As anyone who watched the Commonwealth Games can testify the weather in Glasgow is 
usually glorious and for this, our inaugural Combined Skills Dirt Crit MTB competition (part of the WoSCA Youth Dirt Crit), we weren’t disappointed. The Club had run a similar event as a trial for our end of summer term “funday”, which proved hugely popular with the skills section adding variety once the coaches had got their heads round the marking system.
The race day was divided into 2 sessions and we had ninety-five youths enter from as far afield as Helensburgh, Dunfermiline and Campeltown – including a few members of Scotland’s regional MTB team.
Session 1 comprised of 3 skill stations – a bottle pickup; a slalom and a balance plank with a maximum of 3 points being available in each station. Coaches were on hand, initially to supervise the 90 minute practice session then to award the points, whilst the parents were kept occupied with the Glasgow Riderz Tea & Cake Tent (5 stars – Trip Advisor).
The points were then used to calculate handicaps for the afternoon’s XC race, held on the nearby MTB trails of Pollock Country Park.
So following a 60 minute break for lunch it was off to Pollock Park (about a 5 minute ride away) to hit the Mountain Bike Trails first for a 30 minute practice session to warm up the legs and burn off some of the cake, before the racing started on one of the two courses we’d set up.
Finally the day came to a close with a short break whilst the coaches deliberated just long enough for us to sell the last of the cakes from the Glasgow Riderz tea stall (Great British Bakeoff runner up 2013) before prize giving and home time.
All in all everyone seemed to agree it was a successful event and we are all looking to the next round…
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