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Following on from a reasonable race at Round 4 of the National Trophy Series in Derby, it was time to try and retain my Welsh Championship Title for another year.
Waking up the morning of the race I wasn’t feeling very good, and to be honest if it had been any other race besides the champs I would have probably giving it a miss. Arriving at Penlan Sports Fields Brecon, it was pretty clear after seeing some of the Under 12’s bikes it was going to be a mud fest of a race, and to keep my jersey for another year I would have to ride strong. After practising the course, my race plan to attempt to push slightly bigger gears than normal to 1/ try and get grip in the thick sloppy mud and 2/ hope that using the bigger gears will prevent me using my lungs as much.
On the start line it was pretty cold so I opted to use two Vangard base layers and my DHB arm warmers in the attempt to race happy as opposed to racing cold in the wet, windy conditions and to be honest it was a good call! Off the start I took the front and tried to press on from the gun as with the conditions being the way they were is all too easy to get a mechanical and to have a little bit of time would only help. For the first few laps I had a small gap over current Welsh Series leader Joe Lally who was keeping me in his sights, but managing to get good grip up a couple of the muddy banking’s I started to make small gains every lap and without mechanicals was able to get a good lead. Once I had got my gap I was able to continue to ride well to the finish where I crossed the line to take the Welsh Cyclo Cross Champs for another season! I felt the race went ten times better than I was expecting it to before the start and am pleased to have won on a true cyclo cross course with true cyclo cross conditions… happy days.
After the Champs I was forced to have a few days off because of illness but was still able to make the start line for Round 5 of the National Trophy series in Peel Park, Bradford. Having missed last season’s Bradford round because of illness too, I was pleased to be racing as it’s a great course and normally I have a good ride there. After seeing the conditions when arriving at the venue (many races before my own) the course was already torn up and without doubt the course was going to be really muddy even if it was to suddenly turn into a beautiful sunny day!
After 1 lap practice on Dugast Rhino tubs running them at the lowest pressure I could possibly get away with, I was still sliding around as if on ice and by the time I’d got back to the van the bike must have weighed 40lb. Gridded on the second row, I had a pretty poor start entering the first corner outside the top 15 and was soon finding it hard to make-up positions.
I pushed hard, but it was pretty clear today was a day for suffering and had to just slug it out for the duration despite the upside down smile on my face. Well… the drifting down all the steep banking’s was good fun but in terms of performance it was a poor day at the office. I really struggled on the running sections, and on the bike couldn’t seem to deliver any power to the pedals despite having a clean light bike every half lap, thanks to Mam & Dad in the pits. However, by the last few laps of the race I was still riding round hard as I was able to on the day and found myself picking-off riders ending up crossing the line in 8th position, only 1 spot lower than in Round 4. Ok, so in terms of where I wanted to be on the day I was way off of the pace, but being inside the top ten is better than outside I suppose!?
Next race for me will be the Welsh League final in Cardiff next weekend then I will have a break from cross racing until the National Champs on the 7th of Jan.
