Who’d of thought at the start of the season when I got 2nd place in round 1 of the British Mountain Bike Series on a course that I’ve never until this year had a good race on, would have been my best race of the year….

For most of the season I’ve been battling through races, struggling to get just one race where I just feel healthy let alone race fit. Problems with my back, and generally not feeling 100% healthy for months on end, have made this season pretty annoying to say the least. We was recommended by a fellow racer to try tweaking the position on the bike and see if it makes a difference to my back pain. Me and my dad went over the bike and ended up dropping the seat post by 1cm and moved my seat back 2 1/2cm and found that this was a much better position, and although my back does still niggle from time to time the position change has made a huge difference to how I feel on the bike. This has allowed me to push hard in training again without experiencing swelling, and also keeping my training more consistent. The last 2 to 3 weeks I’ve slowly been improving my fitness and strength back to somewhere near where I was hoping I would have been for most of the season, and I’m now hoping for fashionably late form and a result that I’ve been chasing all season.

Last Weekend (22nd Aug) saw me racing for the first time since the disappointing National Champs 5 weeks previous, in round 5 of the Southern Series near Alton. Although I hadn’t raced for a few weeks I was confident going into the race that I was healthy and despite not being race fit I knew that I would be able to give it a good slam and enjoy the race whatever the result. The course at Alton was quite a good flowing course with a mix of fast very flinty single track, open fire roads, and wet technical rooty sections. There was a lot of anticipation on the forums for this race being a real mud bath, but the course held up well and made fun racing. I enjoy racing the Southern Series if I get chance as every round offers good prize money and always attracts a couple of fast boys to make the racing fast.

Off the start I managed to hold a decent position, going into the first single track section in second place behind Ade Lansley (pedal on bikes) with Jody Crawforth (specialized uk) right behind. I followed Ade for the first few sections of single track, but I kept catching all the tricky wet roots that I couldn’t see until I was on top of them, so soon as I got chance I passed to take the lead so I could see where I was going. Soon as I was on the front I actually felt quite smooth and tried to push the pace a little early on and see how I felt. With that Ade dropped of the pace and only Jody was still on my tail, so I kept pressing on. By the end of the first lap I was on my own and from there on I continued to open out a lead and with consistent lap times I took the win at the end of lap 5 by over 7 minutes….which was massive!

I was over the moon that I finally put in a performance that should give me a good chance of being up there for the Marathon Champs on the12th Sept and the final round of the British Mountain Bike Series on the 26th Sept where the competition will be hot! So hopefully my best race of the season wont continue to be round 1 of the British Series…. its still to come…. :)

Report, Pics + Video
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/mtb/article/mtb20100824–Video–Southern-XC-Series-Round-5—Chawton-0

Middle of the racing season and I haven’t been doing many competitions. Nearly five weeks to be exact since my last race. Initially it was because of a bad back which took a few weeks to get better, but from there it went to a bout of bronchitis which took ages to clear. This has resulted in bouts of sporadic training where I seem to be going backwards as opposed to forwards and I’m trying my hardest just to tread water.

Every sportsman will go through a period like this but it still remains the most frustrating thing about being an athlete. Give me the constant pressure of heavy training anytime over just sitting down doing nothing waiting for the body to recover. However, when racing every weekend generally all your think about is the following race, how you expect to perform and you dont really have much chance to apreciate the things that you can sometimes take for granted. This week I’ve been thinking over what’s been the pluses for me so far this year and it has to be the support I’ve been having from Wiggle. The equipment they’ve provided has been top draw and I’ve had quality equiptment to race and train with all season, so with little racing at the moment I though I’d mention a few things that’s help me out so far this season….

Bikes
Of course I’ve raced the Focus Raven last year and it was a bike I certainly enjoyed riding. But this year they stepped up again and the frame was definitely better. They improved the head tube by beefing it up to 1 1/2” on the bottom end giving a much more secure platform for the forks and the slender rear end gives good feedback when on the track. I knew that this was going to be a good bike before I started riding it and it didn’t dissapoint…its fast!. Only a shame that I havent had the best of luck to give the bike the result it deserves, but the season aint over yet!

The most important bit of kit of this year turned out to be a supprise. I was given a Focus Black Forest Pro to use as my training bike and although it’s a good looker coming out of the box it has surpassed all of my expectations. I have used it nearly every day and in all weathers, I just hose it down and oil it afterwards and it feels like new every time. Although it’s a little heavier than my race bike it’s just as smooth and for the price…just fantastic! I’ve used my Black Forest for all my training sessions whether they are long rides or sharp intervals and it is just a great bike to ride.

