I used to weigh alot. 252lbs to be precise. That’s almost 19st in old English. A new road bike quickly shed the lbs’s and I quickly got fitter and fitter. Before long, I was down to 180lbs and beating everybody I knew up the hills. Well, almost everybody. Team Wiggle is one hell of a competitor.

The last XC race I competed in was way back in 2009 where I earned 6th position out of around 120 riders. A Gorrick event. At this weekends’ Gorrick Brass Monkeys Round 3 Enduro, I battled up the climbs to achieve 38th position out of a similar field.

Okay, so not too bad I suppose. My aim was to achieve top 50% positioning and I beat that by some margin. Secretly though, I was hoping to be in the top 10%, but I didn’t share that prior to the start of the race.

The race started with a bit of fuss. 120 riders had forced their way to the front of the grid. This made the start line over crowded and forced most competitors to funnel through a starting line that was perhaps 75% the width. This was frustrating as the race leaders were already around the first corner as I passed the start line. Suddenly I was happy that I’d made it to reasonably close to the start line ahead of time. Despite the cold wind, my dhb Merino M_150 base layer was keeping me warm for the fifteen minute wait as the start time grew closer.

The slight nerves of racing had me turn a deaf ear to the starting whistle/gun. I don’t remember how the race started, other than a mass ‘clip…click…clack’ as more than one hundred riders threw their feet into their clipless pedals. We were off. The first climb was shallow, but grew quickly steeper perhaps feeling steeper due to the sticky mud.
At this point I was putting the power down. From experience, I know you want to be as far ahead as possible when the wide fire-road turns into singletrack. I knew that no matter how much I struggled on the climbs, I have every chance of regaining positions on technical singletrack and descents.

Sadly I was unable to get far enough ahead as I was soon brushing trees with my 785mm wide RaceFace Atlas FR handlebars (which I admit are incredibly wide, BUT, they do give plenty of control and I’ve yet to cut them down) and suddenly

Thomas Dibley - Jump In

right on the back of somebody’s rear wheel. Sadly I was caught behind a group of riders who were struggling with a certain section. This meant an opportunity to catch my breath. I was quickly looking for any overtaking options. Soon enough I cut through the brush and passed three riders. This happened a few times until….

….a mammoth climb appeared in-front of me. This is where I realised my speed was not what it was. My general body weight, added to a steel Evil Sovereign laden with free ride parts and a Rohloff hub, quickly resisted my pedal efforts up hill. Suddenly all those I had beaten through the woods were catching up with me and overtaking me with speed and grace. The competitive side in me didn’t bode well to this, especially as two women passed me by and greeted me without a solitary pant.

My uphill struggle/tech and singletrack prowess had me riding an emotional roller coaster for a further hour and a half before finally pulling a crowd pleasing jump out of the bomb hole and crossing the finish line in 38th position.

A really great course made this a fun day out. My position however has spurred me to train harder for race number two. In-time for this event, I will be lucky enough to be riding a super lightweight carbon Focus Raven 6.0. Combined with some added fitness (hopefully), I should be able to regain my personal expectations.