National Champs & TwentyFour12 - AQR podiums!

Just a quick photo entry today after some fantastic results for AQR teams in the last couple of weeks...

Massive congrats to Kirsty for a fantastic 4th in Masters at the 201o National Champs down at the Pippingford Estate on 18th July - and aboard her newly built Cotic Soda race bike complete with Magura forks and brakes, Hope wheels and KCNC (Clee Cycles) and Bontrager finishing kit - a big thanks to all those sponsors too.

(Thanks as always to Joolze Dymond for the photos above.)

This was closely followed by Bontrager TwentyFour12 down at Newnham Park this weekend where the mixed 12hr team came away with 3rd and the 12hr female pair in 1st! A huge well done again to Kirsty and Kate for the latter. Thanks also to guest riders Verity Appleyard (MSC Bikes) and Andy Robson in the team.

Next up, Midlands XC round 3 and Torq 12hr in August...

Bristol BikeFest 2010

It seems crazy that this year's Bristol BikeFest 12hr race was a month ago now, there's been so much going on all summer. Better late than never though, here's a quick run-down of how the AQR team got on...

Bristol provided a gorgeous sunny weekend for the race and the usual fast and fun Ashton Court singletrack - with a slightly shorter lap this year. With Iain, Kirsty, Matt and myself making up the AQR mixed-4, things kicked off at 9am with the mass dash & start. Unfortunately not all went to plan from the off with Iain suffering a snapped chain and 2 punctures on his first lap! Not to be deterred we pushed on through, blasting out lap times well around 25 minutes - making for great racing and eager overtaking required!


Despite more punctures (Iain's had his annual allowance now!) we started to move up the rankings from the low teens early on. With some storming laps during the afternoon as things got even dustier, James came in from his last lap with 8 minutes to spare, completing the team's 27 laps for 7th place.

Perhaps not the position we'd hoped for after last year's podium, but a great comeback and truly enjoyable event that really put the fast and furious into xc racing!