The Twisted Oaks U12 Skills Challenge - Crank It Events

Thanks to Casper Watson-Smith of MTB group 2 for this race report.

On Sunday morning we packed all our cycling gear and put our bikes on the car, and we set off to Twisted Oaks bike park near Ipswich for the second round of the 2023 Crank It MTB race series. It was a long drive and we were a bit late so we grabbed our helmets, gloves and bikes and joined all the other kids for the Skills Challenge part of the day.

The Skills Challenge was for all U12 riders. We learned how to do wheelies, ride along a narrow plank, place a bottle while riding with one hand on the handlebars and ride a tight turn without putting our feet down. After practising the skills, we got to do a competition where you got to choose from different difficulty levels for each skill and got points for completing the level successfully. The hardest level earned 3 points, and the easiest only got you 1 point.

After the challenge was over, we took our points cards to the Crank It tent where they asked us what category we were in (I’m 7 years old so race in the under-8s) and counted our points. When we got to the start line of the race, the riders who had the most points from the challenge got to go to the front of the grid. I was on the second row.

We waited at the start line and as soon as the whistle went, I got into third place by sprinting as hard as I could. On the first lap there was a boy trying to overtake me, but I had lots of energy and he couldn’t get past. The course had lots of bomb-holes which were very deep, luckily my coach Julian told me to stand up on my pedals so that I wouldn’t get knocked off by the bumps in them. I jumped and wheelied through the bomb-holes which felt really crazy! There was a girl ahead of me but I kept going as fast as I could and went past her with two laps to go. I was now in second place and I got a big gap to the girl behind, but I couldn’t catch up with the leader. My brother Felix was running next to me, cheering me on. On the last lap I didn’t feel tired, I just kept riding as quickly as possible. I saw the chequered flag ahead and sprinted as fast as I could over the line!

At the finish line Felix, my mum and dad, and my coach Julian were waiting there and they were so happy for me to get second place - my best result ever! We all went to the Crank It tent for the podium ceremony. We didn’t get our medals because they were still being made (out of slate!), but we still got to stand on the podium and get our photos taken.

Lots of Lee Valley Youth riders got podiums, and Felix and Hayden got first place in their races. Everyone said they had a great time and really liked the course, especially the bomb-holes.

I think the other kids in MTB group 2 should also do this because it is really fun and you learn to be a really good mountain biker!

LVYCC Results

U8
2nd - Casper Watson-Smith

U12
1st - Felix Watson-Smith (1st U10)
2nd - Hayden Oates (1st U12)
4th - Louis Tysoe

U16
3rd - James Oates
9th - Joe Tysoe