Me and Paul rode the first round of the winter series yesterday. This year the weather was good, 9'C and and dry, with no mud to speak of. 500 had signed up to start.
I warmed up by riding to the first bombhole to see the lines, as this is where there is usually a bottle neck of people peering over the edge. To help warming up I wore a gilet, I wouldn't need it to race. I lined up at the start on the second row and there was a minute's silence for poppy day. Just as I took off my gilet to put it in my pocket the klaxon went and I was stuck with my hands behind my back as everyone surged forward. doh! I managed to stuff it in my pocket and set off in pursuit. I caught Paul just before the bombhole, he'd passed me at the start and had been at least three rows behind me.
Luckily, we reached the bombhole with the first wave of capable riders and everyone rode straight into it, as I came back around it there was already a huge queue of stationary riders. Into the first singletrack and my legs are really hurting, I don't feel particularly out of breath but there's no power in my legs. So, I sit and spin and hope they get better. Out of the singletrack onto fire road to the second bombhole, this one was great - A steep four metre drop-in to a right hand berm, then part way up the opposite banking into a left hand berm, around a tree and back down in the direction we'd entered to exit on a sharp kick a couple of metres along from the entry point......excellent!
A bit more fire into some singletrack and then a long straight descent completely covered in fallen leaves. This was quite exciting because I had no idea what was underneath the leaves, and it was a matter of ..."what you couldn't see wouldn't hurt you" :-) I was able to use the smallest sprocket for this, but still couldn't get completely on top of the gear. A ninety degree right turn then took us up to the finish/start line. Normally, I'm feeling a bit nauseous for the first couple of laps, but I just had sore legs. I carried on like this for five more laps feeling worse and worse, when coming out of the first bombhole for the seventh time I stood on the pedals and the bike surged forward! Suddenly I was ripping through the singletrack out of the saddle, overtaking loads of people wtf! I started to feel good at last.
I'm not sure what to put my bad form down to, I had done a fastish 40km the day before and had a not too hard massage the night before. The only thing that I hadn't done was to massage my legs with deep heat before the race.
I managed eight laps in 4:23:43 Paul came in about a minute and half later. I was 7th. and Paul 8th. Vets.
