There was a small but jovial crowd in attendance for the mountain biking today, where cyclists from York and Lancaster competed in a time trial format.
The challenging course for the competition was complete with obstacles, slaloms and jumps, with the wind in the area increasing the difficulty of the track. It was incredibly impressive to see the cyclists attack the course with such gusto, even on their initial practice runs.
These practice runs highlighted the unpredictability and difficulty of this event, with a number of participants crashing during their untimed laps. All however, were not injured or deterred from attacking the course for the rest of the competition.
A cyclist from Lancaster did suffer from some damage to their bike during this period but was luckily able to fix it before the first of the timed runs.
The competition itself was held in a time trial format, with the fastest runners being able to compete to bring the points for the overall Roses tally to their teams in the A Final. All the runs in this session were very impressive, with incredible accuracy through the slalom and great height on the jumps across the field. However, it was Lancaster who was quickest in this stage of the contest, seeing more of their athletes through to the A Final.
The B Final took place first, but it was the A Final that everyone was waiting for. The wind had died down by this point in the competition and everyone could now run again, so it was all to play for. Every lap in this part of the session was incredibly quick and the crowd supported the athletes from both universities with great vigour. However, Lancaster continued to show strength despite being in unfamiliar territory, setting the fastest and second-fastest laps overall.
This meant that Lancaster took a convincing overall win on wheels today, collecting a crucial four points as they close in on the score needed for an overall Roses victory.
