The course started off with a long climb through the middle of a golf course which I knew would separate the field pretty well and I was expecting to be near the back by the top. From this point on, there was some nice twisty woody singletrack, a few jumps and drops, and one more killer granny ring climb.
Much to my surprise I was not at the back and hit the woods inside
the top 10 in a train of riders. I slowly picked my way through until
half way through the second lap when I made a move on the guy in front
to be left with clear air in front of me. I quickly made the move count
as I was the faster of the two of us in the woods. Going through the
start finish to begin my third lap I was very surprised to be told I was
in second by my beautiful assistant Emma on her first bottling outing
of the season. All of a sudden my legs felt refreshed and I pushed on
for the remainder of the race. Beginning my last lap I was told the gap
to the leader was down to just over one minute so I pushed right up to
the end. Unfortunately I could not bridge the gap to Harry Penn in first
but did get the gap down to 50 seconds. Maybe one more lap and I would
have had him!This was the first time I have stood on an actual podium so I am very happy with that, and it also ticks off another of my aims from the start of the season. Hopefully I can now have a good week long rest before Sleepless and a completely different challenge!
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