Southern XC4

My final race before my first major target of 2011 was the Southern XC at Pernham Down, near Andover. I have never ridden at Eastridge, which was the original venue, so I was not one of those who was comparing it to what might have been, and I was very excited by what I found. The course contained at least 3 short sharp climbs, along with a long-ish draggy grass climb early in the lap. The rest was tight twisty singletrack which required 100% concentration. There was nowhere to hide, and not really anywhere to even have a gulp of bikefood. The day was hot and humid and I knew within the first 5 minutes of the practice lap, this was going to be a hard day in the saddle.


My plan had been to try out my new warm up plan I had discussed with my coach, Robin, from www.Areufit.co.uk with the aim of improving my starts. This went out of the window as I couldn’t fit the turbo in the car so I had to make do with the old fashioned warm up of intervals on the access road. The start actually suited me because after a short climb there was a section of singletrack where the pace dropped and I could get my breath back before the first real climb. I managed to sit in with the main group to this point and was about 6th into the woods. At this point I was really suffering to keep hold of the wheel in front but determined not to loose too much ground on the first lap I put the signals from my legs to the back of my mind. By the end of the lap I was about 20 seconds adrift with 1 rider for company. Half way through the second lap I caught and passed Ross Mallen of the RAF while he was busy getting acquainted with the forest floor. We rode together for a lap and I felt, at this point, like I had the legs on him. On the third lap I took to the front into the first section of woods and after a couple of minutes I realised I was on my own again. I must have had nearly a minute over Ross by the feed station which I thought I would be able to maintain for the final lap. Unfortunately, he was flying and caught me on the penultimate sharp climb when my chain decided to wrap its self around my crank arm. I only lost about 10 seconds track standing and pedalling backwards but it was enough to lose position and make me realise how abused my legs felt. I managed to hold off the rider approaching from behind and finished in 6th position.


Looking at the lap times I am really happy with my ride. I had a good first lap and my final lap was my second fastest which gives me a bit of confidence that I can maintain that sort of effort for 5 laps at the nationals next week. This week I am taking it easy with 1 set of intervals on Wednesday before travelling up to Aske on Friday evening for a relaxed build up.