Extras
Although I’ll do a full review of all the stuff I use later in the year I have to say that my Exposure lights have been my extravagance so far. I’ve used them racing the Mountain Mayhem this year as well as the night time trial in the Wiggle Enduro Six when I won the night time trial. Being a novice racing at night, this event (wiggle 6) being my first race using them, they were so bright it gave me the confidence to race hard. I mean that it aint like riding at night when you have lights this bright! They will certainly benefit my training when the nights shorten in the winter and I’m looking forward to giving them a blast on my downhill track.

The dhb clothing (despite being renowned for many awards) has improved this year, with race kit being a much closer fitting, softer materials and better padding in the shorts. Good comfy shorts which have never let me down or given me any problems. The fact that I use nothing else speaks for itself.

Comfort when riding is just about the most important aspect, especially when you spend anything above 20hrs a week in the saddle.

This year as with last year I’ve been riding Lake Shoes. I race with MX330C, train with MX170C on the mountain bike and use the gorgeous white CX330C shoes for the road. I can change easily between these and there is no difference in the feel and are all are extremely comfortable and both sets of 330C’s having the added bonus of being really light.. My MX170C training shoes give me extra protection from the weather (particularly in winter) as there is less meshing preventing the wind chill, hence, keeping your feet warm. I particularly love my white CX330C road shoes as I love white shoes when I’m training or racing because I’m sure they make me go faster, even if it is psychological. :)

Anyway, back to racing and my next test will be the fourth round of the southern series this coming weekend at Alton. It’s a bit soon as far as my fitness is concerned but I’m finally starting to feel healthy again and just want to race. I’m hoping that my season will finish strongly and I can get a few results.

With training going well and the days flying by all to quick, soon enough it was time for one of the biggest races on my racing calender….the British Champs! After a good result at last years champs by coming 3rd I was wanting to go at least one better if not two! Over the two weeks leading into the race legs were feeling better and better and as the days went by and I was confident of being able to pull off the race that I was after. We made our way to the race venue at Pipingford on the Saturday to practise the fast fun/exciting course before heading to the travel lodge, which would be a pleasant change compared to sleeping in the van.

Race day I had a reasonable size breakfast in the morning, as my race wasn’t starting until 2:30pm which would be a couple hours later than the bmbs races, so I made the most of the fuelling up process. By the time we had hit mid day and soon starting my warm up, the skies were completely blue and the temperatures were reaching they’re highest of the day and it was clear it was going to be a warm race. After my warm up I made my way to the start line where I was gridded 2nd behind Liam Kileen who just came back from a great result at the European Champs in Israel. Off the start I managed to enter the singletrack in 2nd place, which was a great position, as after the start straight the course moved straight in to the first decent, and it was important to be near the front. After the first decent on the first climb, Oli Beckingsdale (strong contender for the win) passed me, so I sat on his wheel passing 1st place and kicking off the race.

I stayed on his wheel until he slipped his chain meaning that I passed him but instantly Liam went on the attack to put time into Oli, so now I had a new wheel to sit on. It wasn’t long before it was clear that I wasn’t going to have the pace on the day as all to soon I was being passed by a lot of riders and going backwards….fast! I made a huge effort to keep my pace up and to be honest I was trying way harder than I should have been. This is pretty much where my race for the podium ended, and for the remainder of the race I was trying to fight off every rider that passed me until I reached the finish. This was a big upset for me as I really thought today would end in a good result, however, I only managed 8th.

For most of the race I was experiencing back pain, but it wasn’t until I got to the finish that I realised just how much. In the race I was more focused on trying to stay on the wheel of every rider that passed me and trying not to think about it. When I finished my back was swollen up to a large egg shape on my right side and was fairly painful to say the least.

I’ve been having a bit of trouble with my back for most of the season but I just been trying to stay mobile using yoga and stretches, but really putting off getting it seen to. My initial plan was to go from this race straight to Switzerland then onto Italy for the next 2 rounds of the World Cup, but with it being swollen and clearly effecting my race, I had no other option than to book an MRI scan and get it sorted instead.

I’m booked in for my scan on Friday (23rd July) where hopefully get some answers and start a rehabilitation process to get me back healthy and racing fast again. There’s a big gap in the racing for me now, so besides missing the World Cups, this is the best time to get it sorted. If all is well, the next race for me will probably be the marathon champs (12th Sept) then the final round of the bmbs (25th Sept), however if my back is good sooner rather than later, then I’ll spend a few weekends doing some road racing before the last races of the 2010 mtb season.

