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Next on the agenda was supposed to be Round 3 of the National Trophy in Southampton. However, waking up the morning of the race with a chesty cough resulted in me forfeiting the race for another year. I remember having one of my best trophy results there in the past and for the last 2 or 3 years illness have prevented me attending what is a great cyclocross course. I spend just as much time ill as I actually do training or it seems to be the case lately, but recently I’ve started a new training regime as part of the Welsh Development Programme in preparation for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014. Despite this programme still being in the very early stages, the back-up/support (Sport Wales) that I’ll receive in this programme includes a nutritional programme which has been designed to cater for my low immune system which will make a massive difference to my time spent on the bike and overall performance.
Having experts form all different areas to improve sporting performance (physiotherapists, nutritionists, physiologists, strength & conditioning coaches, doctors and psychologists) is so much more than anything I’ve ever had in the past and this may be the key to making the next big step in my career as a mountain bike racer. However, despite it being in the early stages, I’ve already started seeing improvement’s…
After missing the trophy I had to make the decision the following Tuesday as to whether it would be worth sticking to my original plan of heading out to Turkey for a Class 1 UCI race where there was a good chance of picking up some well needed points ready for the World Cup season in 2012. Deciding to go ahead with the trip and chatting to the Old Man on the plane, we talked about how strange and un-natural it felt to be flying to a race at this time of year and came to the conclusion of that it was probably a bad idea. Whether it was purely because I was coming off an illness and not feeling in the best shape for the job at hand or whether it was just a case of feeling that we should just be in the gym smashing out some weights at this time of year, but it just didn’t seem right.
We arrived at our hotel late on the Tuesday night allowing us to get up on the Wednesday fresh for the first ride. Deciding to go for a small spin purely to get our bearings, ended up being a 4 1/2 hours over to the course and back after picking up the signposts for the race. Despite it being a bit of an epic with a 2 hour climb (at the Old Man’s pace) from sea level to 1200m and also getting caught in rather full on hailstorm, it was a perfect start to the trip and was pretty much the turning point in our spirits. From that point on we knew what we came here to do and all too soon, days had passed (including managers’ meetings) and it was race day!
We rode over to the course again on the Friday which included two practise laps of fairly challenging course. The course consisted of sharp edged rock gardens, rock slabs, slick turns and steep greasy climbs which by the end of a fast lap confirmed my thoughts of it being a draining course – it was tough! Arriving at the venue on race day, the course had dried out a little meaning we could get away with a slightly higher pressure in the tyres. But overall things hadn’t changed all that much and I was confident on the many challenging sections, where clearly other riders were having some trouble.
Gridded on the second row I knew I would have to get a good start an into the singletrack near the front as the nature of the course would cause bottlenecks. Unfortunately, I found myself being boxed-in and by quarter of a lap in (exiting the main singletrack) I was sitting in around 20th place. From that point on the course did open out a lot more where I could pick my moments to pass, sitting in on the narrow sections then moving up a few positions before it narrowed again. To be honest In comparison to other riders, I felt by far the strongest rider on course passing some very decent riders with ease as I worked my way through the field.
By the end of lap 3 (of the 5 lap race) I had worked my way into 2nd and feeing really comfortable. Despite the leader being 40 seconds up he had been so from the first quarter of the race and hadn’t gained anymore time, and with my new race plan to hit the last two laps hard I was convinced I was racing for the win. However, on the last rock slab drop at the very end of the lap I punctured and was forced to run to the nearest technical assistance which meant running all the singletrack sections on the first quarter of the lap. Nevertheless, I ran hard got my spare wheel but for the last lap-n-half could only manage a finishing position of 6th place.
I was pretty disappointed watching the riders going up onto the podium to get their photos/interviews as I felt pretty sure that even if I didn’t manage to catch the leader, I would have ran him close and would have definitely had 2nd place which would have been awesome! I still came away with a handful of UCI points so not a complete waste of time.
On the grand scheme of things, conversation on the plane was a lot happier coming home as opposed to going out and I felt that the race was just what I needed to turn things around and it is great to feel as strong as I do at this time of year. I’ll continue with my new training regime, still racing the cross at the weekends but with the main aim being the mountain bike season next year.
The next race for me will be Round 4 of the National Trophy (Derby) where I hope to better my shocking performance at Round 2.