the second row on the grid and was well positioned going round the first corner. He had a strong race and was the best placed Hetton rider, coming in 9th place. Next up was the youth (U16) race. James and Joe were the only Hetton riders in this one. They didn't have very good grid positions at the start. Joe got a good start and was well placed going into the first corner. James didn't get the best start - he very nearly crashed a few yards from the line when someone clipped his front wheel. He did well to stay upright. In the end, both Joe and James slowed on their second lap, and finished 11th and 25th respectively. The next race was the main race with the elite men, junior men, expert men, master men, and elite and junor women in the race aswell. I was racing in the juniors and Alex was racing in the expert. There was loads of people on the start line and I had to wait ages before everyone else was set off. When the time came, I was on the second row of the grid, so I had a decent position. The whistle blew and it was a mad dash for the first corner. The straight had loose gravel on and there were loads of stones and pebbles being chucked up in the middle of the group. It was like a road race at this point with speeds of about 29mph and the right angled corners kept you on your toes at this pace. Somebody went down in the middle of the bunch and I heard a load crunch when the person next to me ran over the fallen riders wheels! I settled down into a group of 4 occupying places 6th to 9th for the first 2 laps. It was pretty fast but I wasn't feeling too bad. Then, towards the end of the third lap, I completely ran out of energy and couldn't go very fast at all. I struggled round the last lap, losing places all the time to finish 16th. I was a bit disappointed with the result because I knew I could have done better if I paced myself a bit more. Alex dropped out after 4 laps becuase he had cramp in his foot. Dave's race was up next and he managed to keep up a good pace all the way round to finish 15th. We didn't pack up the tent because it was the marathon the day after, so we went back to out hotels. The Homes were staying in the same hotel as we were, so we had dinner together. It was all quite nice and I was thinking about not having a dessert because I was already a bit full. Anyway, Joe and I ordered the biggest dessert on the menu, which came in a huge jug thing and contained a selection of other desserts from the menu. It took about half an hour, but in the end we finished it! The marathon race was on Sunday on the same circuit, but I had to go to Cambridge to have a look round. The weather wasn't very good, so we were in shops all day looking for pictures and quilt covers. I had a great time. The Rowlands and Joe did the 25km race. Joe finished 7th after crashing twice (not unusual for him - must have been making up for his incident free race the day before!), James came 12th and Ali also finished inside the top 20. Well done to everyone. Training is on at Hetton on Thursday and Friday - don't forget to go! Details are somewhere on the website. See you later, Joe.