Race Report & Results
http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/mtb/article/mtb20100715–Report–2010-British-MTB-Championships—Cross-Country-0

More Photos

After a relaxed weekend of racing at the mountain mayhem it was time to get back to racing with nerves again. The next race for me would be the Welsh Championships held this year at Forest Fields Builth Wells, and with a nobody missing, it was going to be a hard race if I wanted to keep my champs jersey for another year. I was a little unsure going into the race as to how I was going to feel physically, as despite putting in a few fast lap times at Mayhem I was still having a lot of pain from my back for the majority of the time when riding.

The course at Forest fields was an old school course which I haven’t raced at since 2005, with lots of hard climbing and good fast descents, so it would be fun to race here again. It was clear before the race started that it was going to be a suffer fest not just from the competition, but from the heat, as temperatures were reaching the high 20’s. Off the start I managed to get on the front and put on the pressure from the start as I was hoping that I might make other riders suffer from early on. Myself and John Whittinington (not contesting the champs) managed to get an early lead from the rest of the field, and for the next 2 laps John really set a good pace, quite often pulling away from me by the top of the climbs. I made sure that I clawed my way back on his wheel by the bottom of the descents where the climbing would start again.

On the start of the 3rd lap I put in a little bit of extra effort to try and put a gap between us and make him chase me for a change which seemed to work. From that point on I pretty much held the smallest of gaps for the remaining 3 laps to take a hard win, and the Welsh title for another year. I was pleased to see Team mate Matt Page take 3rd in the Champs making it two wiggle riders on the elite podium.

The following week I headed up to Dalby Forest, Yorkshire for round 4 of the British Mountain Bike Series where I’m sure I’d get a good idea as to where I’m at as far as form goes, despite getting a win the week previous. I must admit that for the Welsh Champs I didn’t feel great. I seemed to be trying extremely hard to get the pedals to flow, and going into Dalby I though that I was going to be in for a kicking. I knew the course and lines quite well as I raced here earlier on in the season for round 1 of the World Cup and the course was pretty much identical, and after a couple of easy laps the day before the race (Friday) I was happy.

For the race itself I wanted to get a good start as I always like to try and be near the front at Dalby as soon as it hits the single track it can often be all to easy to loose time on the fast guys through no fault of your own, just being to hard to pass. I managed to get the start I wanted and got into the single track in 2nd behind Irish rider Robin Seymore. All to soon Liam Kileen came to the front and I knew this is where the race is going to begin, and I just sat on his wheel. We both managed to pull a small lead on everyone else but on the long climb at the back of the course I slipped back into 4th with Oli Beckingsdale and David Fletcher. Oli chased after Liam, leaving me and Fletch to battle it out for 3rd. By half way round lap 3 of the 6 lap race my chain went over the top of the chainset and managed to loop round itself and somehow feed itself into my rear mech causing me to drop from 3rd to the high teens by the time I got it free. From that point on I just played catch up ending in a finishing position of 10th. I was disappointed to have a mechanical as I felt 10 times better than what I felt the week before, and thought I would have had a decent result had I not had any problems. However, racing is racing and I didn’t suffer to much with back pain and generally felt that form is starting to go in the right direction for a change, so there was some positive to take from the race.

The following day I entered the 60km enduro as we (usual Williams family lot) decided to make a weekend of it, so I though I mite aswel. Off the start I got in the front bunch of riders for the first few sections of single track, then me and James Lister (Torq) managed to get a gap on the rest of the field. By the end of the 1st lap I managed to start pulling a gap and I pretty much just kept my distance for the remaining 3 laps to the finish taking the win.

Overall it was a more positive weekend making steps in the right direction, for what will hopefully be a good result in the National Championships this weekend (18th July) in Pippingford.

Welsh Champs Report

BMBS Report

After a punishing race at the Tour de France VTT, I was hoping that I would be recovered in time for my very first 24hr event that is the Mountain Mayhem. I’ve always wanted to be part of a 4 man team for Mountain Mayhem as I’ve heard that the experience of the event is certainly something not to be missed! Our team consisted of myself, Matt Page (last years solo winner & UK 24hr Champ), and Team Wiggle mechanics Andrew Delahay and Ben Jeffery. Our pre race plan was simply to have fun and soak up what the event has to offer while racing in the open male category. Unfortunately for Dell he was the man to start the race with the run, as he wasn’t around to stick up for himself when the discussion of ‘who was going to run’ came up, so we all voted him. Sorry Dell!

