English
5th December 2010
Location: Glan Usk Estate, Crickhowell.
Welsh Cyclo-cross Champs
On yet another glorious Sunday in South Wales (I know doesn’t happen very often) but also very cold day the Welsh Cross Champs were kicking off at Glan Usk Estate just outside Crickhowell. With all the roads covered in ice and the grass frosted over I was expecting the conditions to be similar to last week’s race at Pembrey. When I arrived at the race venue I was surprised to see mud on rider’s bikes from their practice laps. The ground was soft in places and with the sun thawing out the solid ground even more, the conditions were getting harder. By the time it came around to my race which was the last race, course conditions were a lot worse and very muddy around most of the course.
The riders were called up to the start line and it was great to see team mates Lee Williams and Matt Page also on the start line in Wiggle colours. The race started and started fast…there was an immediate split of four or five riders at the front which included myself. This split continued to lead the race but Lee soon left us for dead and left the rest of us battling it out for the remaining medals. I moved up in to second place with a 10 second gap and held this for a lap before two riders worked together to catch me. I was then following the Wheel of Andy Baum before making a few mistakes on some slippery banking’s where he managed to gain an advantage. Behind me was Ben Roach (Under 23) closing in fast and he managed to catch me so I decided to ride with him and attempt to close the gap to Andy who was now in front.
As the conditions were muddy with a mixture of wooded sections this caused the mud to pick up the leaves and grass and causing the bikes to clog up. This meant that a bike change every two laps was necessary but when pitting towards the end of the race I jumped on to my clean bike only to jam my chain. I was panicking a bit as Ben Roach was riding away from me so after a few attempts to get the chain back on I had to revert back to my original dirty bike and had to change it the following lap. By this point I knew there was no chance I was going to catch up with Ben and I knew I had a good gap back to the closest rider. I was riding around the last three laps knowing I was going to be taking home the Bronze medal.
I crossed the line on a very clogged up bike and with my back in some discomfort as the course was so relentless there was no point at which you could rest. I was fairly pleased with Bronze but as any sports person unless you win you always think there are parts were you could have improved to get a better position. Big congratulations to Lee Williams for holding on to his title for yet another year!
I am now looking forward to time off work up until New Year so I can get some quality training in. I have also booked to go on a weeks training camp to Lanzarote before Christmas to get away from this cold weather and snow so hopefully will get some warm miles in on the road bike J
Ben
