English
After a week of some easy training sessions I finally felt I had recovered from the Wiggle Enduro 6. So on the weekend I managed to get a late entry into a local race; this was nice because I actually got to sleep in my own bed on the weekend rather than in a hotel or B&B like I have been for the past month or so. My dad was also at the event taking photos of the race on the back of a motorbike, the NEG motorbikes (the race had 8 of them) make the race so much safer and do an excellent job. My dad’s photo’s can be found on www.davidphotos.co.uk along with many other photos from other events.
With the race having a full field of 80 riders and an undulating circuit the race was going to be fast. The race was 60km and the riders were split into three groups, the first group consisting of veteran, women and forth category riders. The first group was set of 5 minutes ahead of the second group which had 3rd category riders in it and finally the last group was set off 3 minutes after the second group. The last group consisted of elite, 1st and 2nd category riders so in total this group had to gain 8 minutes before the finish if they wanted to have a chance of winning.
I started in the last group that was looking a bit thin on the ground for riders because the majority of the riders were in the first or second group. We set off at a rapid pace in pursuit of the other groups; there were two rapha condor riders who were keen to keep the pace high. This meant that the weaker riders couldn’t contribute to the workload and within the first few miles had dropped a few riders. I felt quite strong and was taking my turns regularly and soon enough we caught the 3rd category group and went straight past them to continue to pursuit to catch final group of veterans, women and forth category riders.
With around 10km to the finish we eventually caught the final group and were all together. Tom Southam (Rapha Condor) made an effort to ride away from the rest of us but was to no avail as there were many attempts to break away and join him that in turn increased the pace of the bunch until we caught him. So with the bunch all together it came to the 1 mile drag to the finish line, I was moving around the bunch to try and find a good position for the sprint. Everywhere I moved though I seemed to get swamped by riders and knew it was going to be difficult to make my way through them.
The pace began to increase and the bunch started to string out, a few riders started to kick so I began to make my move. I soon found my self dropping riders and gaining ground on the leading riders. I decided to make my effort as the finish line approached moving through the top 10 to eventually finish 3rd very close to 2nd position and a bike length off winner Darran Lapthorne (Rapha Condor).
Overall I really enjoyed the race and was pleased with my performance, it has definitely increased my confidence for future races. The event was well run with the winner even stating that the event was more organised than a premier calendar event. This week I am going to take it easy again and am contemplating racing a circuit race at Castle Coombe on Thursday but will defiantly be head up north for the second round of the NPS XC Series at Dalby Forest.
Link to British Cycling Report:
Happy Riding
Ben