For the first half of the race our transitions were very laid back, and at one point I came into the transition to find that my replacement (Ben Jeffery) was in the toilet and that he wont be long. This was pretty much the tone for the weekend really, all having great laughs, and to be honest it was little things like that what made the event great! We stayed at one lap changes until it got to the night where we changed to 2 laps until the morning, so that it give some of us a little longer sleeping. During the night session around 12:30am I managed to come across the Kenda climb, which when all the lights are flashing (which they were) the timing chips record every riders time it takes to get from bottom to top. This was the only time that I was on course that the lights were flashing so I give it stick from bottom to top, then carried onto finished my 2nd lap of my two lap night shift. I managed to get around 4-5hrs sleep after that which I’m sure made a big difference come the morning.

My first morning shift came around 5:30am where I managed to do my fastest lap time so far, which was quite a refreshing start to the morning, as up until that point I’d felt a little bit sluggish. It wasn’t until after my second stint of the morning that Matt page made us aware that we was in 11th and that a top ten was now our new aim for the race. We all give it our best from that point on (not that we wasn’t trying hard in the first place mind) to try and pull back 10th so that Team Wiggle/Focus would make it onto the big screen as only the top ten in each category made the cut. I was really pleased with my last few turns in the race, as I was still lapping consistent lap times where I was expecting the last few laps to be my slowest. It was planned that Matt was to be doing the last lap but our slightly quicker lap times put Matt to come in slightly before the final 2pm hooter, meaning that I may have to go out for the last lap.

I stood in the transition zone looking towards the end of the finishing straight where you could see the riders coming into the last but one corner of the lap. Every rider that came around the corner that wasn’t Matt give me a sigh of relief as deep down I really didn’t want to go out for another lap. The timer counted down to 10 mins left, then 5, then 4 then 3 and I really thought that I was going to be safe from doing another lap and with that Matt came around the corner less than 3 mins before the finish.

I remember giving Matt a few choice words, before I set off for my last lap, but I wasn’t aware at the time that I would record my fastest lap of the whole race, so going out for that last lap didn’t seem so bad after all. So I’ve decided that 8hrs warm up over the course of 24hrs is the key to feeling good for a race! All our teams hard effort payed off by giving us a finishing position of 9th in the open men. Good finish! I found out at the finish that I was the fastest up the Kenda climb during the night with a time of 42 seconds. Cool!

Mayhem turned out to be everything and more than I expected and will look forward to being part of another in the future! Thanks to Jason and all the Wiggle lot for making my Mayhem experience a good one!

Mayhem Results
http://www.osmountainmayhem.co.uk/

More Photos

Over the last couple weeks I was fortunate to have been invited into a Great Britain composite team made up by myself for Team Wiggle, George Budd for Salsa Racing, Luke Smith and Billy Joe Whenman both for Whyte Racing, into the L’hexagonal Tour de France VTT, which is the mountain bike equivalent of the Regular Tour de France we all know an love. The event still brings the big teams e.g Rabobank, Saeco, ISD, Trek e.t.c so the event is very well followed and is a very big deal out in France. So from the 6th – 14th June we tackled different course all over France before the final stage in Paris.

6th June Stage 1, Niort – 4km TT
Before the start our GB team looked over the course to make sure we all new our line’s as unlike a normal time trial on the road where its more a case of just blasting the open road, ours was through parks, over bridges, along river banks, through woods and up and down lots of tricky steps. After a bit of lunch we headed for the event village for individual starting times (mine 16:38pm) where we would get the chance to thrash it round the tricky 4km course. Off the start I hammered it into the first bend where I went straight into the bushes (all the time still pedalling mind you) so I didn’t have the best of starts, but apart from that and a few other minor hiccups I had a solid ride to the finish. I Finished the course in a time of 8:04 which by the end of the stage was good enough for 33rd.

7th June Stage 2, Niort – 56km XCO
Luckily for us stage two was near to where we were racing yesterday which allowed us to semi settle into our hotel, as unlike the rest of the trip, where we had to check-out the morning of the race then after the race we drove to the following stage and check-in to the next hotel before the race the following day. The course at stage 2 was very flat with lots of fast fire roads and hard pack, so the average speed was somewhere around 20mph, which believe me for a mountain bike race is very fast! After a practise lap as our warm up we got under way to what was a very fast dusty start which was a battle to see where we was going as well as being a bit unpleasant to the lungs. From half a lap into the race the bunch had broke in two and unfortunately for myself was left in the second bunch, which is pretty much where I stayed for the remainder of the race. I didn’t feel that great to be honest and suffered from start to finish ending in a finishing position of 36th.

