Howdi.
I’ll keep this short as I’ve got a few races to cover. Whole races! Races that I actually managed to finish.
Wessex league, Newbury Showground. Cracking course designed by Cotswold Veldrijden and some great scrapping action. I was off the pace though, ended up 14th.
Central League, Zappi’s Cross Race. Culham. Probably the best cross course I’ve ever ridden! The race wound its way round a small motocross track, which presented some serious challenges for the riders. Mud, sand, steep hills, slippery corners, a heckling man with a microphone. It was a fantastic race! The steep climb was slick as hell and it took me a few laps to realize that I could go up it much, much faster on foot! 10th for me. My first point of the season!
It was bloody freezing though, with the rain coming down hard mid way through the race and totally changing the grip conditions. Not wearing gloves was a serious mistake!
Western League, Stroud. I don’t want to talk about it…
Moving swiftly on… I had a couple of weeks away from racing. I got some training in, got the position on the Ridley dialed in perfectly. Call it preparation for the 2nd half of the season.
Sadly for me, whilst I was working/resting the Western League had its highest ever turn out at the Odd Down Race circuit in Bath. It looked like an incredible race, with over 100 riders tackling the BMX course and drop into the woods.
Take a look on the Bristol CX Facebook page for a little go-pro action of the start. The club placed two riders in the top 10 in the seniors and Martin took 2nd in the Vet’s. Cracking results on a challenging, technical course!
Western League, Warmley.
Another trip to the infamous Warmley Scout Hut and it’s claggy mud. There wasn’t the enormous turn out seen at Bath but it was still going to be a tough race. One highly influenced by ground conditions and tyre pressures. Despite some very slippery bits there was a lot of flat grass and bare rock so I wanted as much pressure as I could safely ride with and eventually opted with 28psi front and rear.
The front was a tiny bit squirrilly (it’s a word!) and in hindsight I should have dropped it a little more to maybe 26psi, but you live and learn. As it was I stayed upright for whole race but had to dab a foot too many times to keep it so.
Because my season has been shocking so far, Ive lost something that I had become quite accustomed to and perhaps taken for granted a bit. A decent place on the grid. Combine that with the fact that I have the worst start in Cyclocross and you get a losing cocktail. Warmley wasn’t too bad, I was into the pedals and rolling in decent time for once. Where I screwed up was into the first technical bit. Stuck in the wheels I decided to run, making up some places as i did so. However, I’d forgotten that straight after was an uphill. It wasn’t worth risking a failed dismount so I had to run the whole shallow climb, conceding the places I’d just won and a few more to add insult to injury.
I wasn’t the only one with a disappointing start, as we went into the trees on the first lap James from BCX came sprinting out towards us back to the start. He’d had a mechanical after leading the race through the first corner. Not good!
Following that mistake, I just moved through the places as best I could. I’m still nowhere near where I want to be in terms of fitness and to be brutally honest I am carrying far too much weight, but I was racing properly for the first time in nearly a month. It felt good to be chasing people down and riding past them on the climbs. I want more of that! Getting bored of this no points bullshit!
After riding for maybe 45 minutes I caught Bristol CX rider Martyn Green, on his way to a win in the Vets; a category that he is locking up tighter with each race! Once on his wheel I couldn’t go past. He said we should keep it smooth and ride together but I couldn’t hold the wheel. I’d worked too hard to catch the small group he was in (the remainder of which were now behind us), that was it for me. I rolled in 10 seconds behind him in 5th or 6th, I’m not sure which. It was my best result of the season, so I’m more than happy with the result and my apparent progress in what has so far been a disappointing year.
Will giving it the beans on the stair run up.
The ditch was an interesting feature that required a delicate hop and backwards hurling of shoulders. This was before Warmley lived up to it’s destructive reputation and ripped off Paul’s rear mech.
Paddy dismounting smoothly into the steps.
James post mechanical.
Martin trying to hang on to wheel of Matt Fratesi. The kid is only 15/16 but finished 2nd in the senior race despite starting a minute later with the juniors! Insane.
Thanks for reading!
ifonlyiwerebelgian 