National Trophy Round 5 - Peel Park, Bradford (11.12.11)

On Saturday I traveled up to Bradford in order to take part in Round 5 of the National Cyclo-X Series on the Sunday. I stayed at a Hotel on Saturday and then left the day after to go to the race. I arrived fairly early at around 11.30ish', this being 2 hours before my scheduled start (13.30). When I arrived I was greeted by heavy rain and before even seeing the course I was excited about the race later that day.

When I went to the course to practice, I saw many Junior riders, who had just finished their race, looking rather muddy and tired. After about 50m on the course (practicing) I could understand fully why the riders looked like they did! It was sooo Slippery and very hard going, because of the lack of traction and deep mud.

After practice I cleaned up a bit, and had two clean bikes read-ied for the start of the race (many thanks to Richard Wood). I then started a warm-up, which turned out to be pretty good and I was feeling good whilst on my way to the line. I was gridded first on the third row, which was not perhaps the ideal starting position.

However, when the whistle went, my elbows went out and I pushed my way through the riders, until I was in about the top 6-8!

As usual I did fall back a bit in the first 5 minutes, and then I started to claw back some places and have some real fun on the muddy and slippery course! Especially on the off-camber downhill bank (video link below). Mid-race I was with another 4 or 5 riders, which made it hard on the technical parts of the course, so I broke away from this group and managed to catch two other riders, I then went past them and spent the rest of the race, trying to close the gap on a rider ahead, but this never happened.

In the remaining part of the race, I managed to keep a good distance between me and the riders behind and in the end, finished in 10th place! with my nearest rival 20 seconds behind.

Overall, I really enjoyed the race, and was really pleased with the result. Considering my past 2011 Trophy performances, this was a real step forward. I do believe the technical and slippery aspects of the course allowed me to perform better, but I think fitness and confidence were deciding factors as well (also a fantastic pit crew, whom I will mention later). 

Below is a link to the video of the Off-Camber-Downhill-Bank mentioned earlier. Also I would like to thank Richard Wood and my dad, for being such a fantastic pit crew! I had to change my bike every half a lap because of the muddy conditions! And I always got a clean one back every time I entered the pits, so thanks sooo Much!! :D 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rT0kNL-wV0I

The National Cyclo-X Champs are 4 weeks away, and I have set myself the tough challenge of trying to match that result, or maybe even better it! I think the next few weeks are going to contain alot of Zone 4/5 training sessions! :-) Anyway, overall, a fantastic week-ends racing!!!

Thanks for reading and au-revoir!