It feels like this season has been going for a while already but this weekend was finally time for the first national series race at Sherwood Pines. If you read other racers blogs, you will probably hear the same line repeated ad infinitum– “it’s too flat, It doesn’t suit me”. The fact is, it probably doesn’t suit most people so everyone is on a fairly level, extremely flat and rooty playing field. That’s not to say I’m not going to say it too! I prefer hills and the flat pedally nature of this course does not play to my strengths!
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| lots of lovely rooty singletrack |
After last week’s disappointment I came into this race with very low expectations. The Expert field was about 50 strong which is probably the most I will see this year at an XC event but was still relatively small compared to the other categories. Fortunately I was gridded on the front row so my main tactic was to get a strong start and avoid the inevitable pile up. I managed that and was soon out of the arena and into the trying not panic about the fact I was haemorrhaging places until I found my rightful place. I still felt low on power on the fireroad sections but managed not to lose too much time. Going through onto the second lap I was still within 15 seconds of a big group of riders and most importantly still ahead, just, of my teammate Franck Lebon. Unfortunately I couldn’t close this gap but I didn’t lose any more places and I managed to reel in a couple of guys in laps 3 and 4 and slowly edge away from Franck. The course was fun by Sherwood standards with a couple of short sharp climbs, a couple of drop-offs and lots of bumpy singletrack. The XTC 29er felt really quick on the singletrack, flowing over the roots and allowing me to carry loads of speed through the tight corners. I am still getting used to riding a hardtail again and my back got really sore between the 2nd and 3rd laps from sitting down and taking a battering from the roots. I must have stood up more on the last lap because the pain went away and the lap time improved! By the final lap I was starting to feel a bit more comfortable and had a proper race on my hands. I was in a group with James Bailey (Cyclestore) and Steve Halsall (VC Moulin) with Paul Brenan (Inverse) yo-yoing off the back. Coming into the woods before the arena I was on the wheel of Steve but the tight singletrack meant the only opportunity to pass would be in a sprint from the woods to the finish line. It was close but I made the pass with about half a wheel length to spare. Obviously I wasn’t pushing hard enough during the race!
The Expert field looks very strong this year so while my 27th place finish here doesnt look to good on paper, looking at the results I am reasonably happy with the performance but there is still plenty to work on. I was only 3 minutes behind a big group of riders and the top 15 which is an improvement on last weekend. My next race will probably be the next round of the national series at Dalby Forest in a month’s time so I have some time for some quality strength training and it is probably time to do some lovely hill intervals too!
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