It was the second round of the National Trophy series at Mallory Park at the weekend and my second 'cross race of the winter. Last week I did the first stage of the mountainbike leader's course. I must say that at Mallory the pace was much faster (plus no rucsac or packed lunch!)

Two years ago they held a race at Mallory and it was very muddy, some people were changing bikes every half a lap. This year it was a completely different story. I drove down on the day, leaving a grey Lake District but by Warrington it was clear blue. At the circuit it was still clear but with quite a strong chilly wind. The Vets race nicely smoothed the course - before I even went around I changed my tyres to Sprints (the file treaded ones). I can't remember the last time I used these it certainly was not last year.

We were set for another fast race. The road was used as the start/finish straight and was about 400m long. The tough boggy sections from two years ago were now fast, the only things to slow us down were the planks and ditches.

The gun fired and there was a mad dash down the road before a U-turn back onto the grass. I was about 4th or 5th around this corner with Carl Sturgeon and Dave Collins leading the charge. On the first lap a group formed at the front with Dave, Carl, Stuart Blunt, Matt Ellis, Stuart Wearmouth, Nick Craig and I. The second group behind was massive, it must have had 10 to 15 riders in it, including Steve Knight, Tim Davies, Phil Dixon and Adrian Timmis. With a long road section this gave the chance for groups to form as know one really wanted to push the pace and tow the rest along.

On the second lap Matt Ellis opened a gap, not a big gap but a hard one to close. Nick, Dave and Stuart were chasing hard with Carl and I trying to remain in contact. It was much like this all race Carl and I would get dropped a bit then get back on only to be dropped again. Nick put in an attack on one of the steep ride-ups and Dave Collins snapped his chain. With two laps to go Carl's elastic broke which left Nick and Stuart racing for second & third, I was doing my yo-yo trick. When Nick finally shock off Stuart I cracked too and we all came in a few hundred metres apart. Nick closed up considerably on Matt Ellis on the last lap, and I was less than one minute down - so not too bad. I had to sit down for a bit at the finish as this was another race where my memory was better than my current fitness!

With two wins Matt is leading the series but he is missing the next round so it is not all over yet.

1st Matt Ellis Ace RT

2nd Nick Craig Diamondback

3rd Stuart Blunt Corridori

4th Barrie Clarke Diamondback

5th Carl Sturgeon B-One