Thanks Toks – only 137 road pts, the rest are cyclocross .. if you could combine them and add mtb points too it would be nice! I’ll do a report just for you then – from Croydon innit ..
It was not quite as straightforward as the BC report makes it sound. I am gridded on 1st line now so it’s important to make the most of a good start, and I’ve gotten better at it, but this time somehow I couldn’t clip in my pedal and had to do about 5 strokes before being able to put the power down, and after a short tarmac climb went into the singletrack in about 15th place – what a bugger, I thought my race was pretty much over. The pace was frantic and even though I started passing people, I quickly lost touch with the front group. I kept them in sight for a few laps but couldn’t make up any ground. Two of the favourites, Webber and Record were also starting to pull away from that group, and I knew this was a danger. For now my aim was to catch up with the group of about 5 just ahead of me though.
Despite three dismount/running areas and twisty covered sections the speed was higher than any off-road race I’ve done I think, as the course was bone dry and had a few fast straights – averaged 27.2km/h, which would not be too bad on a long road ride! In previous races most of the top ten riders had split fairly early, but this resembled a road race with a front group in tight formation.
Looking at my lap times I managed to stay consistent, and even accelerate a bit in the second half, whilst some might have slowed down a bit – thanks to that I finally made it to the chase group, which included fast vets Bell and Lyons, plus Birks, O Grady, Duguid, and despite Birks putting in savage attacks to jump away, helped them to finish reeling in the two leaders, which was no easy task. I’d have rather wanted to do that on my own, but the drafting effect was significant on this course which didn't help.
Now I was just behind Webber and Record and had to force myself from not being satisfied with at best a 3rd place, which was still satisfying after such a terrible start – was time for a bit of brain-kicking and thinking about finally winning a round (just like George did two years ago).
My dismount/remount technique is not great yet, so I took the lead on the last lap with the firm intention of staying there until the last dismount in order not to loose any precious time there, which was just before a long downhill from the finish. Webber was breathing in my neck though and I was decided not to let a repeat of my previous race at this venue (a few weeks ago) happen, where he’d piped me to the line by undertaking in the final corner where I’d gone a bit wide. He tried to ride the final bump though, a 45 degree earth mount, as he’d done previously, and messed it up ending up being passed by two people. I only heard the noise behind me as I was remounting so without looking back I hammered it through the final bit of singletrack, then onto the tarmac downhill, foot out in the wide corner, looked back a couple times and saw Birks was chasing me hard, I saw some tape up where I thought the finish was but wasn’t even 100% that was the way to go, began wondering whether it was in fact the final lap, I wasn’t even sure I’d make it to the tape before Jules, so just put my head down and kept sprinting – dead chuffed about the win : ) (the time gaps are wrong too, it was seconds all the way to 4th).
Come and see us racing on Sat night at Herne Hill and Sunday pm at Alexandra Palace
I think this is your first BCF win this year so Chapeau dude. 
