Southern XC 5 (Pippingford)

Its been over a week since my last race, and its taken this long to really deal with the disappointment. After the long summer break of about 6 weeks the first race back was the final round of the Southern series at Pippingford. My full suss bike was in the shop having a brake replaced so I decided to use the hardtail for the first time since my accident. After the practice lap, I was pretty happy, both with the course and the bike. The course was broadly the same as previous races there, only with some sections running backwards. It was comprised of lots of singletrack and lots of short sharp climbs which I always enjoy. Unfortunately, while waiting for the race to start the heavens opened and for about an hour all I could do was sit in the car and watch as the riders in the earlier race came through with thicker and thicker coatings of mud.


Finally it was time to get ready and after a quick change onto continental X-King tires for more grip I headed over to the start line. I had lost track of time and didn’t have time for a warm up, just enough time to rip my arm and leg warmers off and roll onto the grid. Once the race started I got into 3rd position for the first descent. The course had completely changed since practice and it was really hard to keep my wheels on the course rather than in a ditch or bush. Once we hit the fireroad I started to drop back. I felt a complete lack of motivation and drive and couldn’t muster any power. At this stage, the time I was losing on the climbs, I was more than making up for on the descents. They were crazily slippery but mostly rideable despite many of the guys around me preferring to run. Towards the end of the lap I was starting to find a rhythm until I caught my pedal of a log which threw me into the bushes. I slowly picked my self up, checking I was not seriously damaged, and dragged my bike out of the undergrowth. From this point on my race went downhill. I had lost a couple of minutes in this crash and was at the back of the race. The bike refused to change into the granny ring and I couldn’t get any traction on the climbs. My back was starting to ache, but not the usual ache I normally get, more of a sharp pain where the break was. I had also lost the ability to descend and was crashing continually and had lost all desire to be racing. After one particularly big crash where I went over the bars and landed on my head I decided to call it a day. This is only the second XC race I have ever abandoned, and the first was because I ran out of inner tubes at Thetford in 2006. I felt like a failure, I was disgusted with myself and didn’t want to talk to anyone, just go home and wallow. I wouldn’t even allow my self to comfort eat as I didn’t feel I deserved it.


After some reflection I have decided the performance was due to a catalogue of errors. I could blame it on the rain, on my back, on the long season break or what ever else, but the fact is I was unprepared. I didn’t have the right bike (which was my fault), I hadn’t warmed up (also my fault), and I wasn’t mentally tough enough on the day (definitely my fault). All these tings I can work on and I can make sure they don’t happen again.