2025 Southern XC MTB Series round 2 Basingstoke
Sixteen riders from the Guernsey Velo Club travelled to the UK for round two of the 2025 Southern XC MTB Series held at Folly Farm on the Kingsclere Estate in Basingstoke on the 20 April 2025.
The venue, set in the picturesque woodland and countryside valley in the middle of an estate, has trails that have a real old school XC feel, coupled with a gruelling single track, testing turns, progressive climbs through woodland and big fire road blasts. The course at just over 5km would be a tough test for the riders, especially as the dry weather had left the course very dusty and leant itself to some fast and highly competitive racing.
The U10’s on a shorter less technical course would see a great turn out from Guernsey with 5 riders, Hugo Johnson and Ethan Shorto had a race long battle for the lead with Ethan getting the better of Hugo on the penultimate lap meaning that the 2 riders are now tied for first in the overall. Both Jasper Sargent and Henry Johnson (Guernsey’s youngest rider at 5 years old) were doing their first off island races and performed strongly finishing 5th and 10th respectively. In the U10 girls Eleanor Piercey finished a credible 5th place.
The U12'S would see Jacob Piercey ride a tight race battling for a podium position for its entirety eventually managing to improve on his finishing position in the first round and take 2nd. Finley Sargent, another enjoying his first off island race looked very at home finishing 13th.
The Juvenile boys would see Harry and Archie Manning riding the longer more technical course pushing hard all the way through finishing 9th and 18th respectively. At the same time Remi Le Compte raced the Open Youth category and after an uncertain start managed to race strongly to finish 5th.
As in the under 10s Guernsey had 5 representatives in the Open Sport Category, headed up by Peter Sargent who had an impressive race moving up 46 places from his gridding position of 68th to finish 22nd. Next in was James Shorto who unfortunately punctured during the race but managed to repair it and recover to 57th with Wayne Piercey 59th, Tim Le Compte 62nd and Mark Ferbrache 69th. Dan Johnson was the sole Guernsey representative in the Open Novice category finishing 28th.
A great achievement for all the riders on this relentless track.
The next Southern XC will see several GVC riders attend the technical course at Clanfield on 17 May 2025.
Written by Wayne Piercey
