Mud Sweat & Gears Round 1 - Tunstall

After what feels like 6 months of solid winter my first XC race of 2013 finally arrived this weekend in the form of the Mud Sweat and Gears series opener at Tunstall Forrest. Due to moving half way across the country I did not do any of the Gorrick series which I have previously used to gauge my form so I was going into this race with no idea of what to expect. With the first national round next weekend I wasn’t too concerned about the result this weekend and was just taking it as a training session with a bit of added competition. I did a short run and quite an intense 5x5minute interval session the day before so any result I could get would just be a nice bonus.

The forecast was mixed to say the least and I had been advised that the course can turn into a bike destroying grit paste with the right amount of water. With that in mind I made the decision to take the singlespeed rather than risk destroying a £300 XX1 cassette before the season had even begun. As it turned out the rain held off until just after the podium presentations and the first half of the course was running dry and fast. The second half contained a very draggy boggy climb and a tricky slippery bombhole out of a bomb hole with the rest of the singletrack also being quite slippery.  However, it was all rideable and not bike destroying.

We arrived early for the practice lap and then had about 4 hours to kill before the 2pm start to the elite race. At least that meant I could clean the bike before the start and make sure I had no mechanical excuses! There were 8 in the Elite race (1 actual elite and 7 ‘experts’) who lined up with the Masters and Juniors. The start was fairly gentle with Callum Riley (Newdales) leading through the first few corners. The race was opened up when one of the Masters riders attacked taking Steve James and Ian Mockett (Forme) with him. On the next singletrack section I attacked and quickly bridged to this group. The boggy section split the group with Steve up ahead and Mockett further back. 

I spent the rest of the race lapping riders from other categories and making sure I kept my pace up. I got my single gear ratio about right for the majority of the course although the boggy sections were very tough, especially on laps 4 and 5. It did mean I was spinning out on the fireroad sections and struggling to overtake riders there. At least the lack of an easy gear meant backing off was not an option! With a third of a lap remaining I was caught by the leading Masters rider who I rode with to the finish after realising we were not competition to each other.

I was very happy with 2^nd overall and the first ‘expert’ rider, and especially given the gap to the winner was only 2 minutes 30 seconds. My legs felt pretty good and hopefully with a few extra gears and a bit more rest I can get a decent result next weekend at Sherwood Pines.