Racing News
Crowthorne - My View From The Pack
by Neil Macleod, 20 Mar 10.
The first race of the year is always full of uncertainties. Am I on a good day? Have I done enough training? Was it the right kind? Is the bike set up properly? How have the competition spent their time? The answers tend to show a couple of races into the season, and I don't think too much importance should really be placed on the result of one day, unless it's your main goal of the year. For me this was a good chance to test the condition and get back into the swing of racing. I've already competed in a short road race, but given that it's easy to hitch a ride in the bunch, I've discounted this as a performance indicator, fun as it was.
So onto Crowthorne woods for round three of the Gorrick Saddle Skedaddle Spring Series. Checking out the course as part of my warm up I found a fairly flat course with lots of the usual singletrack broken up by short sections of fire road and a couple of short climbs. Conditions were fast and cold (-4 when we arrived. -4!!) as I covered the 5.8km course in a fairy gentle 25mins.
Lining up in the Supermasters I got a pretty good position on the second row of 39 riders, as we set off racing over four laps. As the horn went off and we all scrambled to get over the crest of the rise and down the hill, I ran into a little trouble in the shape of a wobbly rider in front of me, which delayed me getting into the pedals and getting going. Just a couple of seconds delay here and the race was already heading down the first hill, and out onto the course.
200 metres into the race the bulk of the field was 100 metres up the road and pulling away. It was pretty clear this would be a day for me to test out my ability to ride through a field as I set a pace that seemed fast enough to be gaining ground, but steady enough to see it through to the end. But no race is without problems so I wasn't going to complain about it.
The first couple of laps passed pretty quickly as I cut through to somewhere in the late teens. It was pretty difficult to judge exactly where I was with multiple races going on at the same time, so passing by the start finish I kept my ears alert to the commentary - 19th I think I heard. With the legs feeling positive, feeling the enjoyment of the course, and knowing I had cut through half the field I set out onto lap 3. By this time the race was well settled into its place, with the gaps between us all pretty much set, so gaining anymore places was going to be difficult. Now it was perhaps about maintaining a good rhythm, drinking often and getting over that finish line with the placing in tack.
Only it didn't really turn out that way.... Somewhere around halfway I started to run out of gas, perhaps paying the price of my first lap chasing, actually, it probably was. Now it definitely was a case of maintaining position and holding off that feeling of the world closing in on you. Riders began coming past and I had nothing to respond with. Just focus and keep your own rhythm was the phrase I repeated over and over. The fog continued on, as I continued to drift.
I began to gain a sense of clarity again as I headed to the end of the final lap - only 10 mins to go, stay focused. Keep going. Then I got caught. Again. This time I stepped up to hold pace with the group of 4 until the finish, the two stronger riders got away in the last couple of minutes but I managed to get a gap on the remaining racer going through that final loop. I crossed the line in 24th. I'd dropped 5 places!
Disappointing at the time, it's never good to hit the wall, even if it is manageable. But I'm not too unhappy really as I'm months away from my goal for the year, and as I mentioned at the start, its only one race, the first race. So with that in mind, I headed off home and got myself prepared for the next days training session and next weekends race at Black Park.
Follow Neil's adventures at www.raceright.cc
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