Yip, still off-season – a couple of
coffee shop rides and a cross race at the weekend to keep me somewhat
active.
I arrived out for the first round of
the Supercross Cup in the Grange Castle Industrial Estate. After a
quick explorative lap, I came to the conclusion that I loved the course –
it was super fast and I knew the racing would be close.
A fully booked up field of 75 competitors lined up at
the start of the 350 meter long tarmac runway for the start – it
was cool. I was third wheel as we hit the first off-road section and
felt comfortable. I lost a couple of positions, gained a couple and
about a third of the way into the lap I was in a lead group of 6 –
National Champion, Robin, popped off the front so I went after him
and we rode away from the chasers. First lap I rolled through on
Robin's tail.
I didn't want the others to catch back
on to us so I started to drive it – I went to the front and started
to ride reasonably hard for the next couple of laps – when there
was a strong headwind (and huge draft for Robin) I didn't go too
hard, but rode a decent tempo. Hoping that Robin would ride some
too, he did and I spent a lap riding on his wheel – man, that was
SO much easier – coasting :)
Midway around the the fifth lap, Robin
attacked on a techy bit and bunny hopped the barriers (I hop off and
run them – I should really practice some CX skills but that would
probably be taking things too seriously) and he got a 7-8 second gap
– instead of pushing it too much I kept riding steady and as we
arrived back into the start/finish for the half way point of the race
it was only a couple of seconds - I would be back on his wheel by the end of the tarmac – happy days – hmmm, where will I
attack? Then it all went wrong – I jumped off a curb into a hard
left hander (on tarmac) and my front tub rolled off. The single tech
zone was 15 meters behind me (you can't go backwards on the course)
so I would have to run the full lap to get a new wheel – game over.
I was frustrated – my legs felt great and knew a win was on the cards (riding super easy a couple of times a week makes me feel fast –
who would have thought it?)... I think this was the first cross race
that I felt very comfortable for the whole race - well, half a race
at least. I think one or two more weekend cyclocross races and then
I'll hang up the race wheels again until the road season starts.
Great course, really well run, lots of
racers.
Report and results here (oh, and Robin did not put 30 seconds into me in 3 minute of riding!!! ;) and I never completed the 5th lap - I believe a couple of mistakes were made in the reporting - very creative writing I think)
(I'll add some photos when they come online)
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