UPDATE: 26/09/12 - i have just found out that i came 6th overall at this race which is pretty sweet!
Yesterday, 23rd September, was round 3 of the south west Cyclo cross in Barnstaple.
Yesterday, 23rd September, was round 3 of the south west Cyclo cross in Barnstaple.
I knew that the weather wasn’t supposed to be very good at
all for this race but all week it had been pretty dry and I couldn’t help but
think, it really can’t be that bad?! I woke up Sunday morning looked out of the
window to be greeted by dark grey clouds and loud a spattering of rain on the
window. Ughh.. It had started to get really cold this week. I just knew by
looking outside, I didn’t want to ride in this dreary weather.
On the brighter side of things, I feel that I’m pretty handy
on a bike, skill wise, and I also know, that most of the people riding are
rodies. They don’t tend to be very good at cornering, let alone cornering on
slick, greasy, muddy corners. I was feeling confident.
I rocked up to the joint with no problems this week; I
probably have to owe that to the latest iphone update, ‘IOS6’. Before on the
iphone, you had to rely on Google maps directing you, which is always a bit of
a struggle, but included in the new update is, in its simplest term, is a
TomTom gps system. This was the first time I used it and the new GPS routing
system is very good. It worked without fault. The screen stays lit up so u can
always see where you are and how far away the next turning is. There is also a
little man in my phone that shouts out which way to go so you don’t even have
to look..
I got out of my toasty hot car and it wasn’t very pleasant
outside. I signed on and started putting layers of clothes on. My kit consisted
of Bib shorts, low cut socks, an Endura BaaBaa merino base layer, race jersey,
arm warmers, windstopper jacket thingy and a one of those sweet cycle caps that
go under the helmet. I obviously didn’t wear all of this for the race; this was
just to do some warming up in. The cap
and jacket came off just before the start.
I ran into an instant problem with tyre pressure as soon as I
started my first practice lap. The course was very soft and muddy which I decided
needed a very low tyre pressure. I set the front & rear tyre to 25psi. I went
to bunny hop up a curb and I thought I was going to die! Literally I have never
felt so unsafe and out of control on a bike in my life. As soon as I put any
pressure on the front end, the tyre rolled over twisting the wheel to the side
and nearly throwing me over into the curb. Luckily I got away with it. The rear
tyre was absolutely fine and felt very good.
I should probably mention that I’m
running different tyres front and rear; A Kenda small block 8, 700x32c in the
rear, and a vredstrein 700x30c front. I have recently started to not like this
vredestrein tyre much and this recent problem has strengthened my view on it. I
really need to change it. I find this tyre to tall for its skinny profile and
the sidewalls can’t cope with any side loads at pressures below 40psi. It just
really isn’t stable at all. Anyway I sorted this by putting the front up to 30psi
and coped with the slight rolling.
The race got underway and I found myself in the top 10
pretty quickly. The course was also pretty lame. It was basically a playing
field with lots of corners in it, with one section that went off the field with
some stairs to run up back up onto the field..There wasn’t as many people
competing this week, maybe 30 plus people. Results still aren’t up as I write,
so can’t be sure.
We got into the first of the tight chicanes and some guy
left the door open so I nipped into the gap on the inside. As I did this, I
must have caught this guy by surprise because he jack-knifed and fell to the
floor creating a gap between the front group and the chasing group. I was luckily in the leading group. I was following
them around for a couple laps and it felt like I was cruising pretty easily so I
pushed forward, over took some people and tried to pick the pace up.
As time went on, the course started to get
very sloppy, especially on the uphill, headwind section of the course. I started
to struggle for speed on this section and found two guys closing me down. They
both overtook me and I just sat in behind them. As they passed by I noticed
they were team mates working together. I found the pace they were going at was
pretty good and being sat behind them, really helped on the head wind section. The
front runner off this 3 man group started to get away and I found the other guy
was defending the inside line on every corner making it pretty difficult to
overtake. This didn’t frustrate me as I knew that if I needed to catch up, I wouldn’t
have a problem. I decided to bide my time and use this guy in front to keep me
feeling fresh. The ‘2laps to go’ sign came out and I figured this would be the
lap to bridge the gap that had been created. I followed this guy for about half
of the lap, until it came to a straight, fast section where I decided to jump
this guy and sprint up to the next. This wasn’t actually very hard and I was
right with him in no time.
Again I sat in behind the next rider for most of the last lap
waiting for the moment to make an attack. I followed him around for about half
the lap until we got to the uphill, headwind section, where he slowed right up.
At first I wasn’t sure if he was out of energy, or trying to slow us both up to
let his team mate catch up. Whatever it was I wasn’t sure, so I took the lead,
constantly checking over my shoulder, watching both of their movements to make
sure they weren’t planning an attack.
All of a sudden one of them attacked out
of nowhere. I was very quick to react and matched his attack with plenty left
for the inevitable final sprint. He got in front of me and started to pick the
pace back up. This time, I knew it was just between him and me. We went through
the tight chicanes mentioned earlier. Coming out of this section is where I
made my attack, knowing there was only 1 slow and 2 very fast turns to the
finish. I grabbed hold of the drop bars, shifted through the gears and got my
head down. I passed him just before the 1st fast corner. Whilst cornering,
I had to overtake a couple of lappers the long way around making sure I was
ahead before the slow corner. Nailed it. But so had he... checking over my
shoulder just before the exit, I could see he had closed the gap but this was
fine with me. With one fast corner and a slight uphill headwind finish ahead of
me, I knew I had to make sure I didn’t fall on the final corner, which would
have been easily done under pressure. I checked my speed coming in, not caring
if he was right behind me let the brakes go and flew though the corner, foot
out, not quite flat out, whilst pedalling one footed. I stomped the other foot
back into the pedal, grabbed the drops tightly and hammered it home. I turned
around just as I crossed the finish line to realise the other competitor had
cut his losses and must have given up not long after the corner. I was well
clear.
This has definitely been my best race so far. I raced and fought
to the very end beating a couple of guys who had finished in the top 8 the week
previously. I have improved quicker than
I thought from week to week. And, it would be really awesome to keep this
momentum going to hopefully challenge for a win by the end of the season.
I have also just noticed how much I have written and I realise
this is supposed to be a report, so I apologize for the ‘race essay’... but
what you guan do.
Cheers
