Race Report: SW XC Rd 4, Stover
Today was the 4th round of the South West Cyclo Cross
series at Stover School just outside Newton Abbot. We have had a 2 week break
from the series, well the majority had but I decided to do the Hell of the West
to fill the gap of racing in the series. The hell of the west was an 80Km ‘CX
sportive’ across Dartmoor. I won’t go into details of this, but I will say it
was probably the hardest cycling thing I have ever done. It sucked and I
probably wouldn’t do it again, especially on a cross bike. The majority of
people had cross country mountain bikes and oh maan I was jealous of their
suspension, disk brakes and fat tyres.
Anyway, back to today’s events. Stover school grounds
created a pretty damn good venue for a cross race. The start/ finish area sat
amongst the well manicured sports fields. These fields were rolled so flat
there was barely a bump or lump in sight. To the best of my belief, the ground
men had also rolled flat 40% of the course especially for the race. However easy
this sounds, it was a totally different story due to the fairly high amount of
surface water that quickly got churned up at one end of the fields. Despite
that, these sections made for good flat-out racing.
The other 60% on the other hand made use of the not so well
kept part of the school. Once you had come of the sports fields, you were met
by quick, steep banks and tight turns that led out to a flat out rough, un-kept
downhill section. This was a good place to have a bit of a rest and a lot of fun
getting loose. But as we all know, what goes down must go up, and this wasn’t the
nicest of ups. It was slow going and energy sapping. Even at the top of this
climb it didn’t let off. We had to get off, run up some steps then navigate the
best way to tackle a couple more short steep grass banks. This would have
been ‘moderately’ easy if it wasn’t for large curb sized grass ledges that u
needed to hop up and lose a bit of momentum. Not long after this section it was
back onto the sports fields. A lap was about 6min 30secs and ended up doing about
ten of these.
My race went pretty well for me today; I got the best finish
of the season. Whether it was the extra enthusiasm from my dad coming up and me
wanting to show off, or the sibling rivalry of my half brother, Nick, racing
and wanting to show him how us Cyclo cross boys do it, I don’t know. But today
it helped.
It was a good turn-out with nearly 60 riders in the main event. I was glad to be near the front at the start. I got off to a pretty good start from the 2nd row
on the grid. At the first hedge line there was a big ol’ puddle, with two small
lines around it. I figured people were going to slow up to take these lines. So
I made the most of this hopped the big puddle. This put me right at the front with
5 others. Throughout the first lap I worked my way to 2nd and put up
a big gap behind to 3rd. 1st position had also started to
make a gap. I was able to keep this position for the next 2 laps but 3rd
was catching up. I dropped back to 5 over the next few laps. I held this position
for a while. I took on an energy gel about 35-40 mins in to give me the boost
to try and not lose 5th, 6th was slowly but surely
catching me up.
 |
| The thick consistency of this made it very difficult to swallow under race conditions. |
I used a Zip Fit Energy gel
today, different than the usual Torq gels. It didn’t go down very well. The Zipfit,
banana flavour, was way too thick to consume when you’re at your limit and
really doesn’t go down very well. The Torq gels are a lot thinner in
consistency. For this reason alone, I will be using Torq for the rest of the
season.
 |
| I would definitely recommend these energy gels. Thin, tasty, easily swallowed and good energy supply. |
With 2 laps to go, 6th
was right on my tail. But 4th was in my sights; maybe 30secs ahead.
The energy started to kick in along with fear of losing position. I stepped my
game up and started to leave him on the downhill section. At the turn I kicked
hard up the hill to drop him, which I did. I kept this momentum going and
caught 4th not long after the bell for last lap. As I passed him he
jumped onto my wheel and could see he wasn’t going down without a fight. Again,
I used the momentum gained from the downhill and just stood up and sprinted up
the long, lung busting hill.
He couldn’t match my effort and I rolled home safely in 4th position, 10 secs clear of 5th. I was still 3mins back from the winner; he put in a good ride. I have some more work to do to start challenging for the lead but I’m sure it will come. It’s Just a matter of time.
He couldn’t match my effort and I rolled home safely in 4th position, 10 secs clear of 5th. I was still 3mins back from the winner; he put in a good ride. I have some more work to do to start challenging for the lead but I’m sure it will come. It’s Just a matter of time.
Thanks for reading again. It’s
you guys that comment on my work that keeps me going out there, just so I have
something decent to write about.
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