8th June Stage 3, Mortagne Sur Sevre – 44km XCO
Due to a longish drive to stage 3, the race start time was 6pm. The latest I’ve raced in the past have been 2:30pm, so it was a strange but also an interesting time prepare for. After a practise lap it was clear that this was going to be a long race as the programme said 44km which would mean 7 laps of the course, which we worked out to be around the 3hr mark. Never the less my plan was to go hard as I knew that we would have the only rest day of the tour tomorrow and should have time to relax and recover for the last half. Off the start I was stuck in moving through the field picking off riders on the straights and braking late for corners, so by the time I half way round the start loop I was in the race. However, I crashed on one of the tricky sections of the challenging wet course leaving me loose a handful of positions. I got Back on the bike and caught back and passed a few more riders and by the end of the 3rd lap I could see the group in front that had the yellow jersey among it so I knew I was riding a decent race. Again my unfortunate continued and I punctured leaving me to loose a lot of time until I could get to the tech area where I could change wheels and press on to the finish. We had been racing for 5 mins shy of 3hrs finishing pretty much at 9pm, so by the time we showered and had food it turned out to be a late night.

9th June Day Off, Drive to Sainte Suzanne
After a drive to the next stage we pretty much put our feet up in our log cabin for the rest of the day wearing my 2XU compression tights and drinking plenty of High 5 Protein drink to boost recovery then getting an early night.

10th June Stage 4, Sainte Suzanne – 44.1km XCO
After a night of torrential rain, thunder and lightning and with the rain not letting up the morning of the race the number of laps was shortened from the original 7 to 5, which would still make a long hard race but a lot more sensible. The course was probably one of the best course I’ve ridden all year with really steep technical descents but also with steep technical climbs but all rideable. Off the start I got stuck into the race and managed to stick to my race plan of keeping a good rhythm to the finish always thinking that I could have give that little more if I needed to as the course was easy to overdo it and I though that if I just keep a little reserve then it would benefit me in the next 2 stages. I ended the race smiling after enjoying thrashing around the fun course and slightly improving on my previous results by coming 23rd.

11th June Stage 5, Margon – 42.4km XCO
the course at stage 5 resembled a cyclo-cross course going through football fields corner to corner, a few fast tarmac sections then a muddy off camber wooded section which was a lot running and sliding (not one of the best courses). I managed to get a good start and moved up through the pack squashing past riders whenever possible. For the next couple of laps of the 10 lap race I I was feeling pretty poor and struggling with my back and to match the pace of the fast boys and ended up going backwards. However, I found a group of riders that were setting a good pace and working together well and before the end of the race I felt a lot more comfortable and ended up in a sprint finish for 23rd which I lost and ended up coming 25th, but still an ok result despite feeling a bit lousy for most of the race.

12th June Stage 6, Argenteuil – 46.4km XCO
Going into stage 6 I knew that this would be the last big effort of the Tour as tomorrow’s stage would be a 4km time trial, so today would be a case of giving all you got. When we arrived at the course it was clearly going to be muddy and with the up hills being steep it was also clear that there was going to be a lot of running. Luckily, the weather cleared up to what turned out to be a sunny warm day and with the slight wing in the air the course by 2pm (start) the course had mostly dried out. Me and Billy was joking around before this event saying that the plan today was to get to the front and attack, but off the start I found a gap right up the inside of the long tarmac start straight and sprinted alongside all the field and straight off the front of the race. I didn’t manage to stay there however, I got stuck into the race from start to finish. I did miss the big lead group on the opening laps but still managed to keep up a great effort always trying to put time into a couple of riders behind me who I knew had a couple of minutes up on me in general classification so I was hoping I could close that gap. By the end of the race I finished 24th absolutely shattered.

13th June Stage 7, Paris Montmartre – 4.2km TT
After a look at the general classification before I went into this final race it was pretty much set that I would be 25th overall as the rider in front of me was a minute clear which would be extremely hard to make up and the rider behind me was 4 minutes down so something would have to go wrong for me to loose that much time. Me and the rest of our team practised the course for most of the hours before the start, as the course consisted of blasting through the streets of Paris with also 600 sets of steps to go up and down and it reminded me of when I was a nipper and looked for steps to ride down.

