Report By: Craig Bromley

Well it's that time of the year again where I do my solo journey to the Midland Champs. The time when I compete against the best the Midlands has to offer to see how I fair. And where were we this year I hear you ask, well remember last week seeing on the news the bridge and house collapsing under the weight of the flood damage, yes that's it flooded LUDLOW.

I have been Silver medallist in the Midlands Champs for 2 years in a row and was desperate for the win, Simon Paton and Ian White both snatching victory from me in 2005 & 2006. Was this time going to be any different? The Midland Champs each year are awarded to the top 3 riders from the results of a specific round of the Pearce Cycles Summer Series, they basically take out all the non Midlanders from the race results to crown the top 3 Midland riders, this year it was round 3 at Bringewood in Ludlow.

With the forecast showing weather warnings across the country I didn't bother taking any dry tyres with me as this was always going to be a mess, however I never guessed it could be this bad....oh my god. It was so deep in mud it was treacherous to walk never mind ride down fast, I even had to concede to using flat pedals for the first time in 7 years which was not a pleasant experience.

Saturday was practice and I went down for a handful of runs to see the new sections that had been cut, now call me stupid but surely you don't cut in a new soft section during times of heavy rain? As predicted the new section at the top very quickly became a quagmire, I like many had a nice line to the right of the first stump which allowed me to hop over the slippy root at the start. Once out of the top section it was back to the road gap and on to the traditional Bringewood course. This was soaking wet but rolled very well and was great fun to ride fast. I left after 4 runs as I was feeling pretty fast and safe in the knowledge that it would all change by morning anyway.

I was chatting with riders on the first uplift on Sunday race day and horror stories were starting about how all the course was falling to pieces. I was shocked by just how bad the top section had become despite some desperate digging Saturday night. The run into the road gap jump was insanely rutted and deep in mud, I rode down and still felt I had good speed, confidence was high.

Craig "Crash Master" Bromley

Practice was over and it was time to go up for my first timed run, it had been 2 hours since my last practice run and the track had just totally fell apart, the new and the well established old sections were just deep in mud, massive ruts over your axles and very few chances to gain momentum. I set off the line and made a good fist of the top section, on the run up to the road gap the bike stopped dead in a deep hole full of mud, that was the theme for the rest of the run, stopping, paddling, crashing and sweating. It was the most miserable time I've had on a bike in a long time, to be honest there's nothing the organisors could do to have made the course any better, well other than postpone the event that is.

I was wheel spinning as I was pedaling on the flat over the line, just not right at all. I was down in 16th in the main race with a time of 4:30, I was totally hacked off, I just couldn't see my way to the bottom without it being an ugly affair.

I had to make the difficult choice to swop over from clips to flat pedals (which I hate) despite that fact they hadn't been used in 7 years, this was because the sun kept coming out strong for brief periods turning the mud into sticky super glupe, when you dabbed your foot during a slide you came away with 2" of heavy crap stuck to the bottom preventing any chance of clipping back in. Unfortunately I had no proper riding flat shoes as I never normally use them even in bad conditions, but today was way past bad and I found some old trainers with the sole hanging off in my kit box, these would have to do. At that moment I sat back and thought that any desires of a podium let alone a win had totally evaporated, a far cry from the aspirations of the morning.

It was time to go up for run 2 and my final attempt to get into a reasonable position to save some dignity, walking towards the uplift tractors with my flapping sole through deep mud made me laugh, what the hell am I doing? At the top of the course I was gutted to see rider after rider in the junior and youth category running with their bikes through the top section as it was quicker than riding, this is just wrong and very depressing before your second run. On the start line I planned to just not panic and keep cool and accept the slides and moments were coming whether I liked it or not. I had a not too spectacular run with plenty of mistakes, sideways moments, and lung busting pedaling all the way. I crossed the line 30 seconds faster than my first run with 4:00 dead (no that wasn't a typo). It was still not a good run and I packed up ready to drive home and spend the next 2 days cleaning my kit and equipment.

I thought I would check where I came in the Midlands Champs before I left and was astonished to find I was 3rd and on the podium, I certainly didn't feel I deserved it but there it is, another trophy for the very small shelf I have.

I'm now not riding for a week to rest my weary sole, well actually I'm decorating the nursery for our forthcoming baby boy so no rest actually, but no bikes and more importantly no mud!