It was also great to see another member of the Infinity Cycles Team there too, a rare sight outside of the North East! Good to see you Ray.
Steve's previous placings earned him a front row start leaving me to fight it out with the rest for the 4th row.
The course was a bit different to last years, still the same brutal sprint up a fire road but instead of continuing up the hill it was a tight left had turn onto singletrack. It was quite muddy in places but I thought the Rocket Rons should be ok.
The start went well, getting to the turn in good shape and made a good few places on the brakes up the outside... A favourite tactic harking back to my motorbike racing days.
The first lap is always so frenetic it takes a while to calm down and concentrate on staying smooth. Opting for the "safer" B-line lost a bit of time, and a couple of places but probably the best decision as I found later that Steve went clear over the bars on the 1st lap!
Things were just fine until the start of the 3rd lap when my legs seemed to decide they'd had enough... Even a gel didn't really bring them back much. I could hear I was getting reeled-in and soon he was chewing on my back wheel. I had enough to gap him a bit up hill only to lose it on the downhill. He made his move half way round the last lap, gambling on a cyclocross style jump-off and leap a log, neatly just beating me through.
The gap opened quickly and he had about 200yds on me at the top of the bombhole and the closing section of the lap, but he was slowing and slowing enough to convince me that now was the time to bury it! It worked, legs came back on-line and I sprinted past to rescue 13th place (turbo trainer magic!).
Disappointingly out of the top 10 but happy to be in one piece. Steve had crashed a 2nd time overtaking one of the younger riders and had damaged his rear disc... There's going to be some frantic spannering in that household tomorrow so its ready to travel on Wednesday!
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