The start was quite quite cool as you instantly dropped into a set of steep solid stone steps which, really set the mood for what is to come and a number of riders just got off an ran. I went to the start for my individual start time of 2:32pm and watch all the crowds gathering around the starting steps and it was a good feeling but at the same time completely out of my comfort zone, as I didn’t know what to expect. Off the start I blasted down the first few sets of steps and down the first street. My legs just pumped up solid and I knew it was going to be a hard 4km. When I got to the first set of steps I paced it as I knew many more were to come however, pacing it didn’t make any difference. By the time I’d got to the top as was already into a walk trying as hard as I could but I just didn’t have anything left, all I could do was keep plugging away until I crossed the finish line. I crossed the finish Line in a time of 12:49 giving me a finish position of 22nd, again another consistent ride to finish the Tour, leaving me as predicted 25th overall.

This was a great event to be part of and I could ramble on for hours about all the banter we as a team had over the course of the 10 days we were away, but I’ll stick to the racing for now. I will say thanks to Frank Jaworski who was our team director/mechanic/feeder for the whole Tour, also a quick mention for Billy Joe Whenman who had the ride of the tour by getting a win in the final stage in Paris winning just 2 seconds over the the yellow jersey….superb effort!

L’hexagonal Tour de France VTT Official Website

Everywhere I race I have my usual entourage supporters and one of whom is my mam. Whenever we go away racing she goes about clicking some of the most random pictures on her camera and always end the photo in saying “for the blog see….”. I very rarely use her pictures, so with this in mind I went about setting up a flickr account just for you readers to experience a bit of a typical weekend’s racing from the eye’s of my mam’s camera snapping!

Using the Big Welsh Weekend in Margam Park as the base for this ‘mams photography tribute’ you will get to see that little bit more than just your typical action shot and a more personal behind the scenes experience.

My race itself wasn’t the result I was after ending up coming in 6th on the muddy challenging course, but after having a lot of back problems and generally not feeling up to par the week leading into the race, I could only finish the race thinking ‘well….it could have been worse’. However, with the weekend being busy from start to finish with TV interviews, team relay racing, kids racing, my usual xc race and lots of family banter I was hoping that the photos would speak for themselves!

I’ll go back to my usual blogging after this but I though it might be a refreshing change for all you readers.

Lee.

flickr photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50857711@N08/sets/72157624198573706/

Race Report and Results
http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/mtb/article/mtb20100530–Report–British-XC-Series-Round-3-0

Getting a 3rd place in round 2 of the British Mountain Bike Series at Wasing park was quite a relief in some ways, as I felt that going into the event that I was just starting to slightly loose my early season form and I was happy that I managed to pull off my second podium of the series. Since then I’ve been having a pretty hard time with training and racing, and its been really frustrating trying to fight back and find a fraction of speed again. In training I been really struggling with aches and pains and probably spent just as many hours in the chiropractor as I have on the bike. The most frustrating part was that I wanted to use these weeks as another push in training to ensure some good form for round 3 of the World Cup in Offenburg (Germany – 23rd May) and round 3 of the BMBS in Margam park (Big Welsh Weekend – 28th/30th May)the following week.

Never the less I pressed on in training as best as I could and it wasn’t until 3 or 4 days before Offenburg did I feel like I was starting to get back healthy again and felt that maybe I could pull off a good ride after all…..

We arrived in Offenburg on the Friday and after signing on I managed to get in a couple of laps of the course. The course itself was exactly the same as what it was when I raced there 3 years ago so I knew most of my racing lines already, although it was a lot wetter and muddier than the last time and clogged the bike up quick. After a few tyre and pressure changes I was happy to hose of the muck off the bike with my new Mobi Washer and head back to our rather funky modern hotel to get some food before a evening spin alongside the river Rhine. The following day the weather had completely changed and what was a wet muddy course had dried out in the 26′c sunshine and was now fast and dry with the forecast remaining the same come race day.

Race Day.
After a lousy nights sleep due to a throbbing headache I had breakfast and prepared for a 2:30pm start. On the warm up I actually felt pretty good and quietly confident that today would be my first breakthrough World Cup ride. Off the start (gridded 113 out of a massive 260 strong field) I managed to move up a few places and passed the first feed/technical assistance in 98th place.

Unfortunately I new by that point that today wasn’t going to be the day I was expecting and I was really suffering to hold any kind of respectable pace, and I knew this was going to be a suffer fest until the finish.

Riders were passing me from both sides and even though I was trying to react to it, I just continued riding like a little girl and carried on going backwards until the end of the race. After the race I couldn’t help but wonder ‘was my back out’ or ‘am I suffering with a virus or something’ as the only times I’ve ever felt this weak and powerless during a race there’s been a reason other than just bad form for it.

After retuning home on Monday I went out for an easy spin with my dad and felt normal, and the same on Tuesday, which was even more frustrating as normally if my back is out or I’m going in for a cold the symptoms are amplified and I know what the problem is. Only thing… this wasn’t the case.

