Derby cyclocross national series round 1

The first round of the national series, which by tradition has seemed to have been held in Derby over the last couple of years, more specifically at the Moorways Athletics stadium. With Saturday morning being a very wet one many people expected this to be the true start to the cyclocross season with the sight bit of mud a possibility. However, like every year even with all this rain there was no real mud to see except for the slight tarnish covering the course making it a rather slippery and technical one which was going to make for some challenge come the race 10 o'clock sunday morning.

The correct line choice were vital come race day

Saturday afternoon, after the adult races were completed the course practice was open. On first arrival the course looked pretty slippery with many of the adult riders coming off on the numerous off camber sections dotted around the course, however by the time the course was open for practice the previous races had wicked the moisture out of the course and it was surprisingly grippy in places whilst as a whole running pretty quick and flowy. With tyre pressures and lines picked it was now all down to what I could do come tomorrow.

The course included a number of obstacles such as these steps, two bridges and some hurdles.

With a short trip to the luxurious Travelodge at Donington park services it was time to rest up, with some stretches done, legs shaved and a pasta pot eaten there wasn’t much more you could do in the hotel room so off me and Dad went in search of pudding down the service station! 10 minutes later and the best bargains hunted out it was the 20p marks and spencers strawberry and raspberry yogurt that made the cut, which turned out to be a pretty good choice and finished the fine dining experience off well. The evening meal was then followed by the watching of Police Academy 3 before a early night ready for the next morning.

After a fresh 7am start and porridge pot eaten it was off back to the Moorways Athletics stadium, with a Veloforte Classico bar as a quick mid morning snack shortly followed. Veleforte make some the best energy bars I have ever had and I have been using them in a number of races in the later part of the season including the Junior Tour of Wales and the Philippe Gilbert classic. My personal favourite is the classico bars, which is citrus fruits, almonds and honey flavoured, I have to admit I also love the Ciocco bars especially when out on a long training ride and you are in need of some morale the cocoa, almonds and date combination definitely helps. It was then off for a quick lap of the course to wake the legs up and make sure everything was running smoothly. The coldness of the previous night had left a blanket of dew on the course making for some far slipperier conditions than the last afternoons practice laps, with some pressure let out of the tyres it was now all about the race.

Veloforte bars are the energy bars to have

40 minutes to go, onto the rollers for a tough warm up to wake up the body.

30 minutes to go, a virtue water drunk to get a caffeine kick mid race.

20 minutes to go, off the rollers and down to the startline.

15 minutes to go, lined up on the startline ready for gridding to commence.

5 minutes to go, stood on the startline ready for the start whistle.

3 minutes to go, down with the gel and off with the jacket and leggings.

0 minutes, the start whistle goes and you are off.

I was gridded quite far back on the startline, even though I have won both of the other races I have done this season, but this is because it was based on last years British cycling points. Despite this I managed to get a pretty good start, and managed to weave myself up through the field quite well so that I was in a good position heading into the wooded section which was situated fairly early on in the course. However my luck soon ran out as 500 metres into the race another rider cut across my line completely taking out my front wheel so that I hit the deck pretty hard, by the time I had gotten the other riders wheel out of my pedal I was dead last leaving me with a big task on my hands to try and get back towards the front of the race.

The course was fairly narrow and with it being very slippery it made it very hard to work my way up through the field as there wasn’t too many opportunities to get past other riders. Despite this I managed to work myself from 70th position to 19th place which I was pretty disappointed with as I was hoping for something a bit better, but looking at my performance and the situation I was in this was something that I was pretty happy and with some small tweaks that can be easily made i hopefully will mprove my performance even more. But most importantly the legs felt pretty good so this should put me in a good position going into the main bulk of the season.

I have now got a few weeks of training on my hands with a big block this weekend getting the miles in, with 5 hours saturday and 4 hours sunday. Then the focus starts to turn towards the next round of the cyclocross national series in Irvine at the end of this month which I’m really looking forward to.