After checking the weather forecast every day for a week, and my fingers nearly dropping off after crossing them so much(such is life when you can't afford a pair of wet tyres) Saturday finally came round. Friday night had pissed it down. Brilliant. Dad left me up on Saturday morning and I got my stuff together and headed down to check out the track. It wasn't actually that wet which was good to see, but there was just a layer of grease sitting ontop of the trail that was making it next to impossible even to get up the first climb! Not good with the race less than 24hrs away and more rain forecasted!
Luckily enough things seemed to have dried up for Sunday, raceday. Hadn't really planned on doing a practice lap as it was only going to be the same track but drier than I had ridden the day before. But then I bumped into fellow Dher Michael Rea as I was just riding around, and thought I'd head for a shred with him to take my mind off the race. Practice lap went well, as imagined everything was a lot handier to ride than the day before, so was all sweet to the beat. Practice lap took a little longer than planned, and time went a little faster than planned, so before I knew it, there was like 10mins to my race and I hadn't started a warmup or got the right bottles, I didn't even know where I was gonna do a warmup! Mad times. A sudden urge to let some weight off in those classy portatoilets that arrive at every race took over me, and I searched the surroundings in desperation for the little green tardis's of happiness. There were three down beside the start line, sweet. Picked the nicest looking one and opened the door to Narnia. Unfortunately there was no toilet roll in Narnia. On I went to the next door, no toilet roll in it either. Even risked complete public humiliation and tried the 'Ladies only' portaloo with my fingers crossed. Nope. No bloody toilet roll again, and even worse, a huge dump sitting there in the toilet. Fair play the poor lass probably needed the whole roll for that one! I'm not one for pre-race rituals or anything, but this certainly wasn't going how I'd planned!
Luckily there was a carpark about half a mile up the road and someone had been so kind to stick a portaloo up there, and even kinder to put some toilet roll in it! Hero. I'll save you from reporting every little detail of the next bit as I do want you to come back to this website sometime! haha. But anyway I tried my best to get the heartrate up in Narnia as at this stage there was about 5mins til my race started and the warmup boat had sailed long ago!
Hopped out of the loo and into the light with a terrific sense of achievement and fulfilment, ready to take on the world and all it's challenges.
As the 5 people queuing outside looked on in disgust. Haha. Enough of that and on to the race..
Well actually before the race I fell on my face. Within the 2 minutes of hopping on my bike and riding half a mile back to the start line I'd managed to fall on my face, yes. Even better, I'd fallen straight onto the fireroad, so there was a lovely bit of bleeding coming from my cheek and jaw, major lack of skin on my shoulder, and I'd managed to smack my knee, which was already in agony and I'd been resting it from coming off the bike 2 days previous. Soup-ar.
Race began straight up a fire-road hill with 140ft of climbing, pace was crazy. Chris Oakley took off like someone was hanging a kit-kat up the road and it was him in the lead, Rob Deegan 2nd and myself sitting in 3rd. I kept the power constant, passed Rob, passed Chris, and got into the first singletrack climb first.
That was the plan. Feeling good now, going flatout up the first climb, nailing every line, all the track practice coming into use now. By the top of the first climb, about 5mins in, I'd made a good 10 second lead. A short downhill/flat and a steep uphill followed, and I gave everything to increase my lead. Plan to blitz the first lap to get away and then recover second lap obviously wasn't going to be as quick as riding a steady two laps, but it worked out ok coming across the line with the 2nd fastest lap time of anyone on the day for my first lap, 2mins 30 up on 2nd place, and then dropping back to a slightly slower 2nd lap. Ended up with the win, 2nd place 6mins 30secs down and 3rd 8mins 30secs down.
Pretty happy with the result, real nice to end the season on a high, winning the last NPS! Pretty sure I could have gone a bit faster had I had a warmup and a bit of a better pre-race, but dealt with what I had and got the job done. Track was a complete joy to race, so a huge thanks to XMTB for holding the race and getting the track into shape!
UK School Games is the next big event up on the cards. Have injured myself, so already carrying a screwed left knee for the whole year, I've now added the right knee to the mix too! Hoping I can get it working again in time for the UKSG, just a bit of a shame all the high intensity stuff I'd planned for now, to peak and then recover nicely, has gone down the drain. Life's a bitch sometimes. Just swimming and walking and lying up in the local leisure centre's sauna and steamroom, smashing out runs on the slide and stuff at the minute. Could be worse I suppose.
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