English
8th & 9th January 2011
Location: Derby
British National Cyclo-cross Championships
For some reason I was really looking forward to this event. It could have been the fact I had two brand new Focus Mares cyclo-cross bike as well as a brand new set of Tubular Mavic R-SYS wheels or could have been the fact that I’ve had a good few weeks training under my belt. I’m thinking a combination of those two factors plus the fact I had my very own Wiggle Team Mechanic coming up for the event Ben Jeffery really left me with no excuses to have a good ride.
The event was over two days but my race was on the Sunday, I got up there Saturday afternoon to have a practice around the course. This saved me getting up early on the Sunday as all the final tweaks on the bikes and tyre pressures can be sorted the day before. The course was very similar to a National Trophy round I rode there two years ago and consisted of a lot of off camber grass sections with a little bit of road and wooded sections. Once I got a feel for the course I washed the bikes down and watched the last event of the day which was the Veterans race. I was good to see Nick Craig (Off Road Cycling Legend) pedal around the course effortlessly and he gave away a few really good line choices which I could use in my race the following day. I then met up with Ben and made our way to the hotel for a chill out before food and after running through some of tomorrow’s agenda it was time for bed.
Race Day
After a relaxed breakfast and chill out in the room we made our way to the venue and unloaded all our kit. This included two bikes, four sets of wheels, spares such as chains, cables, bar tape etc, pressure washer, water containers and bike cleaning and maintenance gear all for one rider in a one hour long race. Seems like a lot of hassle and man power for a one hour long race but if you want to be a success that’s what you need and any one without that support is hugely disadvantaged. As the course contained sticky mud this meant that the bikes soon got clogged up fast. This then makes the bike difficult to ride and also heavy when carrying or running with the bike on certain sections of the course, so regular bike changes were essential.
I was gridded almost at the back of the field which is a massive disadvantage as there are bottle neck effects on the course and riders get a head start on me but this was my fault because I didn’t race enough cross to get a good gridding. The race started and there was a mass sprint and this is where you want to be to most careful to avoid crashes. There was a crash after the first corner in front of me but this give me an advantage of over taking a few extra riders.
From this point on it was just a matter of pacing myself and moving my way up through the strong field of riders. I was picking people off every lap keeping me motivated to press hard on the pedals and at one point moved up to 15th position in a little group. I mad a mistake on a banking and dropped back a few places but was still riding strong as other riders were weakening. On the last lap I was in 18th and catching a few riders in front of me but didn’t quite catch them before the line and finished in 18th place. If the race was slightly longer I felt that I could have been close to top 10 position as riders were fading but that racing for you.
I really enjoyed the race and was happy with my position considering the amount of cross racing I have been doing as well as having a bad gridding. Ben and Steve (Lee’s Dad) were a massive help in the pits and with out them neither myself or Lee would of finished where we did!
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Ben
