I expected it, now I see it. - NatWest Island Games Mountain Bike Criterium
The Island Games finally arrived. I hadn't really understood why I had set it as a major target this year, not just for racing but life in general. Everything I did seemed to be somehow linked to reaching the games. Now I know why! This competition is serious stuff and the standard is surprisingly high. I expected it, now I see it.
The Isle of Wight are hosting the games this year so I'm on home soil and riding trails that I know well. Not that that will make much difference, the competition is challenging considering we all hail from small Islands. What makes it even harder is that none of us really know our rivals in depth; this just adds to the tension.
Mountain Biking in the Games is fairly new. If I remember right, I think this may be only the third occassion it has been held, and the riders rarely race against each other apart from their own teammates. This in itself though means nothing, as the teams are riding as a unit with the aim of obtaining medals, not personal victory (although that is every athletes personal desire). I found this out today! and was given the perfect lesson in how different MTB racing can be when the stakes are turned upside down.
Todays Criterium was held at Cheverton Farm, at the top of the hill on a tight 1.3km circuit taking in the old shooting range and the adjacant field. The course was almost 100% grass and seriously hard going in most places, albeit for a few sections that were firmer than others. The whole course is set on chalk downland and underneath the soil is a bedrock of the white stuff (I know because I had to drive in about 50 or so stakes to mark the course out). The grass grows thick, and despite massive efforts to mow the lawn, the weft was still thick in places. Still, it was pretty fast, included a downhill with a tight right hander leading to another tight right into the courses main feature, a deep bombhole with stones in the bottom, but an awesomely fast exit for such a deep trench. Out of the hole and it was a gradual, energy sapping climb back up to the finish and onto another lap. The lap for the men took roughly four minutes to complete with the race over 50mins + 1 lap. The crowds were out, mainly lining the start/finish area leading into some twisty sections in the main grazing field.
First race of the day was the Womens Crit held over the same course but less time. This was won by Menorcan Ruth Moll with Anne Bowditch (Guernsey) in 2nd and Jacqui Fletcher (Isle of Man) in third. The Menorcan pulling clear almost from the gun with a small chasing group following, before that eventually broke up too. It became clear how difficult the course was, watching the women riding round; lots of sweating and painful grimaces, which, to be fair, is par for the course in MTB racing. The ladies Isle of Wight team consisted of three women new to MTB racing and altough all three struggled to hold the pace, all three finished with utter determination, befitting all there characters and making us all proud. Laps got a bit confusing with lapped riders, but from what I can tell at the time of writing this, regular cyclo-cross racer Karen Murphy (Isle of Wight), who had flown in from her brothers wedding in the USA just that morning! came in ahead of newcomer to MTB racing and watersports enthusiast Amanda Van Santen (Isle of Wight) followed by Kathy Chillistone (Isle of Wight) who is a regular to endurance style MTB events, as opposed to this style of fast and tactical short course racing and determined to succeed at her new found discipline.
Following the womens race at 2pm, 30 or so men lined up from 9 different Islands including a single rider all the way from Bermuda, Neil De Ste Croix. It was clear to me and probably all the others that the strong teams were Isle of Man and Guernsey. I had done my homework and had seen the Guernsey boys lapping a couple of minutes quicker than me in recent Southern XC events over the last few months. Elliot Baxter (Isle of Man) is a past gold medallist in the games and the rest of his team were sure to be decent riders. It's fair to say the the Isle of Wight team, including myself, range from CycloCross riders to endurace riders so Crit racing was really only going to leave us with two maybe three riders in contention. I soon found myself riding in the lead group as sole member of our team after a pretty frantic start with the head being led by four Guernsey riders. I did lose the wheel of this group on the first lap, but fortunately got back on.Thankfully after a few laps the pace slowed slightly after it became clear a lead group of maybe 15 riders was away. I made sure to sit near the front to try and cover some escapes. This came early from one of the Guernsey riders; his teammates all sat on the front riding a great tactical race and doing their best to let their rider get away and hold us all up to prevent the chase and gain their rider a bigger gap. I got on the front and managed to close the gap so that it all came back together again. However, I put a huge effort into that and realised that I wouldn't be able to do that too often with still about 45 minutes left.The next rider to go off was Rob Smart (Guernsey) and this time no one chased, he got clear and after a lap or two it looked as if he had the gold medal in the bag bar mechanicals or problems. No other teams were keen to chase and put the effort in and I certainly couldn't do it alone considering the Guernsy riders were working so hard to prevent any chases.
The race stayed like that until the last 10-15 minutes when the two Isle of Man riders in our group started to have a few digs. I was on the limit now and couldn't contribute so just had to hang on. With three laps to go I got dropped and thought that was it, but somehow I managed to make contact once more and hung in until the last lap. Rob Smart was close to lapping us all! amazing ride, maybe helped somewhat by the reluctance of riders to chase him down in the first place. With three to go, Guernsey went on the attack again and loosed off another rider. This kicked Elliot Baxter into gear and that for me was when the race got blown to pieces. Still, I hung in there and could still see all the riders up ahead with one lap to go at no more than a 15 second gap, bronze was still a possibility, but I had to attack and I just didnt have the accelleration. A Jersey rider slipped by and it was all I could do to pace him. The climb finally finished me off as Rob Smart lapped me and set about chasing the rest. On the finish straight, mainly due to Smarts celebrations, four other riders at least escaped being lapped and had to ride for one more lap. I still had them all in sight at no more than 100 metres! For me, my race had finished and I had claimed 10th place. I may have managed to stop Smart from lapping me but don't think I will have gained anymore positions with that extra lap
On my own, at the front, I think I did a good job. I'm also pretty sure that I was easily the oldest rider and only Veteran (40) in that chasing group, by a long way looking at some of their faces! There's life in the old dog yet. I like to think experience paid off there :0)
Bring on the Cross Country on Friday, can't wait.
NatWest Island Games 2011 Mountain Bike Criterium Results - Men
http://www.natwestiowresults2011.com/Sports/CYCLING/default.aspx?SportID=5&EventID=95
See more pics from the Games at
www.grahamrobins.net
