My wife and I made our way straight from a wedding in kent up to Mansfield for the first Proper race of the season for me. it was 8pm saturday evening by the time we had got to the hotel nearby and quickly grabbed a bite to eat and a swift pint ! (to help calm my nerves
). Having looked at the pre entered riders list the week before I knew I was in deep, this was not going to be as easy as last year what with established expert riders really looking to up there game, a few Elites that had dropped down to expert and the wannabes from Sport like myself. I reckoned on about 15 other riders being quicker than myself.
For those that dont know Sherwood pines is as close to a road race as you can get on a mountain bike, it is about 50/50 fire road and singletrack. Nothing too technical, nmot much climbing and bone dry. Tactics play a huge part in the outcome for the elites and experts. Last year I had a great result there using the road tactic savvy I have picked up by riding with Addiscombe (thanks
).I was gridded 27th (back on the 3rd row). The warm up was great, I was feeling really fresh and liked the course and my chances of getting in the mix.
The gun goes and I am swamped by the other riders before the 1 km section of fireroad. No problem, I am still sitting around mid pack and the front guys are not gone just yet.
As we reach the singletrack a few riders are very aggressive in wanting to get near the front and if I am honest it was more physical than I am use to. 30 riders funnelled into a section capable of 1 rider + high BPM + adreneline + more ambition than ability + muppets = crashes and watching those not caught in the mayhem to ride away never to be seen again
. 15 or so got away and included most of those whom I thought were ones to watch. after 2 or 3 sections of single track natural selection occured amongst the riders I had settled into a pace with. Tactics are not something that the guys I was with understood/or wanted anything to do with. Some were panting hard from going all out at the start, some had just found themselves (through way of the crash) in a slightly faster group than they would like, others just did not like me trying to take charge.
our group was down to 5 by the second lap and we could see others up ahead maybe 200-300 metres away. "if we can see them we can catch them" I shouted. With 5 of us i was sure that together on the fireroad we could catch single riders easily
. 2 of our group took this as roll off the front and go for it. Off they went, the 3 of us stayed together until 1 dropped off, lap 3 we caught our 2 chums, they were toast. funny enough one of them had been my shadow for the whole race at a Gorrick a few weeks back so I knew he was equally as strong as me (could have made a good contribution in our little group). We rode through them no problems, an elite rider pasted at the end of the 3rd lap he was chasing as had snapped his chain earlier, I grabbed his wheel and dropped the other guy ( he was not taking any turns on the fireroad anyway and he was not very talkative anymore).Onwards with the elite until I had to slow down for risk of blowing. But I had made good progress and was now inside the top 15 (13th I think) . Through the arena and my wife is buy the commentators box yelling encouragement/abuse at me "catch them *&^%" ever the lady. Infact it was just what I needed.
Head down full gas for the last lap, I passed through the feed zone as 3 riders were leaving it. two of whom I know. Trevor Allan looked back, he knew if I caught them I would pass them so with another went for it. He was my target. 22 minutes of pain, 15 minutes in and I had realised that trevor was not to be caught today
.So a small battle ensued with a guy called Josh, as I rode up to him I was quite (no chance for him to counter attack !). I got past him, he had burnt all his matches, battling with those 2. Off I went. I beat him by 10 seconds in the end. But 8th was great. Not too far behind 3rd and 4th just 1.5 minutes. looking at my lap times if my first lap had not been a minute slower due to the crash then I would have been in with a chance as my last 2 laps were storming. Oh well. Another skill to racing is being in the right palce at the right time !
In hindsight I did not find or stay with a fast moving train of riders so that did not work out quite to plan and in addtion to that it was a very flat course and as some of you may know like it when the road turns up (alot).
Still early days, all in all I have a warm glow and a good feeling about how things are going so far. just need to consolidate my base training fully now and get some race speed in my legs. Until next time.
Serge
