It was good to have Martyn Salt and team back organising the series and it started well. All the categories seem to be bulging with numbers. It was Steve Parr's (MSC guvner) first experience of XC racing as he is normally used to the downhill community and i think he was impressed but wouldn't stop going on about my "1980's crap gripshit" and also "i'll get you on low risers by the end of the season". MSC had a great spot in the arena and plenty of people drooling over the various types of rigs on display.
The racing was great too. It was my first Elite national race at a venue that hasn't been kind to be in the past and proved again to have that curse on me.
The racing was great too. It was my first Elite national race at a venue that hasn't been kind to be in the past and proved again to have that curse on me.
Half hour before i started i had a major mechanical which forced me to replace my bars (thanks for Steve coming to the rescue) and miss my warm up. On the first lap i took a log jump too hard, burped air out my front tubeless and made a fatal error of trying to race on a half inflated tyre. I was too concerned about losing the group i was with to think about stopping to repair it. It got consistently worse each lap till i had a crash after washing out and was forced to pump my tyre up for the last lap. My last lap being my second fastest compounded this problem.
On the up side, i felt pretty good. The pace was so high all the way round with no respite but i didn't feel too pushed. I should have been more aggressive to get to the head of some of technical singletrack sections where i can make time up instead of beung a passenger. Next round is more hilly which i should hopefully do better at. top 15 is still a realistic aim. Feeling good nonetheless!
A few more lessons to learn. i'll put this one down to experience.
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