That pre-race nightmare finally came true…I managed to miss the ‘get set, go’ and give my competitors a healthy head-start. Not a good way to begin the lung burning that is the first race of the season.

I wasn’t late leaving, I got the arena when I wanted, I had even pre-entered, but I guess 1.5hrs isn’t quite enough time for all my faffing. I think my problem lay with my ambitious 25mins to ride the course, which, in the conditions, was riding slow. I’d even invested in some of those pro full zip tights and was looking forward to my chippendale act on the start line but alas, even they weren’t going to be quick enough given my 1.5mins deficit. 

So I blasted off down the fireroad on my own. It’s not just the literal time here which is the problem, having to trudge through all the riders at the back is time consuming too. Still, I managed to make it up to second by the end of the first lap and had my eye (just) on first. I proceded to catch Luke in first (I think!) and came my second problem: a cock up in bottle preparation meant I had only water and no gels - in a race where a caffeine gel would have really hit the spot, I was riding with nothing at all. Riding for 2hrs without food isn’t a problem but to ride at full capacity, a blast of sugar gives a buzz like a child on Haribo; I began to realise I was missing my ProHydrate. 

Finally, my third issue, a little slip up and a crash snapped my front brake lever clean off during the third lap. My rear brakes were already fading thanks to the gritty mud and this was to be the nail in the coffin. A technical course with a few good decents, zero braking meant running the majority of the last two laps. This turned out to be very costly time wise and I was caught by second and third to limp home in fourth or perhaps third (it got a bit confusing at the end and I’m afraid I couldn’t stick around for the podium).

Despite my grumpy outlook at the end, in hindsight I had a blast on what was a great course, made especially challenging by the mud (it held up well). I got what I wanted, which was a calibration to racing and whilst it would have been nice to do the superman thing of coming back from a time penalty to win the race, I think I put up a good fight.

John.