Hog Hill Regional Cyclo-cross Championships 5th December 2010

On Sunday 5th Dcember 2010 saw the South East and Eastern Regional Championships take place at Redbridge Cycle Centre (Hog Hill). I arrived with lots of time to spare, so had a ride of the course with some fellow racers to have a look at some line choices, dismounting locations etc. The course was quite slippery but was not deep with mud so i thought it suited me from the start.

On the above picture i am on the far right, as you can see i was gridded on the first row, which helped with my confidence, until i noticed a large bit of ice covering part of the tarmac track on my side starting hill, so i knew i would need a quick start to avoid having to ride over it. I had a great start, by avoiding the ice, i was in about 3rd or 4th all the way up the starting hill. Once i had been racing for around 2 minutes, i fell back into about 4th, and kept a consistent pace throughout the race, which seemed to have worked as my lap times noted by my coach were virtually impeccable (00:09:18, 00:09:20, 00:09:20, 00:09:27).  I think the consistency of my pace allowed me to climb up the field a bit more and throughout the race i thought i was making progress.

By half way through the race, the course was getting quite slippery and two fast descents were getting very technically demanding, i had to fight hard to keep the speed and stay on the bike! Also, by this time the pits area was getting quite churned up and became un-ridable by the 2nd lap so i ran the bike up that part of the course on the last 2 laps, as seen below.

On the 2nd to last lap i found my place in the race and gave one last effort up the finishing hill and finished the race in 3rd. I was happy with the result as i knew that i had just got a podium position, but was now absolutely knackered! (as seen below)

Overall i enjoyed the race and i think the not deep, but slippery mud suited me and i just hope i can carry this luck on, to the Bradford Trophy Round this weekend (12/12/10).

I will post a section on the Bradford Trophy Round next week :D