Hi everyone. The second round of the SXC seires was on last Sunday at Dalbeattie. We travelled up on Saturday to get there in time so I could pre ride the course in the after noon. When we got there, we met up with the Rowlands, who'd brought Joe along with them, and the McLeans at the bottom of the course so we could all go round together. We set off from the start line and started to climb. It went on for quite a long time and was fairly steep in some places but we were rewarded with a grassy singletrack descent. It was a fast descent with a couple of tricky bits, but was quite steep so it didn't take very long for you to get spat back out onto the fire road on the bottom. This lead us to a single track climb, so we all waited for each other at the bottom. There were a few really technical sections with were tight corners covered in tree roots followed by steep little climbs. We stayed on one section for ages, riding it over and over and over again until we got it just right. Then we realised it was much faster running so I decided not to risk it and just run it in the race instead. After that, there was some more fire road which lead to a steep, slippy climb. It was rideable, but very slow. The second half of the course had a couple more downhill sections in it, with one of them being really steep and slippy, and the other being tight, twisty and fast through the trees. When I got back to the hotel, I was looking forward to the race the next day as the course suited me and I really liked it because it had a bit of everything in it. The next day the groound was wet from the rain overnight. That worried me a little bit as I didn't have any mud tyres - just dry ones. When I got to the course, though, it wasn't very bad and was still pretty grippy. The race started on a fire road with about 300m before the first corner, which involved a sharp turn up a slab of rock and entering the singletrack straight away. Before the race, I put some careful thought into how fast to set off and how I was going to pace myself because I didn't want a repeat of Thetford. In the end, I decided to set off steadily, which meant I was second last going into the first corner. I took it steady all the way round on the first lap. I found it difficult to let people get away from me on the first climb, but I kept saying to myself "There's ages left" over and over again. I was pleased I did this, because half way through the race, I was still feeling fresh and people were starting to come back to me. I'd already got past one or two people by that point, and and I'd caught another two up by the start of the 3rd lap. I led them up the first climb, raising the pace occasionally and towards the top of the climb I'd dropped them and never saw them again for the rest of the race. At the beginning of the last lap, Martin said I was in third place and there was a minute to second place. I went hard on the last lap to try and bridge the gap, but only got half way there. I was disappointed becasue I think I could have finished second if I'd gone a bit harder in the middle of the race because I had a lot left at the end. Hetton Hawks had a really good day in the other categories, with Ali finishing 2nd despite suffering a heavy faceplant on one of the descents. He had swollen lip and a lovely black bruise on the inside of his mouth!!! Joe had a good race finishing third in the youth race, with James finishing 8th in that race aswell. Kirsty won her category, which was a really good result. Alex set off steadily after having a good moan about the course and his tyres before the start of the race. He picked up a few places throughout the race and ended up finishing in 6th place. Dave's race ended prematurely after he suffered a puncture and dropped out at the end of his third lap. I won't be at Hetton this Saturday as the second round of the National Points Series is on at Drumlanrig. I'll be travelling up tomorrow so I can pre ride the course before the race on Saturday. I'm on study leave now so I guess I should go and do some revision now before I go mountain biking tonight. See you later, Joe.