Driving down to the circuit, around the M25 I was ‘that’ close to turning around and going home. The demons in my head were arguing that it’s a meaningless race, not part of a series, and look at the weather – its 5 degrees and driving rain! I ignored them and carried on into
The course at Crowthorne holds happy memories for me, for it was here exactly 6 years ago where I recorded my first ever victory (that’s where and when the accompanying pic was taken). The circuit itself has changed a little over the years, and many more tree roots are exposed nowadays as a result of the thousands of MTB tyres rolling over them.
I got caught short for time at the last Thetford race so I left myself plenty of time to do a pre-lap, and the course was a mixture of very fast fire-road drops and climbs interspersed with miles and miles of interesting/technical single-track. Only one short section was a real bog, but this lent a different challenge and overall the course was entertaining in the best Gorrick tradition.
At the start line I didn’t recognize any of the other competitors, but at the whistle I was soon in a group of four, fighting and jostling for wheels down the first fire-road. Into the first single-track and it was immediately clear that Lewis King (Beeline Bicycles) wasn’t going to give his lead up without a good scrap; it was almost as if he felt the lead was his rightful place and no-one else deserved it. I tried two or three times to get past in some tight sections, only to find King actually leaning on me to stop me getting past – it was an interesting tactic and not one necessarily within the spirit of competition but there you are, it’s what I had to deal with. Darren Blackwell (Specialized/Dee Cycles) enjoyed the spectacle, telling me as much after the race.
The course dropped out of the tight stuff after a short climb, and opened up into a glorious long downhill fire-road with a long sweeping left-hander at the bottom. Here, my Scott Strike’s tall BB and slack angles fell into place, and I ate everyone alive down there, taking the lead into the bog section. I was able to hold the lead until a tight up and down switchback section, where my Strike’s geometry (and my ineptness!) told against me – I slipped off on an exposed root and King rewarded my mistake by running over my back wheel – thanks mate! King extricated himself and took off; I took a little longer to get going and slipped to a halt again a few moments later. By the time I emerged into the next open drop King was just a dot in the distance, and I immediately came under attack from Blackwell in third.
Following Blackwell through to the end of lap one, we could see King up ahead on the open sections, and on lap two we cruised up behind him in exactly the place where I’d tried to attack him first time round. It was obvious he wasn’t enjoying this section, and I stored this snippet of info away for possible later use; I held third for the remainder of the lap, but could make no impression on the leaders at all. I was by now telling myself that ‘third is okay, that’s two podiums on the trot’, and finished the lap just behind Blackwell, with King a little ahead as usual.
Blackwell seemed to fade, so I moved through early on lap three with an encouraging shout from the Dee Cycles
rider, and began to edge up behind King. Now, normally at this point in a race I’m beginning to flag – the early laps ALWAYS take their toll and I have nothing left to give – but this time I felt stronger and had one word on my mind; ‘attack’. I got onto King’s wheel after a steep uphill, and I noticed how he was slow to accelerate and how much he was ‘blowing’ – I knew right there I’d got a chance. I shadowed him for much of the third circulation, and moved into the lead at about 2/3rd lap distance; King was straight onto my wheel using me as a wind-break on the more open sections. This suited me fine, and I got my head down and attempted to break him by ‘opening the taps’ on the faster sections. Time and again, I attacked and varied the pace, hoping to upset his rhythm and get a gap.
King was still right there as we started lap four, but at the top of the first fire-road climb I had a gap (he said after the race he took a drink and couldn’t get back on my wheel). I simply flew into the first single-track sections and knowing this was where King had struggled previously I threw caution to the wind, crashing through the undergrowth and taking risks where I could to steal those precious seconds. Thinking I might lose some time to King in the switchback section later in the lap I had to keep the pressure on.
As we emerged from the switchback King was there, just 20 or so seconds back – I then got slightly checked by traffic entering the next climbing single-track and I was worried that King would get his tail up. By now I was really ‘blowing’ too, and feeling the effort of trying to keep ahead. Without looking back I reeled off the last sections, and entering the final two climbs I knew I was safe for the victory. King was over the line just 39 seconds later and Blackwell just 20 seconds behind him.
I couldn’t wait to see my lap splits on Timelaps... RESULTS
… and I was absolutely delighted to see my last two laps were quicker than the second lap, and my last lap was only just shy of the first and my fastest lap time. This is a first for me, and points to renewed confidence in conjunction with some good training; it’s probably also as a result of getting some ‘proper’ SR3 isotonic drink and not having to rely on ‘Powerade’!
