National XC Championships  - Crow Hill, Hampshire.

It was a great day full of drama and as many twists and turns as the course itself. The biggest battle of the day was obviously going to be between reigning champ Oli Beckingsale and Liam Killeen, with Ian Wilkinson keen to put the cat amongst the pigeons!

As it turned out the powerhouse Wilkinson, not totally recovered from his blinding ride at the Colne crit in the week, struggled to get the legs to keep in contention to the two front runners, Oli & Liam, at one point seeing himself slip out of the medals as Adrian Lansley came past him.

Meanwhile as predicted the fight for Gold & Silver was played out between our two Olympic representatives. Each rider pacing each other pedal stroke for pedal stroke, until a mechanical for Oli, gave Liam no second asking and he romped off to take his first senior title, while Oli, recovered from his split tyre to pick up a well earned second. Wilks took bronze.

Jenny C took her 5th  National Senior title while Dave Fletcher took gold in Espoir as did Amy Hunt..

Jenny Copnall– Women’s XC Senior Champion.

“That was my 5th National Championship win and there’s something about having 5 wins. I set my stall out at the start of the year that this was my main goal and that’s why the win means so much. I’ve worked really hard to get here.”

Liam Killeen – Men’s National XC Senior Champion.

“I was really looking forward to racing the nationals and happy to have won my first senior title. This is another good step towards the ultimate goal in Beijing. My form seems to be going in the right direction, it was so good at the World XC Champs that I was racing at the front of a world class field and got a good result.

So I guess you could say that I’m back up to speed and finally enjoying my racing again and that’s the main thing!”

If you’d like to read the full report click on the BC link above.