Race reports

One More Solo said:
Looking good and looks like your form is where it should be!

Shoes look good too. I’ve got a pair of those PX socks and the elastic is garbage on mine as well. :p
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Haha, I was quite happy with how I went all things considered as I always struggle first few rounds and grass crits aren't my forte, hopefully as it gets slippier my form will improve!

Haha the px socks are rubbish aren't they, should have bought loads more as they're so cheap and comfy!
 
Slight improvement on last weeks race in that I finished! :D

Same as the previous week, proper grass crit, fast, flat and furious throughout with no let off. Not really my strength! Had a bit of a ropey warm up due to traffic on the way there meaning I got there a bit late, but gridded front row I was in to the first corner 5th and dropped to 7th few corners later, and didn't get in the front group unfortunately, 7th is where I stayed pretty much throughout! moved up to 6th for about 15 minutes, but was caught back with about 10 minutes to go and held on to 7th. Race next week is on a much more technical circuit which should hopefully be a bit more to my liking, could do with a bit of rain now to sort the men out from the boys! :D Still a few kg over where I would like to be after an over indulgent summer too!

https://www.strava.com/activities/5986345846
 
So I've not posted many CX race reports this year, partly as I've not had too many good races and because not much has happened to remember in many of them as it's generally been a dry languid grass crit for most of the races.

However over the weekend I went and raced in the World CX Masters event held in Ipswich. I believe this is the first time it has been held over here, unfortunately due to the COVID test requirement changes the number of competitors was less than expected, but still very much an international event with probably 10% of riders competing from abroad. A club mate and I went up on the Friday(with our wives as pit support) to go check out the course and watch some of the racing. Got up there nice and early and all was going well until I realised I had left the two front wheels for my bikes on the wall in my garage....so minor laugh and panic and sensible head put on we worked out a solution to borrow my club mates wheel after his race as we were competing in the 40-44 (him) and 35-39 categories one after the other.

Course recce went well, with the course very flat and dry apart from one section on an old 4x4 course, and pretty quick and grippy. Not usually a course I'd like, but it was what it was, with no rain due it wouldn't change much. Back to the hotel and after an evening meal consisting of some amazing Pizzas and Red Wine to calm the nerves we all went to bed early and got good night sleeps.

https://imgur.com/WYFdJEZ

Saturday came and a quick peak out the window showed no rain, just a cold thick fog. We headed up to the course to watch some of our local league riders and friends race with some excellent results seeing 2 of our local league riders win their championships and a further 2 riders on the podium.

As the race came around the wind had picked up, the temperature had dropped and the course was drying up further meaning it was speeding up, so we got ready dropping off the pressure washer, spare wheels and doing our warm ups. my club mate had an amazing race and came home in 18th picking up 2 places on the final straight. Now it was my go...Due to the lack of racing because of COVID, grid slots were picked randomly and I was no1...At this point I will say it didn't really matter where I was gridded as there were only 22 people due to start my race!

Clothes were kept on as late as possible with leg warmers coming out for the first time this season. I lined up to the right of centre on the grid knowing a tailwind behind me would hopefully suck me along the start as I knew some of the other riders had phenomal starts. As the whistle went I got a pretty good launch off the line clipping in straight away but as the start was about 300 or so metres of flat tarmac, I got swallowed up by all and sundry! and by the first corner I was around about 13th or 14th I would say. The race strung out in the twists and I settled down, trying not to go to deep but not lose a wheel as the wind was strong and could mean a lonely day in the saddle watching previous races. Now I won't lie I was flat out the whole race and don't really remember a lot, after the first half lap I was in a group of 4 or so people including the only other guy from my league who was in my race, in my head my main aim was to beat him (as I've only beaten him once this season in a running race in the mud) as a few laps went by the group whittled down to myself and one other rider (Nick Blight from Magspeed - couldn't forget him as he had a million supporters it seemed) as the other 2 dropped, we then picked up two more riders a lap or so later and these two got dropped quite quickly as one fell at the huge hurdles and took the other rider with him. From there we could see we were catching 2 riders in front and agreed to work together having a bit of dialogue, over the next 2 laps we caught up with them and I took the front on the muddy 4x4 section where I seemed to make huge gains every lap! (I don't know what I do differently but somehow I have a natural capability to ride mud). The group stuck together though with the other 2 riders strong on the open section. With 2 laps to go I had an almost fall on the 4x4 section but stayed in touch with the group, albeit a bike length or two behind I closed this down but as we came on to the start straight I struggled to stay with the group and although I did for the next little section I lost the wheel about half way round the lap and couldn't get it back, at this point I sort of sat up a bit to make sure I made no mistakes and get to the finish. Although in my head I was disappointed in my head as I heard that I was in 11th.

