Sunny week in March!

Some time ago I was invited to a training weekend in the Brecons, Wales, by the Live2Ride road race team. I remember last March well, I did an XC race and it snowed!! Luckily it was the complete opposite this year.

Getting there on the saturday night, it was difficult to make out how good the road riding would be. 

Sunday was a perfect sunny day, the main climb of the day was the Gospel Pass, a picturesque climb, gaining 1500feet in 5miles, perfect! I love a grind! Making an early effort I left the roadies behind, but they were never too far away, 6/452 on Strava, i'll take that. Unfortunatley the descent wasn't quite as much fun. We stopped for a quick drink, as apparentley two bottles is only enough for 60miles. We made our way back to the Beacons where the group split, deciding to make the most of the day we strung a century out along a brilliant valley, until we had to turn around, I won't mention the puncture 0.8miles off 100! always take a pump kids!

Gospel Pass

The second and third days took in the Black mountain climbs in both directions, another great long grind, 25/1997 going north and 17/425 going south, maybe Non-compact cranks aren't too tough! I never realised there were so many great climbs in Wales. We finished the trip with a ride out of Crickhowell, taking in the Llangynidr Mountain, 1,300feet in 4 miles, and the Tumble, 1,260feet in 3miles. A great few days riding, 306miles and 29,000feet of climbing, Wales can compete with the Canaries! in the sun.

A few days of easy spins later and it was off to Wasing for the first round of the Southern XC series, I raced there last year, it isn't a favourite venue of mine due to the lack of long climbs, but it was a lovely sunny day, which made up for it. I was racing in expert category again. I got off to a good start, but struggled to find a way through the group, getting held up initially. I had a few good laps, getting caught by a few masters racers was dissapointing, but I managed to get a 10th, which i'll take, few places up on last year. It was a good end to a long week of riding, getting on for 20hours!

Southern XC- Round 1

With Gorrick 100 and UK12 only a few weeks away I would be wise to try my legs on an XC race. The run up to the race wasn’t ideal, I broke my spare set of wheels and rode most of the week either road riding or on my Singlespeed, luckily Jonathan from Strada Wheels pulled through and I picked up my new bling set of Carbon 29er wheels. 29er wheels have a notorious habit for being flexible, luckily with carbon rims these wheels are super stiff, and get up to speed super quickly.

Arriving in plenty of time to Matterley Basin near Winchester I signed on and rode a quick practice lap to check conditions and learn the course, the course suited my strengths, it was not very technical and it had several long climbs. Conditions were good considering the heavy rain the previous day, summer tyres worked well, even on the slippery rooty sections, I was relieved and looked forward to racing.

Having not raced xc properly in 2 years, I opted for the sport category, lining up for the start I was happy with my choice. I had a good start and was easily inside the top ten by the end of the first climb, reaching the first singletrack we had caught the master cat back markers but the course suited overtaking.

At race pace the laps felt even shorter, first lap done, pushing on I was in second place, comfortable with the pace the second lap went well, onto the final lap I needed to make up over a minute to catch first place, this didn’t happen. I finished second which I was happy and surprised with, my lap times were all within 10seconds of each other and I had plenty left in the tank, which makes me think I should have stepped up to the expert cat, but as I confidence checker I was happy. Next race Gorrick 100.

More to follow on my new race bike!