Another win! Basingstoke 2010 - Wessex Cyclo Cross League Round 7

On my way to another win at
Basingstoke today
Pic: grahamrobins.net

My legs are hanging, I'm still picking bits of mud out of my eyes but I'm enjoying the bottle of Merlot won today at Basingstoke. In attempt to ignore X-Factor I thought I'd get ahead of myself and write up today's race. I have to say that I expected a lot more mud and water this afternoon after what seemed to be a constant week of rain, rain and  . .  a bit more rain, but the course at the War Memorial Park in Basingstoke was ok, bit of mud, but not particulary wet.

Until it rained that was.

Our 40minute race was run with at least half of it through a constant downpour, enough to start turning the parkland into a quagmire. The seniors must have squirmed around for an hour after us, luckily we only had to endure it for about 20 minutes. Endure is a harsh word though, because I love wet, rainy, muddy conditions and I wish it had been as wet as it got at the halfway point right from the start.

I think there must have been around 50 or so Vets/Juniors including old teammate Steve Dines and a handful of women including Karen Murphy, two of a handful of Isle of Wight riders, mostly all, except me, riding for the Wight Mountain team, great for the Isle of Wight to be showing well in this discipline.

Pic: grahamrobins.net

Having only three results in the Wessex league so far I found myself on the third row of the start grid. The first half lap was quite slow, with a number of twists and turns around the back of the tennis courts before returning back to the main park area, and a few bursts around the football pitches.

I had placed myself in the lead again, with a small but healthy advantage over Billy Girvan, and around this section I think I may have gained time each lap, but my legs weren't telling me that. Bit annoying really as in training, big efforts of around 15-30 seconds have been going well, but in a race I don't seem to be getting the same feel. This is all good though as its showing where my weaknesses may lie. Technically I felt a lot better today, tyres were gripping and my lines were a lot better than previous weeks.

Regardless of some of my negativity, the technical sections and the straight sections seemed to have an effect at the halfway point as I noticed that I was gradually pulling out more of an advantage over Billy Girvan, using the football pitches as a gauge for time gaps. Up to this point Billy was closest to me with Gary Allen and Luke Cowley chasing. The gap grew out and I lost sight of what was going on behind, so I concentrated on at least holding my advantage. Then the rain started and the course quickly started to become a mud bath. Perfect! This is where I really started to feel good. Maybe it just took too long to warm up, maybe it was the conditions but it worked for me and with three laps to go I finally got into my stride.

Thankfully the course, although muddy, still felt fairly firm underneath the top layer. When the mud gets deep, that's when I start to struggle due to my slightly heavier frame and height, but this was ok. A bit of slipping and sliding on the corners, but generally, it was still possible to get the power down and keep riding. In those last two laps, I think I pulled out another minute or so as I crossed the line as winner, with a 1min 38sec advantage, a lot more than I thought I had.

This result will boost me up the Wessex League Veterans overall ready for Thruxton next week. There will probably be a few more Veterans of note as there are no more National event clashes. The moment of truth now as we enter the second part of the 2010/11 season. The aim? to keep winning :0)