With no cat. for the v40, we entered the ‘Racer’ category – we were in it to race, so entered ‘Racer’. And soon realised on lining up in the small group of 30 odd pro looking riders on amazing bikes that there was a good chance we could be coming last, on reflection maybe we should have entered ‘enthusiast?’ but it was a good call in the end. It felt good to have those start line nerves again.
- The ‘racer’ cat. including winner Giles Drake – Thanks to Chris Meads for image http://www.chrismeadsphotography.com/p143325687
The start was a fast sprint winding over the wet grass before hitting some gravel track and single track. There were plenty of spaces to overtake and indeed get overtaken. The single track presented challenging slippery roots and nice powdery loam for the wheels to drift about in on the descents. Great fun.
One of the first obstacles was a set of two logs over the track on a short climb. The trick was to get enough momentum to lift front and rear wheels over the log consecutively. However, the gradient tended to kill the speed off, meaning I needed to pedal over to maintain movement or else I’d stall. The first two attempts my wheel span out, one time, making me do a comical 180 into the bushes and finally falling over with bike onto of me. I managed to perfect the technique to cleanly do both logs for the final laps.
I also managed to accidentally bump into Dan on several occasions, on the single track or ‘ram him off the track’ as he puts it.
A muddy climb via an off camber muddy slope always had me running and slipping around. I would have liked to watch the leaders probably nailing this without dismounting. Everyone I saw got stopped in their tracks and broke into a run. This one, in particular, left the cleats full of leafy mud to the point that my SPDs hardly worked and got worse as the race went on.
Several challenging steep loam laden drop into the woods with sharp turns, followed by more roots rutted trails, were just brilliant and scary, wheels just sliding, using a foot to control drifting and sliding while avoiding trees. Again I would like to see the leading riders navigate this probably without a foot down.
The course was short and fast. For me, this is my first experience in years of a shorter 1 hour type XC race or 6 laps. We were heading in for the final lap when suddenly we were passed in a couple bike lengths off the line by the leader [Drake] on his final lap. That was the end for us too. We never got to start our 6th lap. A bit gutted about that but also relieved, to be honest. Team MLCCC managed to cross the finish line neck a neck. My strava data shows a slow reduction in time for each lap. But Most importantly; we didn’t come last!
Training hard for the next one. Hopefully getting in the 6 laps in. Thanks to the organisers, volunteers and Mountain Rescue
https://www.facebook.com/MidweekMTBMadness/
Hillbeast 