Thetford Winter Series Debrief

This weekend was the final round of the Thetford winter series. I find this greatly concerning as it means it must be the end of winter and the real racing season is just around the corner. It is the first time I have ridden the whole 4 hour series and on the whole it has been a success. The weather has been miraculously kind throughout, nothing too wintery and only one mud-bath. The organizers have done a great job setting the courses considering the amount of rain we have had recently!

The first round was at one of the regular venues, Brandon Country Park. I was coming off the back of a winter break and a couple of weeks off with a cold so I started conservatively and let the early leaders go. I managed to pick off a few guys later on in the race but then totally blew up in the final quarter of a lap, losing one place in the process. I managed to hold on to 6^th place though which was a good result considering a was a bit sleep deprived and pretty hungover!

Round 2 was at Stanton Downham which I have ridden before but never raced. This was my favourite race of the season. The course was a 10 mile rollercoaster BMX track, almost nothing in the way of altitude gain but great fun all the same. I started steadily again and built into the race. This time I didn’t blow up and felt strong to the end. I was 3^rd over the line and felt like I could have kept on going.

Round 3 was the obligatory wet round, there is always one! The forecast was dire but the promised rain didn’t really appear. Unfortunately the damage had already been done and by the 3^rd lap it was becoming boggy and slippery. For this race I decided to ride hard from the start. All was going well until the 4^th hour when my brakes started to fail. I was riding with Richard Dunnet in 3^rd/4^th but I was also starting to struggle pushing my single gear up some of the climbs. By the beginning of the final lap Rich had distanced me and although I caught him again briefly I could do nothing towards the end of the lap other than drag myself home. I dropped a couple more places and ended up 6^th. Later inspection of my bike showed a broken spoke from a crash in the second lap, and my front brake pads had got wedged into the gap where the calliper sits meaning it was essentially locked on! No wonder I was struggling.

The final race was held at Mayday Meadows. Before the race I was sitting in 3^rd in the series with a slim chance of holding on to it. My new race bike has still not appeared for I took up the offer of borrowing a bike suspension and gears hoping that it would make the chance of a podium a bit stronger. The first half of the lap was fireroad heavy so gears would definitely be a bonus. Unfortunately all chance of a good result had essentially gone when I had to stop and adjust my saddle half way through the first lap. After this I spent 3 laps trying to work my way back up the field but couldn’t get much further up than 11^th. My mind wasn’t in the race and I decided to drop out after 4 laps. I had been ill during the week and although I wasn’t feeling too bad I didn’t want to push myself too deep if my result wasn’t going to affect the overall rankings. It was a disappointing way to finish what was a largely successful series. Now my thoughts are firmly on the start of the MSG series in 3 weeks’ time and then the first national a fortnight after that. It doesn’t take a tarot card reader to see lots of sprint/hill intervals in my near future!