I love Cyclocross - I am a bit rubbish at it, but its my favourite competitive discipline, so September and the dawn of a new season is an exciting time for me. All that potential for improvement, all those summer base miles being put to good use in the mud and frost of the great British winter.
Last season was better than the one before, but I was still finishing in the bottom half, if not the bottom third, in most races, so my target for this year is to consistently finish half way through the field or better.
I was really happy with Round 1 at Writtle - finishing 37th out of a total field of 78 (76 finishers) so pretty much on target. More importantly, I felt fairly strong and fast. I did fade in the latter stages, but I had done enough and my morale was great.
I missed Round 2 at Hog Hill because of the Tour of Britain - the opportunity to ride out to the route as it swung through South Suffolk with clubmates including my son, was too good to miss. Unfortunately, I can now see the Cyclocross momentum was lost - it was an interesting race at Hog Hill with a smaller field and loads of DNFs due to a ridiculous number of punctures - a big "What if..."
Round 3 at Springfield - I was very disappointed. I just didn't have the legs on the day. I had some problems with my chain slipping on one of the few inclines and jumping off in other spots. This created some undue nervousness on the small rise which followed a dismount for steps and immediate drop - on a number of the laps I elected to run the whole thing to avoid that horrible clanking and loss of momentum. It was fairly effective in the early laps, but I ran out of steam quicker than I should. Thanks to Mark Fraser you can examine my lumbering running style here:
As with Round 1, Springfield was also a Club Champs qualifying event and I wanted to consolidate my 3rd place in the Vets category - even with a couple of our guys away on Three Peaks duty, I only managed a miserable 4th. Very well done to Peter Hall who finished behind me at Writtle only to be 1st Rover home at Springfield following an impressively strong ride.
At least there was only 6 days to wait until the next round - CC Ashwell's event at Baldock - I suffered there last year due to an energy sapping, boggy football field, but can't wait to get back into it this Saturday. Now if only I can get my bloody gears sorted!
PS - did I mention my lack of training mileage over the last month and my cold? Oh well, nevermind - no excuses, eh?!
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