So as I came through to the finish I was ecstatic to find I had come home 10th! definitely my best ride of the season so far, being strong throughout and being able to follow attacks for the first time this year.

Onto next week and I'll be racing a UCI C2 event (one down from a world cup or world champs) just down the road from me, Cam Mason and Ben Turner are both on the start list, although if they come back from the continent for the day I'm not sure.

Anyway here is some pics. I apologise for the leg on show, I know I look like a triathlete and I am forever ashamed of that.

1kRknBg.jpg

udts6vA.jpg

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Vb1Ai-03Ct1yuVzHNxNfx-5QwzeSQFbK/view?usp=sharing
 
Cheers, looking forward to going back next year and to this weekend, it's lashing it down here, so should be a mudfest and play into my hands!

The way this year has gone I only put a baselayer on for the first time 2 weeks ago...
 
Didn't put up much about my UCI race and double weekender as I was so exhausted, came home in 38th on the Saturday and got lapped by Cam Mason after 43 minutes, didn't have the best of races unfortunately, but still great to be a part of.

Got National Champs this weekend, and if anyone is at a loose end and wants to try spot me it's all on GCN/Eurosport player/Youtube. Will try find the link on Sunday.

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/c...PE3-ZCpNaXiXobl8ebdSvaOQpZ01OFkYUj97Yrc0wV0oU
 
SoliD said:
Didn't put up much about my UCI race and double weekender as I was so exhausted, came home in 38th on the Saturday and got lapped by Cam Mason after 43 minutes, didn't have the best of races unfortunately, but still great to be a part of.

Got National Champs this weekend, and if anyone is at a loose end and wants to try spot me it's all on GCN/Eurosport player/Youtube. Will try find the link on Sunday.

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/c...PE3-ZCpNaXiXobl8ebdSvaOQpZ01OFkYUj97Yrc0wV0oU
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That looked brutal, barely any break from the mud at all ! Would be interesting to see the numbers, I suspect there wasn't much or anything below threshold HR.

How did you get on? Did I spot you being lapped just before the hurdles on lap 5, looked a bit like your club kit from the pics above?
 
resurgam said:
That looked brutal, barely any break from the mud at all ! Would be interesting to see the numbers, I suspect there wasn't much or anything below threshold HR.

How did you get on? Did I spot you being lapped just before the hurdles on lap 5, looked a bit like your club kit from the pics above?
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Brutal is probably the most accurate description. Avg hr was 178. That was me yes, shipped my chain twice on the last lap and sort of just eased it home saying thanks to all the people I knew cheering me on! Will write up a bit more tomorrow!
 
Thought I recognised the kit when Cameron Mason went past too!

I hadn't realised it was in Ardingly (not sure how that counts as Crawley?) until yesterday. Had I known I think I would have taken a ride or drive down. Not super far away.
 
Lethal` said:
Thought I recognised the kit when Cameron Mason went past too!

I hadn't realised it was in Ardingly (not sure how that counts as Crawley?) until yesterday. Had I known I think I would have taken a ride or drive down. Not super far away.
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You're like my missus :D she grew up in Crawley and said the same - London Gatwick? :D

So my weekend was busy, I was up early on Saturday to head up to the race and do pitwork for my Vet 50 and Vet 40 team mates, weather was pretty grim on the way up, and got worse as the day went on, I changed tops a couple of times as the wind was just ripping through my layers... after those two guys raced I went for a course walk and watched some of the female v40 and 50 race to get an idea of lines as I wasn't able to ride the course until the Sunday, after this the rain started coming down and I went home, opting to drive up on the day as it was only an hour and 20 minutes down the road. A good night sleep outweighs some travel.

So Sunday came and I got up there, sun was shining and after watching some of the juniors on TV and seeing it clagging up I knew I'd be in for a tough race. I've been suffering with a cold all week, so in my head I went in with no pressure on what to do, target was to finish ahead of my start position - 48 and to get more time than I had in previous national champs as they pull you if you're more than 80% of a lap behind the leader. Based upon the lap times this should have been about 3 laps.

Rode round for my practise lap and it was as expected horrific, loads of slow grinding sections, but this is the condition I love as it takes away the peaks of power that I can't draw upon and puts it into a war of attrition.