That Tuesday evening I decided to enter a summer cyclocross event just to see how I would feel more out of curiosity than anything else. For the whole race my back was in complete discomfort and I found it extremely hard to relax and I knew that this was probably the problem in Offenburg. Never the less I managed to get a win, so at least I had something to smile about.

The following day I visited the chiropractor….again….and had my back seen to. However, apart from the smallest of clicks he didn’t seem to find anything wrong, so again I’m left wondering what is causing me suffer so much when racing and I can only hope that I find some kind of speed for this weekends BMBS were I start as the current series leader…..

World Cup Report & Results
www.cyclingnews.com/races/mtb-world-cup-cross-country-3-cdm/elite-men-cross-country/results

Western Summer Cross
www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/cyx/cyclo_cross_results

Wiggle Enduro 6

After a slow but steady recovery of my heal I headed into Wiggle enduro 6 I was quietly confident that my heal would hold up and all would be well. We arrived at Catton Park near Derby early Saturday afternoon and after setting up camp and getting a small bite to eat it very nearly time for the start of the Focus Night Time Trial.

I was really looking forward to riding in this event this year as last year I missed it out as I was racing the 6hr solo the following day and I thought that it may be a little too much, where as this year I teamed up with wiggle team mate Ben Simmons to race the pairs. After a warm up and a 5 second countdown I went from the gun at a start time of 8:23pm for a flying lap.

For the first half of the race I felt pretty good covering ground well an it was only in the second half of the lap I really felt like I was suffering. Have to say though that I think I had a small…well…large advantage due to how bright my Exposure Lights (Maxx-D & Diablo) were…they were awesome!! Crossed the line happy about the way I rode and was pleased when the Williams fan club were saying that I had won by 43 seconds, although results wouldn’t be official until the following morning. Sunday morning I woke up after a good nights sleep in our van, had some breakfast and seen the results from the night time trial and it confirmed that I had won by 43seconds over Hope technology rider Dave Collins.

Needless to say I was pretty excited for the days racing ahead and unfortunately for Ben Simmons he pulled the short straw in the fact that he would be doing the run off the start. Off the start Ben got really stuck into the race and held his own in his first stint on the course. The course was pretty quick with fast open sections mixed with flowing section’s of single track and the odd few really tight spots which would make a good course for racing.

All too soon the race saw me heading out for my first stint and the race was all close together, After my first turn the race for 1st was well underway and in the early stages it was between myself and Ben and the two riders from Hope Technology (Dave Collins & Keith Murry). For the next couple of switch-over’s we went back an fourth 1st to 2nd and it was touch and go who would start to make the first impact move of the race. At around 3 ½ hrs into the race me and Ben pushed hard as we knew that we were starting to get a small gap and by the time we got to the 5hr mark we had established a good lead of around 4 minutes over second place. From then on it was just a case of trying to keep our distance and get around safe with no mechanicals, which we managed and ended up taking a well worked win! We wasn’t the only Team Wiggle winner though as Matt Page had a great ride to come home 1st in the 6hr solo event.

BMBS Round 2 Wasing Park.
The Following week saw me racing round 2 of the British Mountain Bike Series in Wasing Park near Reading. After a successful round 1 in Sherwood pines a couple of weeks ago coming 2nd I was eager to make it one better. On Saturday the day before the race I done a few practise laps of the course easy before getting ready for the team relay that evening joined with xcracer.com. We also had as our female rider on the team DH World Cup winner Tracey Mosley, so I was pleased she was on our team and didn’t have to go racing into the first bend against her…well…not the day before the race anyway! We ended up winning the relay for the second time making it 2 from 2!

Race Day.
Warming up for the race was a bit of a battle as there was a chill in the wind that if you had been standing still for any length of time it just seemed to penetrate the clothes and make you cold to the bone and it was really hard to get warmed again. Off the start I managed to put myself in the lead group for the first lap, however, by half way around the 2nd lap of the 6 lap race I was trying really hard to stay with the early pace and had dropped off the group. For the rest of the race I continued to keep pushing as hard as I could on the flat rooty course and hope that I could claw back to try and get on the podium. I managed by the end of the 3rd lap to catch up Jody Crawforth (Specialized UK) and by the start of the 5th lap he fell off the pace and I was looking good for the podium.

