By the time I got home on Saturday it was too late to go out for a spin so, to make-up for it, I set about breaking another golden rule of racing… don’t make major changes to your bike before the race! Well it wasn’t that much of a change really, I’d bought some Ergon grips with integrated bar-ends and had decided to swap the flat bars from my singlespeed onto the Maxlight (the fashion Police get quite upset if they spot Bar Ends on riser bars!) it was pretty much the same set-up so what could go wrong?
With the Vets race scheduled to start at 11am, Lizzie and I arrived at 9:30, enough time for a sighting lap and me to have a flap about something! The course was certainly challenging, 4.1 mile lap with plenty of climbing, lots of deep ruts, a very technical rooty section at the top of the first main climb, some fast descending (more roots) and a very fast, steep drop leading immediately into a very steep climb makes for an interesting lap, particularly with my new grips and bar ends that wont stop spinning on the ends of the bars!
Down at the start for 10:45, 60 of us old fellas all politely vying for a decent spot on the grid. I get middle of 2nd row and happy with that. The start is a brutal half mile of fire road uphill before turning hard left into a deeply rutted track past the feed station and on up the hill. I go off hard but try and temper the effort, we have 4 laps after all, and although I do get overtaken by a good few initially I’ve got most of them back by the time we hit the super techy roots at the top of the hill.
The first lap flies past and I sitting in about 10th spot, I take a bottle from Lizzie as I pass the feed zone and carry-on up the hill, its all going rather well… though the rooty section then into another technical rooted downhill, at the end of which there is an awkward off-camber left hand turn, over a steep wee drop onto a fire road, and I hit it way too fast to be able to maintain any degree of turn… the next I know I’m half parted with the bike... and flying... awaiting the inevitable. It’s a hard landing, still tangled-up with the bike. The marshalls help me to my feet, a quick check over the bike and get back on. The bike (and me) still seem to be working ok, but I’m mad, all that hard work of the 1st lap wasted as I lose loads of places rolling about in the dirt! Worse still, Stevie, who has turned-up mainly to get one back for last weekend takes advantage and cruises through… I didn’t see him again until the end.
Its really hard to try and calm it all back down, put the crash to the back of my mind and get back into the zone, but I’m flustered and its telling, fluffing the roots on the last lap I go down again. Doesn’t hurt this time just annoys me… more!
I seemed to have been out on my own for a while and become conscious that someone is starting to close me down. I’m not one for looking round much, think that just makes you look a bit worried and give your pursuer a bit of a wind. At a short section of fire track this wiry old goat nips past, and there’s another chewing on my back tyre. There’s no way I’m going to let it go, if I can hang with him for the next couple of miles I can think of a strategy to beat him to the line. He fluffs a short techy climb but its more of a hindrance than a help. Coming into the final drag to the finish, I’ve got my plan, I’ve chosen the rut I want and need to make my move well out to get there before he does… it works well getting him and the guy in front to finish 21st of 59.
Its a result that I’m disappointed with, it really should have been top 15, but that’s racing I guess… Its still miles better than I did last year!
Link to techy bit below, had a bit of a misunderstanding with the Garmin over who was counting laps… (1, 2, 4 & 6 are the ones to look at).
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/30481663
Next up in The Dyfi enduro in Wales in a couple of weeks... so back to training miles.
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