The CX Season comes to an end..

Before i start i must explain the lack of posts over the past few weeks. Basically, i was a bit slow to report one race, then i missed another report, then before i knew it, i realised i hadnt done anything at all. Ill summarise them by saying i did alright and gained good points for the season.

Ill now move on to the most recent race.

The SouthWest Cyclocross series came home to Plymouth for the Certini Central Park final round of the season - Sunday the 16th.
Coming into this race, i was leading the overall by a couple points followed very closely by James Davey (MDCC) and Dexter Hurlock (Certini). I hadnt won a race the whole season, but i have got fairly decent results and i attended everyrace. So i had this advantage, wheas Dexter has only raced a few and won nearly all of them. All i had to do was finish 3rd senior if Dexter comes 1st. or 4th if he came 2nd. At this stage of the season following on from my recent races, this shouldnt have been too much of a problem. But it also meant that any mistake or mechanical made by me would have resulted in a definate loss of the series. So it was all to play for.

Knowing that i needed every advantage i could take, i got a bit of a pit team together and a spare bike.
The team consisted of my dad (pit man-bike cleaner), matt newman (coach man & bike holder, before and after the race), will amery (photoman & kit holder) and steve holmes (eyes on the everypart of the track). It felt pretty nice having this support.

After riding the course in practice, i was very happy i had a spare bike.The course was wet, muddy and fairly fast. This was going to be a problem with mud clogging up, especially on my redline as it doesnt have the best mud clearance. Having a fresh, mud free bike to jump on to each lap was re assuring.

I havent yet mentioned but, i had been ill with tonsilitus for nearly 2 weeks, 4 days prior to the race and had been bed bound for most of it. I had got out on my bike twice, since feeling better, but i knew my fitness wasnt quite there and the race was going to be tough.


At the start line waiting for the get go was a bit of a laugh, with people chanting USA USA at my comical skinsuit. But as soon as the race starter said 'you will be started by a gun within the next 30 secs', it went dead silent, nerves kicked in, pedal foot and legs tensed waiting for that gun. Until bang!

Me getting a great start

Every time i hear this i react like im bmx racing. I stomped hard on the pedals, spinning my legs up firing off the start line. As i turned the first corner this was very apparent, due to the gap, how hard i went off the line, probably too hard. I carried on trying to keep a strong pace up but i found my self not being able to keep the pace up. Not even close. Whilst i sat there trying to turn my legs with some force, watching people over take me, one by one, I started thinking to myself, 'shit this sucks, i have nothing in me to give, i didn't realise being ill had effected me this much, and uh oh, that's the end of being overall Champ'. As i passed half a lap, i heard coachman, Matt, telling me to chill out and compose myself. This was a bit hard to do cus i was certainly chilled already, so chilled i could barely move.
Still, this was only the first lap and i wasn't even close to reaching my lowest point.

Over the next few laps, i got slower and slower. Not because my bike was clogging up, i had a fresh bike every lap, but because i was like a car with a broken gearbox stuck in 1st, and not being able to find any other gears. I was warm, but it wasn't reaching my legs. My lungs were burning, i was urging and i was tasting blood. It got to the point of just stopping. I started walking up the hills and started feeling quite depressed. A bunch of about 5 passed me and i tried to hold on but they slipped away as well. I dropped to about 18th.
This was not fun.

All of a sudden, maybe 40-45mins in i found myself powering hard. Riding up every bank and cranking along the straights. I felt like my usual self, I found 2nd gear and was slamming through the gears. It wasn't long before i caught and left the 5 man group, and i found my self picking off riders one after the other.

The cheering from the crowds, friends and family started to make a noted difference. it gave me extra energy that i really needed to keep this going. My eyes on the track, Steve, ran along side me at this point shouting im in a great position and i will catch a few more if i keep it up. I stayed on the Redline for an extra lap because i found it was a faster bike than the spare Dolan. This was probably because of the Rocket Ron tyres that gripped really well in these conditions.

Matt Zietz powering his way to Victory

Half a lap left i started to get a fair bit of chain suck on the Redline because of the mud build up. Luckily this happened just before the pit so was able to jump on the spare for the remaining 4 mins or so. I had caught and passed 5th place Roy Wyle-Smith (Elite Velo) but he was not going down without a fight for the 2nd time this season. Coming off the mud onto the path, 3 corners before the finish, i thought i had created a comfortable gap between us but the next thing i knew was that he was turning underneath me! He must have put one hell of a charge down to catch me back like that! Coming down the ally before the 2nd to last corner, it was a good old battle trying to get to the corner first, whilst dodging a lapped rider. I was able to get half a bike length on him into the corner and carried the momentum covering my line in the last corner. He was right on my wheel which left it to a sprint finish! Thankfully i held the position, putting me in 5th.

At this point, i hadn't realised how much i had manged to claw back. So i was a massively relieved i hadn't done that bad. In fact, i was 4th senior. Which, as mentioned before, Dexter had to finish 2nd for me to grab the Overall! The Gods were on my side that Day. Pearson Cycles and Plymouth CX rider Matt Zietz had a brilliant race and managed to stay ahead of Dexter.

Thus making me SouthWest CX Champ by 2 Points! Awesome!

I would really like to thank first my girlfriend for putting up with me, the bike and mud being everywhere all season. Thanks to my friends and family for the support and encouraging words to keep me going all season. Thanks to my dad for cleaning my bike each lap with one bucket of water and a brush. Thanks to my family Mark & Chance out in LA supplying me with frames, components and kit that have made it possible to train in these cold winter mornings. Thanks to Cogs for directing enthusiastic Cross riders to me and each other, creating a training group which in turn, created Plymouth CX. Thanks to my mum and Daniel groves for the photos used. Thanks for Certini for putting on a great Final race with nearly 90 riders racing throughout the day.

And finally, thanks to the South West Cyclo Cross and all the volunteers who have put in hours of there life planning, organizing, setting up the races & for putting on a flawless series. Sunday being no exception.

Heres the top 10 from the Central Cross Race:
1 Matt Zietz Pearson Cycles S 0h 59m 59s
2 Dexter Hurlock Certini S +0h 0m 55s
3 Luke Eggar South Fork Racing S +0h 2m 26s
4 Jay Horton Certini V +0h 2m 31s
5 Matt Noble Plymouth Cx S +0h 4m 43s
6 Roy Wyle-Smith EliteVelo S +0h 4m 45s
7 Mike Mulroy VC VeloCake V +0h 6m 13s
8 Maddie Horton Certini W +0h 6m 30s
9 Richard Taylor Exeter CC V +0h 6m 48s
10 Rich Long Certini S +0h 8m 13s

more results here at British Cycling

I imagine this will be the last Cross post untill next august maybe. But if anything exciting or interesting comes up in the mean time, i will put it into black and white! 

                                                             See you all in the New Year

Team Plymouth CX having an awesome and successful first year.