Warm up completed and to the start line, luckily it was warm enough as I had soaked through my warm up leggings on my warm up so they had gone back in the bag, I was on about 6th row, and gridded up to the left seeing accidents on the inside in a couple of previous races. Those few minutes on the start line waiting to go I was super relaxed which isn't usually the case and then the whistle went. I got going, clipped in nicely and kept powering on, I had a few riders I knew around me and went into the first corner, passing quite a few riders with more speed and a slight stoppage on the right caught a few riders up. I won't lie after this I don't really remember much of who I was racing or where I was. I just plugged round.

On the way back to the pits and over the hurdles I was strulgging to breath when running obviously due to the cold, and I contemplated jacking it in as it was painful, but with some riders I knew around me I ploughed on and settled in, everyone seemed to ease it back. I then didn't see these riders again, and was making a few positions here and there on the deep mud sections, with some riders dropping back with mechanicals (lots of dropped chains) I was pitting every half lap and on the second time past I asked for a small pressure adjustment on the rear of one of my bikes as it was bottoming out on the gravel sections. As we came towards the end of the third lap I had it in my head we would be pulled so I sprinted before the 80% line, and as I got there I realised we weren't being pulled and I would get one extra lap, the guy I was with we had a chat just after start/finish line saying we were last on the course. I was made up with this as i've only ever got 34 minutes in previous years!

Last lap was a bit of a pain as I dropped my chain on both my bikes after having no issues on the first 3 laps and ran back to the pits (when I was overtaken by Thomas Mein and Cam Mason) as it would just not stay on, but I was so far back it didn't matter and I didn't want to risk getting in the way of anyone. overall I came through the finish line in 1hour 1 minute for 47th Overall and 21st Senior - the top 10 was made up of 9 U23 riders and Thomas Mein.... most of the U23 are all first or second year too, so they're only going to get stronger, whilst I only have a couple of years left in seniors before moving up to V40.

My power on the first lap was 243w/289NP (this includes the running...)with first 2 minutes at 378W and slowly dropped from there.

Some pics on Strava/my instagram.

https://www.strava.com/activities/6497420139
https://www.instagram.com/paulinportsmouth/

And if you didn't see it, it's all on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy-uiDMak38

Two more races left this year and hope i'll be back on the podium in my local league at two venues I really enjoy!
 
SoliD said:
You're like my missus :D she grew up in Crawley and said the same - London Gatwick? :D
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Ahaha. I did immediately think of Gatwick too :D

SoliD said:
as they pull you if you're more than 80% of a lap behind the leader.
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Was wondering how this works as barely saw anyone else on the course besides the leading 4 during the footage until you and a few others appeared near the end. Was worried one of the stragglers was gonna end up blocking Cameron/Thomas and affect the result. Shame the cameras missed whatever mistake Cameron made!
 
Lethal` said:
Ahaha. I did immediately think of Gatwick too :D


Was wondering how this works as barely saw anyone else on the course besides the leading 4 during the footage until you and a few others appeared near the end. Was worried one of the stragglers was gonna end up blocking Cameron/Thomas and affect the result. Shame the cameras missed whatever mistake Cameron made!
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It's an odd rule, but basically they take the average of the leaders first 2 laps and then if you're more than 80% of the lap time behind the leader you'll be pulled, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. on laps as long as yesterday and with as much space it's usually not a problem, but riders have to pay attention. I was well aware they were coming as could hear it sall on the tannoy. 2 years ago in Shrewsbury they pulled far too early and I only got a few laps in but should have got one more when I looked back at the timing. quite frustrating. Watching it back the races for the juniors looked so quick compared to our races in slow motion! :D Waiting to see where it'll be next year, hopefully not too far north. Think there are a few places in the UK wanting to get a world cup or similar in the future with BC funding, think Crawley might have a shot after yesterday, although know my local course are expanding and pushing themselves as they have the funding.
 
Ah. I didn't catch the Juniors race as GCN was playing up. I'll have to check that later.

I can understand how muddy that course was yesterday. I rode the road besides it down to a lake on Boxing Day and it was rough, bit of a flood at the bottom. (in fact that whole ride was rough - huge fords everywhere!)
 
Lethal` said:
Ah. I didn't catch the Juniors race as GCN was playing up. I'll have to check that later.

I can understand how muddy that course was yesterday. I rode the road besides it down to a lake on Boxing Day and it was rough, bit of a flood at the bottom. (in fact that whole ride was rough - huge fords everywhere!)
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GCN is great, went to watch earlier and first 5 minutes of mens race missing, all on youtube! #

Yeah that was can be grim, remember cycling around there when I started seeing my wife and you'd go down what looked a nice clean road then all of a sudden a drop into a huge road wide puddle.
 
Yup - I ended up watching the previous day's stream on British Cycling youtube.

The bakery in Ardingly there always makes a good stop though!
 
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