In the end I crossed the line in 3rd 30 seconds off 2nd spot. I would have liked to have felt a little better than I did but 3rd was a good result all the same and I’m now leading the series overall. Straight after the race I was chosen for Anti-Doping which would mean guzzling lots of water then on the way home stopping in every services possible for a pee. Round 3 will be at Margam Park, which will be only a 30 minute drive from my house so a good race on home soil is the next target. However, my next big race is in Offenburg (GER) next week.

Wiggle Enduro 6 Report & Results
www.new.britishcycling.org.uk/mtb/article/mtb20100504-Enduro-6

BMBS Report, Results & video.
http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/mtb/article/mtb20100507–Video–British-XC-Series-Round-2-0

More Photos

So here it is….the biggest cross country mountain bike race on the UK calendar….well one of the biggest races on the UK calendar of any discipline for that matter. UCI XCO Mountain Bike World Cup Round 1, Dalby Forest Yorkshire. For the last 6 weeks I’ve been preparing for this event, training hard, eating healthy and making all the necessary tweaks to make sure that come race day on the 25th of April my legs would be ready to smash out the gears and get my first breakthrough World Cup ride.

In the last couple of weeks before the event I was introducing some great leg killing/sharpening sessions where I was most noticing the hard work paying off and form was getting good. I was slowly getting leaner, faster and fitter than what I was in Sherwood, however, on Monday the 19th April just 6 days before race day I ended what would be my last hard session before the tapper down with a sore achilles heal leaving me wake up on the Tuesday morning unable to walk….Nightmare!! From that point on I new all I could do was put my feet up, rest, and just hope that it would get better before the race. For any athlete this is one of the worst situations to be in.

When you catch the flu and you feel really ill, all you want to do is go to bed and sleep, but when your mentally ready for training and physically fit (minus the injury) its one of the times where you want to be cracking on with the good work, but its just out of your control annoying to say the least.

Tuesday off, Wednesday off, Thursday off but headed for Dalby none the less. By Friday my heal was still feeling stiff but compared to how it was on the Tuesday earlier on in the week it was a huge improvement and I felt that I needed the ride to get some blood flow to the muscles and joints, in the hope this would be the catalyst to full recovery. On the Friday I done 1hr real easy riding as all I was trying to do was just turn over to get some movement in the legs and nothing else, then if all was OK on the Saturday then I would do a few small efforts to see if it would hold up under ab it of pressure. On Saturday I felt alot better about the race to come as on yesterday easy ride I could feel the twinges even when riding with no pressure on the pedals, but on Saturday my ankle was holding up even under the small efforts. My thoughts earlier on in the week was that if I cant train then I have to be positive that come race day I’d have the freshest legs on the start line, and after this ride, despite feeling very stiff legged, I was thinking that I may be able to pull off the decent ride I was expecting after all….

Race Day.

I knew that a good warm up would be key due to the lack of riding through the week, so after a 40 minute battle of trying to loosen up my legs I headed to the start line placed 95 on the grid and was as ready as I could be (given the circumstances) for the race ahead. By the time the elite men’s race was in the last couple of minutes before the start the crowds had got huge with thousands trying to squash their way in to watch the spectacle and it was that moment when I realised actually how many spectators had actually come to watch. Off the start I manged to hold my own and picking off a few places going into the first few turns before the singletrack when we hit bottleneck. Once everything had singled out there were only a few places on the course where there was room to pass and start to move up, but unfortunately as is always the case with world cup racing every rider is thinking the same thing and it just ends up being a sprint to hold the position your already in.

Not long after the start I realised this wasn’t going to be an easy day at the office, my legs were stiff and powerless and my back was absolutely screaming at me. The only positive was that the one thing I thought would give me grief in the race (my ankle) was fine and the amount of that huge crowd that were cheering me on….awesome! By the end of the first lap I was around the 80 mark and really starting to suffer.

I was finding myself passing 2 or 3 riders, but my legs were just tightening up and loosing all the positions I’d made up and more. Despite clearly having a bad day and thinking it couldn’t get much worse I punctured on the 3rd of the 6lap race, miles from the tech area.

I didn’t want to run over the uneven ground and risk my ankle again so I was forced to retire. Needless to say I’m not the happiest of bunny’s at the moment, but I suppose you just got to suck it up get over it and set out the plan of attack for my next target race. This weekend will see me racing the Wiggle Enduro 6 and night time trial, which should be a good fun weekend’s racing. If your going….see you there!

Results
www.xcracer.com/Dalby-World-Cup-XC-Results.html

Video Footage
www.xcracer.com/Dalby-2010-World-Cup-XC-Elite-Mens-Race.html

There will also be replay’s of the event on Eurosport on Thursday 5pm and Friday 8pm.