CONDITIONS at Peel Park for this weekend's Eurosport-televised HSBC National Cyclo-Cross Championships are expected to be cold and crisp.

However, it is another sort of cold that has been troubling under-23 men's rider Billy Harding as he prepares to tackle what many feel is the the sport's premier cyclo-cross venue in the country.

"I woke up one day last week and I was full of it," said the 20-year-old from Birkenshaw, "but at least I will have had a week and a half to recover.

Hopefully Harding, who has triumphed before at Peel Park, will still be a real title contender.

It has been an impressive winter so far for the former Heckmondwike Grammar School pupil, who won the North of England Championships at York last month before adding the National Trophy Series men's under-23 title.

In the regional event and the five rounds of the Trophy, Harding has showed that he can mix it with his seniors, finishing third at Abergavenny, fourth at Ipswich and fifth at Hetton Lyons and Derby, often being up with the leading group until the latter stages.

In the simultaneous under-23 category, Harding was first home at Derby, Abergavenny, Hetton Lyons and Shrewsbury, and was only beaten by Roel Van Der Stegen at Ipswich.

Billy, who has already won won two national titles – the junior men's race at Peel Park in 2013 and the under-14 boys at Sutton Coldfield in 2010 – has triumphed at Peel Park as far back as 2007 in the unofficial under-12s boys' race.

But putting his finger on why he has returned to form this winter is proving more exacting.

"It is something that I have been thinking about a lot myself and I don't know why – I haven't been doing anything different," said the trainee accountant, who is working for B&K Systems Ltd in Gildersome.

"Maybe things in my life are just going well at the moment – I am enjoying my job and my cycling."

Harding had two years mountain bike riding as the junior in the Orange Monkey Pro Team in 2013 and 2014 and, although results were hard to come by, he admitted: "I learned so much during that time, and the races were a lot longer than in cyclo-cross, which last for an hour, whereas mountain biking races can be an hour and a half to two hours.

"It is important to hydrate properly for those, but it is good to be back with the Oldfield-Paul Milnes Cycles team for cyclo-cross."

This is the third time that Peel Park has staged the National Cyclo-Cross Championships, with the other years being 2009 and 2013, but the pits area this year is by the bandstand on the Lister Lane side of the park (not near the football pitches and the cafe), with the bike-wash area below it towards the concrete promenade.

The course is expected to be drier above the finishing straight, which is in its normal place, with the muddier and steeper sections near the steps and the children's play area on the Bolton Road-Lister Lane side of the park.

Event organiser Fred Rothwell said: "We have printed 1,000 programmes for the two days, and Eurosport will be putting five cameras in place to televise the two main events on the Sunday (men and women's races) for future transmission."

SCHEDULE – Saturday: 9.30am, veteran women; 11am, veteran 50 and over men; 12.15pm, under-16 and under-14 girls; 1.15 under-16 and under-14 boys; 2,30pm, veteran 40-49 years men.

Sunday: 9.30am, under-23 men; 10.45am, under-23 women; noon, junior men; 1.15pm, elite women; 2.30pm, elite men.