It turned out to be 3 degrees in Crowthorne, Hant's when I rolled in, luckly I'd thought to bring winter gloves. A practise lap revealed some short sharp double track climbs, loads of damp rooty single track and some ~"corkscrew" descents. I decide on the practise lap as I hadn't raced for two months I wouldn't worry about places, but I'd ride according to the strengths & weakness indicators in my training, and treat it as an race intensity session.
As I rolled up to the start, I noticed the field was well populated with good riders - Russ Jones, Clem Polizzi etc. I stuck my nose on the front, and waited for...the whistle. I got a really good sprint onto the double track with the first 15% 100m climb thinning the field quickly, then along a downhill where a second double track climb provided another sprint opportunity to take more places before entering the singletrack. I went in front of Russ, and behind Clem in about 4th, so a good start, but I knew I was out of position. I held on to the first lap completing it in 8th, then decided to back off and conserve energy and ride the race mentally rather than physically. This resulted in a 3 lap ding-dong with Keith Wyer, who is usually about 5 places in front of me. Mine & Keiths lap times tell a story:
Me - 00:27:27 00:28:17 00:28:10
Keith - 00:27:28 00:28:18 00:28:10
I rode my strategy smartly but Keith was unable to take me, and unwittingly in the post race conversation & handshake he told me exactly where I was out gunning him, and losing to him so that was valuable info for next time. Although I was suffering from breathing issues with the cold and with Keith on my wheel couldn't pause for my TUE
(Salbutomal), the last half lap was a listening guessing game as the where he'd try to come past. There is no passing at the last 200m as it was narrow tight single track so, sensing I was gapping him on the climbs, I held him off then sprinted of the bottom of the last double track climb and pulled 3m away from him, into the narrow finish with wide elbows. A really enoyable race, good competition and riding with my head for once proved fruitful - 15th Vet against some strong Surrey/SE A listers in my first event for 2 months, with absolutely no tiredness or leg pain after so there was much more to give.
Overall a good day on the bike!
