York cyclocross National series round 4
“Wheel behind the line”
That phrase can only mean one thing, another race, this time in York for the 4th round of the national series.
After the trip up North on Saturday morning in time to watch the saturday afternoons racing it was clear that the racing was going to be very very tough! It was very muddy, which meant that it was quicker to get off and run in places and in other places it just meant that is was extremely slippery, which made for some amusing spectating especially along the long off camber section just before the finish. After a brief walk around the course, speaking to the marshalls to get the lowdown on the best lines, it
was onto the course for a couple of laps.
For the first two laps of practice the legs didn’t have any energy in them whatsoever, so I focused on the technical aspect of the course first making sure I was riding the quickest lines and hitting the correct ruts before the focus turned to the legs. After a gradual increase of pace around the 3rd lap all the rubbish from my legs had gone and it also made for a great practice hitting the corners and off camber sections at race speed. After another two laps of the course I was happy with how the course was running, and really liked the look of the long run up to the top of the hill, a benefit of having long legs is that you can run pretty quickly which is always a positive, the only bit I had to practice a number of times was the long off camber section, with it being only 200 metres away from the finish it was a critical aspect of the course which could prove critical come the race. In the race it ended up being quicker to run it, but you can never get enough practice. Also a massive thank you to Neil for jet washing the bikes down after practice so that they were clean for the race sunday.
After a quick change out of kit it was back to Grannie and Grandads for the night as well as a big bowl of pasta for dinner, followed by a very exotic fruit salad which even had blueberries and mango in! By the time tea was finished and a play with Molly (their very energetic 11 month old cockapoo who is very cute) it was time for bed in time for the half 6 wake up call.
Once the night was over and a big bowl of porridge finished, it was back into the car for the return trip back to the York sport village. After a night of heavy rain showers and more forecasted throughout the day the course had cut up considerably so it was back out onto the course for another quick lap. The course was still running fairly quick but had become much slippier around the corners and even more so along the numerous off camber sections, but still didn’t call for a bike change which was a result as the pits were situated along a very quick section of the course so a bike change would have resulted in at least 10 seconds lost.
After a quick 20 minute warm up on the rollers in the rain all that was left to do was to roll down to the start line on the other side of the course. After a number of good results from the previous two rounds I was gridded 5th, getting a brilliant position on the front row which proved critical with the 2nd corner being a sharp hairpin!
I managed to get a good start and was 5th into the first corner which allowed me to push on and stay at the front of the race, the slippery conditions made for some sketchy moments with a few riders coming down in front of me but luckily I managed to stay out of trouble and got into a group with a few other riders racing for 4th/5th/6th. A few riders went sprinting off early on but with the course being so brutal I sat in for a little while reserving my energy for the end of the race when everyone else would have been tiring.
After a few laps of hard racing and fatigue setting in I pushed the pace on going into the 3rd lap gaining an advantage on the rest of the group that I was with, with the long run up becoming tougher and tougher lap on lap my long legs managed to close the gap to the rider in front. With the gap to the rider in 3rd now being around 5 seconds I managed to close down the last few seconds through the number of switchbacks along the edge of the banking and I then managed to carry a lot of momentum off of the off camber section, sweeping down from the top under the other rider gaining a little advantage. I then managed to carry this speed to finish 3rd to gain my first national podium to date and only coming in 20 seconds behind the winner.
The legs are starting to feel good so am looking forward to seeing what I am capable this weekend at the regional championships followed by the 5th round of the national series the following weekend. Also thank you to everyone's support over the weekend, from my Dad to taking me to Grannie and Granada letting us to stay over saturday night.
Thank you very much also to Galibier for sending me some winter training kit to help me through those cold, wet miles. I am looking forward to staying warm and dry through the rest of the winter till next season.
