Been a bit flat out this week, but last Sunday I had a nice easy 2 hour CX race....Battle in the Bowl.
This is my favourite event of the year since it was started 4 years ago. i'm not sure why as it is 2 hours of pain and really takes it out of me and this report will be fairly limited as I can't really remember a great deal. IT's usually in May and is usually a dust bowl, but this year being postponed to September it was even dustier and due to the local area being home to nesting birds the route was changed, which takes out the steep climb half way around the lap and the struggle around the top of the Bowl followed by a very quick descent through the woods (usually someone hits a treee every year).
Due to the timing and everything going on, I hadn't especially focussed on the race and just had a few easier days prior to rest up, on the Saturday I felt ok but not amazing, ohwell. Race day came and I decided on some file tread 40mm wide Vittoria Terreno Drys considering the conditions, the start was separated into 3, seniors, V40+ and Womens. I got a good start from the left side of the grid (probably not the besT) and was in around 15th round the first corner when someone far too eager gave me good elbow nudge, I told him to calm down with 2 hours of racing to come. I got onto the front group after someone fell on the first transition to the gravel on the first lap (ie 2 corners in...) and worked out I was about 13th. I settled on the back of the group knowing I coudl suck some wheels and not go too hard too early. The pace was pretty brutal with 2 Canyon DHB guys on the front. Over the course of the first lap it slowly spread out as people lost wheels through the twisty bits and up the steeper climbs, on lap 2 i was in the second group and just pacing myself as steadily as possible working with a few people I knew. This remained the status quo for about the next 30 minutes as a few people dropped back from the lead group either with a mechanical or due to poor pacing and I moved up to 10th. This was the best it got as I carried on in this group for what seemed an hour or so, getting a new gel and water bottle every 2 or 3 laps, my power started well with a 320w or so first lap (8.5mins) 300W second and then i settled around 280 for the next 3 or 4 laps, it slowly dropped as the hour passed and I got through to about 90 minutes at 260W average after a few laps where my group split apart as people tired but I was trying to remain conistent passing backmarkers.
As I got to about 95 minutes I thought I heard a slight squidge from my tyre and thought nah it's in my head and passed the pits, unfortunately it wasn't nothing and as the lap went on I heard it a few more times and eventually nursed the tyre back to the pits losing about 1.5minutes over the course of the lap. From here I pushed on to the finish as I had recovered a little with some stronger laps back up 265W-270W laps. Only real event I had was on my last lap as I descended through the fast sweepers I was caught by the leaders, who didn't call out their approach and then after a few corners shouted wide with my response being what side. I then had a bit of a tantrum being 1hr 55 or so in and refusing to move from the line until they either passed or called a side. the first got passed but the second didn't know CX etiquette (the reason being you coudl move off line and turn into their path as riders usually prefer passing on a certain side and I wasn't going to move offline and risk a collision or drop major time as I knew I was being caught from behind) he then moaned I'd ruined his race... Ohwell I finished the lap off and came home in 13th absolutely exhausted. Power was good with a 250W(270NP) and 175HR average for 2 hours. I was certainly spent afterwards and only really felt back to normal legs wise yesterday.
Still not bettered my first year result of 9th, but will carry on attempting to get back into that top 10. Good thing was comparing myself to my fellow league riders and seeing i was generally faster than the guys I'm usually scrapping with. I still don't have those kicks and I'm a bit overweight (71kg compared to 68KG) but it's soemthing to work on prior to our league restarting on 11th October. Few pictures on my strava below.
https://www.strava.com/activities/4021177200
