English
So the XC season opener has come and gone and Sherwood Forest certainly lived up to all the hype surrounding it. The big number of foreign riders made for a classy field and boosted the entry list to 70, which makes it the biggest Elite field for a very long time! It seems that my forecast of how the race would pan out was pretty much correct, but knowing what is likely to happen still makes for fantastic racing.
In the week building up I was in two minds weather I would do a normal big training week and treat this race as training or go a little easier and arrive a little fresher. I went with the latter, deciding that I wanted to do myself justice and hopefully see exactly where I am in Elite field so did a few tougher rides at the start of the week and eased it up towards the end. I had rebuilt the Focus Raven with a full SRAM XX groupset, which took a nice chunk of weight off the bike, bringing it down to below 18lb!
I arrived on site early afternoon on Saturday, where the temperature was far colder than back home in Wales. I put on a few extra layers than expected and headed out for a few practice laps, the plan for to do 3 laps, each one a little quicker than the last and get a few efforts into the legs before the race. Things didn’t exactly go to plan though, as just a few kilometres into the first practice lap I had a problem and had to stop and make my way back to the arena. I was very fortunate to get some help from one of the shops and neutral support set up in the pit and was able to head back out again and did the 3 planned laps. The course was totally different to previous event, although still fairly typical of Sherwood it was still going to be fast with fireroad stretches but it had more tight & twisty singletrack, which could be a problem during the opening laps. I opted to use a Racing Ralph 2.25″ on the front and a Furious Fred 2.25″ on the back, which is a super fast tyres but is only ever used on bone dry courses. After practising the course I met up with Ben Jeffery who had made the journey from Wiggle to support Lee and myself and headed off site, hoping that the next day would be a little warmer!
After a pretty good nights sleep and being able to chill out and watch the F1 Grand Prix in the early morning we headed back on site to what looked like a better day. As soon as I opened the door you could hear all the turbo trainers buzzing away, the excitement was building and the butterflies were making jingling in my stomach. After watching the Women’s and Youth races start it was clear that the start was going to be crazy, as after just 100m the track narrowed slightly between a few trees, which was causing problems.
I was race number 56, which was also my grid slot. With 70 in the race this gave me a position on row 5 of 7. Considering that my goal in this race was a top 50 place I didn’t have to make up too many places. Waiting on the start line, hearing the countdown my heart rate was up around 100, the nerves were certainly there! When the gun went and the whole pack charged flat out I was positioned towards the left of the bunch which gave me a good view ahead. As the pack narrowed between the trees a few riders clashed and went down, which caused several riders problems but I managed to squeeze through a gap and seemed to make up a few places. Around a few corners and onto the long fireroad straight I gave it everything, but lost up to 10 places as the quicker riders charged through. The course then turned right into the trees and narrowed to singletrack. The inevitable bottleneck slowed up everyone outside the first dozen or so places and by the time I got there everyone was off the bikes and walking. To be fair everyone stayed calm and patient, no one seemed to be doing anything stupid. About 20-30 seconds were lost, but eventually we were riding. The first few sections the whole pack was strung out in a long line, no chances to pass just hold the wheel in front. The few sections that opened up you would see a few people dart off, but the pace was pretty high and most people were content to sit in the line.
During the first lap I pushed on whenever I could, the legs were feeling pretty good and I was passing some quick people. By the end of lap 1 there was still a long train of riders going through, although the gap from me to the front was 2 minutes, which shows how important the start is at Sherwood. Into lap 2 and I saw that a group of riders were starting to form, including some quick riders who I knew well. I pushed hard early on and managed to tag onto the back of the group, which included Giles Drake, George Budd and Mike Cotty. I was happy in this group and the pace was fine, so towards the end of the lap I was feeling good enough to push the pace and took to the front of the group. I led through a few sections and we were catching a few riders ahead. Going into one really fast but fun section we caught an Elite rider ahead, but pretty soon after he made a big mistake on a few rollers, lost control and collided with me, knocking my bars and I hit the deck pretty hard. Luckily I was OK and the bike seemed fine, although the chain had come off which took time to put back on.
By the time I was back on the bike I had lost about 30 seconds to the group I was in and over 10 places as riders behind whizzed by. My first thoughts were anger, I was gutted as I was feeling good and felt like my race was over. It took a few minutes for me to get myself together and then set about trying to catch the riders ahead. I was pushing hard, but Sherwood is such a fast course that it is a massive benefit to be in a group. It took me until lap 4 to make up the 10 or so lost places and catch the rider who had collided with me, but the group of 4 was still 15 seconds ahead. On the fireroads I was charging as fast as possible, but only able to match the speeds they were doing and gaining just a few seconds on some of the singletrack sections. Going into the 6th and final lap the gap was about 10 seconds, but it might as well have been a lifetime. I gave it everything, but the group had grown to 5 and were starting to push each other for positions which raised their pace. They were in sight for all but the final 2km, where they had obviously upped the pace. I pushed through to the finish to take 43rd position.
43rd might not sound great, but to me I am happy with that as a top 50 was my goal, although it would have been nice to have the chance to challenge for a top 40 spot and the ranking points that comes with it. I might not have finished any higher, but that 30 seconds lost and all the huge amount of energy that I spent by chasing and riding alone took its toll. The fact that it was another rider that caused my accident was a bitter pill to swallow, but speaking to him afterwards he did apologise and I understand that sometimes these things happen in racing and no one can control them.
I’m happy that the move to Elite was justified and that I can compete in the category, all be it in the mid-pack. My ultimate goal for the season is a top 20 spot at one of the BMBS races, which might just be possible later in the season. My main aim remains endurance racing and I think I am the only competitive 24hr solo racer racing in Elite.
The next few weeks are manic, with a Welsh XC race next weekend a few enduros the following week before then heading back up North to Dalby for Rd2 of the BMBS series. From now on the focus becomes the 24hr UK Champs and all other events are just training. I wont be on good form for Dalby, so I’ll be looking to later races to get a good results at a National XC event.
