End of Season Review

Now that the season is over I can look back on with at least a degree of satisfaction. While I was definitely not the fastest rider in the sport category I am likely to end up top of the National Rankings. My overall aim for the season was to get promoted to expert so a top 15 finish would have done the job nicely!


My second aim of the season was to get a podium at a regional race. After coming close at the national championships I had thought that was my best chance of reaching this goal but my next race, the 3rd round of the midlands XC I managed second. At this point I was probably the fittest I had been for the whole season so in a way it was quite frustrating to have Sleepless in the Saddle solo the week after.


My third goal was to ride for the full 24 hours at SitS. As I said in my blog before the event, the finishing position wasn’t so important to me because I knew that if I rode for the full time I would get a descent result. When the sun rose on Sunday morning I was sitting in 4th a lap down on 3rd and feeling good. I am really happy in this race because to have enough left to push hard for the last 5 hours trying to catch 3rd was much more than I could have expected. I was rewarded for not sitting back and taking 4th by benifiting from the implosion of 2nd place a couple of laps from the end. Getting my second podium in as many weeks was definitely the high point of the season.


From here on, my season was as good as over. Recovering from such a massive challenge is a major task and not one that can be rushed. My final goal of the season was the national marathon champs but with just over a month to prepare it proved too close. The knee strain I picked up at Sits meant I couldn’t train for and even gentle riding was a bit too much. Because of this I dropped out of the championships and just rode the XC on the Saturday. It is not until the final race of the season, BMBS5 at Newnham, that I actually fealt back to my best.


Now the focus moves to next season, ant trying to think of some achievable goals in an even more competitive category than this year. I have a couple of weeks without too much punishment before the training kicks in again.


Today I have been out for a 5 hour road ride with a rapidly dwindling local group. We started off with about 14 and about 7 made it back to Witney. It was a pretty tough ride and for the first half I was struggling. Fortunately, after some tea and cake I found my legs and spent most of the ride on the front from then on. Shame the weather didn’t behave and the mid 20 degree ‘Indian summer’ was more like a typical British autumn!