Cyclocross!

I have said a lot of things about cyclocross in the past, most of it not particularly positive (as I was reminded after announcing my decision to break my duck). This weekend I finally got around to putting my prejudices to the test after years of never quite getting around to it. With a week of recovery in my legs following Kielder the Swindon round of the Wessex Cyclocross League was the perfect tonic. The weather was shit and there is no way I would have gone out for a training ride in the torrential rain so I needed the motivation of competition to get me out of the house.

Kielder 100

The look of relief as I hit the final descent after 99miles of racing

I should apologise now, this may be a long blog, but it was a long race, so get over it! Kielder is one of those event I have always said I had to do. It started the year after I moved away from Newcastle and the cost and effort of even getting there has put me off, until now. With the entire XC season being squeezed into 3 months before the summer had even begun, I needed something to motivate me and make training worthwhile. The decision to do it was confirmed when I was asked if I wanted to enter a team relay triathlon for the Giant Store Radlett on the same weekend. I don’t really do running, swimming or time trials so Kielder won hands down!

Olympic MTB photo blog

Liam Killeen practicing on the section that ended his race the next day.

The leading girls dropping down after 'Snake Hill'

I was very lucky to get some last minute tickets for the womens Olympic MTB race a couple of weeks ago. It was a great day out and good to watch some of the top women in the world tackle the technical Hadleigh Castle course. It was amazing seeing that many people there to watch an XC race. So many that you really had to fight to get to the front at the technical sections. Although I enjoyed watching, what I actually wanted to do is ride! It has just been announced that Hadleigh will host the final round of the National Series next year so fingers crossed that is still the case in 10 months time and I can get a feeling of what these girls were going through. Here are a few photos from the day.

Georgina Gould on the wall ride at the bottom of 'Deans Drop'

Julie Bressett.... somewhere...

This climb was a lot tougher than it looks and caused a few errors further down the field

Sabine Spitz and Georgina Gould tackle the top section of the 'Rock Garden'...

...And a bit further down... on the penultimate lap

Annie Last on the 'Rock Garden'

Emily Batty on the 'Rock Garden' riding with a broken collar bone after a crash in training

Annie Last just dropping in to the chute at the end of her last lap

No racing, just riding around Anglesey, Swinley and Blenheim

Since the national championships I have felt pretty uninspired to get out and train. There have been a lot of races in quite a short period of time which seems to have taken it out of me, mentally and physically. I think in situations like this the best thing to do is get out of the routine of training and racing and do something a bit different. I this instance, the offer of 3 days cycling from Chester to Holyhead and back carrying everything we needed was the perfect tonic. Add into the mix that the Saturday was my birthday and that is pretty much my ideal weekend. The only person i knew on the trip was the organiser, Christopholopolopolis, who I have known since my days as a bike guide in his native Greece. We only rode about 50 miles a day but it was nice riding and although the coffee stops weren't up to much it was a good weekend.  

National XC Championships - Wasing Park

Apparently we have a couple of weeks of acceptable weather and all of a sudden I forget to update my blog. Poor show! Over the last 4 weeks I have had 3 races, one biggie and 2 chippers. The most important race amongst this was the National Championships 2 weeks ago at Wasing Park. After a week on holiday in the Lake District doing a little bit of MTB, a couple of road rides and some hiking I made the long drive from Keswick to Wasing, via Cambridge to drop Emma off. A solid 8 hours of driving is not generally considered the best pre-race preparation but short of buying a helicopter I had no other option!

Southern XC 5: Frith Hill

 In the week following my win at the Rampage Series opener we actually had some pretty nice weather so I forced myself to commute by bike to make the most of it, and managed to fit in some lovely sprint intervals too. Never fun but hopefully they make a difference come race day. Sunday was the final round of the Southern XC series at Frith Hill and with a weather forecast that could go either way I was trying to be positive and hoping for a dry race. This venue is traditionally used by Gorrick in the pre-season races so on arrival I was struggling to get myself in the competitive mind set. The fairly torrential rain shower just as I was driving down the entrance road didn't help my motivation either.

Rampage Series Round 1

First win of the season

Looking at the state of the Mountain Mayhem course this weekend I was very glad to have not offered my services to anyone. I did, however, book myself in for a far shorter session of mud surfing at the first round of the Rampage series based in Checkendon. The course is short at about 2km and when dry the racing should last about 1hour. Although it was definitely not dry, it was holding up pretty well for the most part. The first section of singletract after the start as very slippery and kept making me think I had punctures because I was finding it so hard to keep in a straight line! The final section was also pretty tough becasue it was the only part of the course that had got baddly cut up and was very claggy and slow progress. The rest of the track was still running firm and quick.