Nigel Page reports from the UK National Championships

This past weekend was the National Championships for most northern hemisphere countries. With the National Champs this year on Ruaridh's home track at Innerleithen, we were expecting good results. The building crew at Inners had changed a few sections to keep the locals on their toes but even with that, our local boy was feeling confident. Ruaridh and Matt were both killing it in training on the Saturday even though the riders were changing from cut spikes to dry tires as the weather kept everyone guessing for Sundays qualifying and final runs. We also had young Juvenile rider Tahnée with us from Morzine in her first major UK event. Tahnée is a great young rider and her time was not far off the Junior Women. Definitely a rider to look out for in the not too distant future! Sunday came and Matt and Ruaridh headed off for their qualifying runs - with the overnight rain, both were a little cautious to ensure they had everything sorted for their final run. Matt came down in 5th position and Ruaridh 7th. Ruaridh was the first to go and whilst on a storming run, pushed to hard, caught a pedal and ended up a complete passenger as his bike went flying off course. Bloodied, battered and bruised he got his bike and continued on, finishing in 9th place just 4.291secs off the winner Gee Atherton. In his final run, Matt held it open and in his words had the 'sketchiest' run of the weekend but it put him in 3rd with only Peaty left to come down - Peaty's front wheel washed at the top of the 'chute of death' leaving him in 4th. With National Championships taking place elsewhere around the world, Claire Buchar took the Canadian women's title. Nice one Claire! So with 2 team riders on the podium at their National Championships it was a great week for the team. Also Michael Cowan from Chain Reaction cycles managed another podium at the Irish National Champs taking 3rd in Masters, so congrats to him. Nigel Page Team Manager - ChainReactionCycles/Intense www.CRCintense.com