Sherwood is always a funny national for me at least, being
the first of the national series generally none of us have raced each other yet
in the season so form is always a little bit hit and miss! I’ve always enjoyed
racing around Sherwood, not necessarily because the course is my favourite but
it lends itself really well to fast and very close racing which I really enjoy.
It’s a good refresh at the beginning of the year to get a really close race in,
it snaps your mind back into the racing mindset and that every second counts.
Saturday Practice Day – So we travelled up Friday night and
awoke Saturday morning to fog so thick that visibility was down to maybe 30
metres at a push? Not the ideal training conditions on a new course no one had
ridden! Course practice opened at Midday by which time the fog had thinned but
was still very much apparent, but needs must and I set out on my first lap. To
be honest I had and still have very mixed views on the lap, the newly cut
singletrack was really good if a little too new and the long standing stuff was
beautifully flowy and a joy to ride on my 29er just eating it up. Ground
conditions were pretty much ideal with it being bone dry in most places but not
too dry that there was dust everywhere, couldn’t really have asked for anything
better! However for a national event the course was far too tight in sections
and with virtually no open fire roads passing was going to be a challenge at
minimum and catching lapped riders a nightmare, but I’ll have my say about that
later. Aside from this the course was going to be as relentless as ever and I
was excited about racing on it for sure with such a quality field we’re
starting to see consistently at nationals these days, great to see!
Saturday Night, Pro Sprint Eliminator – I love doing the
newly established XCE’s or pro sprint eliminators as they’ve been aptly named.
A short 1:20minute circuit with logs, sharp turns, fire roads, singletrack and
4 riders battling for the top 2 places to go through to the next round... it’s
safe to say the racing it outrageously fast and furious especially with over a
£1000 in prize money available! First call is for the qualifiers, yourself
against the clock round the course to see who gets gridded where and who is out
in what heats. With blurry eyes I crossed the line after my time trial to find
I’d qualified in 3rd! I had good luck winning all of my heats and
got through to the semi’s undefeated. However my luck was to change as I
miss-timed my start in the semi’s and ended up in last place off the line, I
tried my best to catch up but I knew getting into the top two to advance to the
finals was not achievable so sat up and conserved some energy for the B-final.
This Final went a lot better getting to jump into the first corner and holding
it all the way through to the finish to claim my 5th place, not the
result I was after given my quali but that’s racing! A few people have asked me
why I race these the day before a big event, essentially I find that the short
sprint efforts really open my legs and lungs up for the following day and have
had my best results after the XCE’s the day before so I’m pleased that they are
now fixtures at the World Cups Series and our own National Series. Plus it
makes a really good spectator event which really helps promote our beloved
sport of XC!
Sunday, Smash fest day – Now for the main event! Luckily the
weather decided to be much nicer to us with a crystal clear sky, the tiniest of
winds and the ideal racing temperature. I went down to watch the youths and
women race first thing in the morning to gauge an estimate on lap times and the
conditions of the course to see if it had changed. Dan Tulett (Cyclo-cross
Under 14 National champion - Hargroves Cycles) was the first finisher of the
day clocking up a very impressive winning margin over his one lap race of more
than a minute! Conditions seemed identical if not better than the day before so
I retreated back to the motorhome to start getting the bike and myself prepped
for the race that lay ahead. During warm up I felt pretty good and was spinning
up to speed and getting the efforts sorted, my trusty ipod keeping me occupied
as I waited for the clock to read 11:40, the time when I had to get off the
turbo and roll down to the start line.
The start was a typical as it ever gets a Sherwood,
fantastically fast with positions changing every blink of the eye! I pretty
much held my grid position of 20 and rolled round the first half of the lap in
roughly that place, I moved up as much as I could in the last half of that lap
and was just dangling of the lead group by 5-10 seconds in 12th
place. On the third lap I was making extra effort to get up to that lead group
as they started to settle into a pace and it wasn’t so manic, however I was
thwarted by inconsiderate, rude and downright ignorant lapped riders. We’re
coming up to lap riders who are in 70th whatever place in an
unclassified sport race and they have the ignorance to get in the way and
interfere with our top 10 Elite riders? This along with the over use of swearing
and abusive chat when we eventually got passed them was just unnecessary. My 3rd
lap was nearly 30 seconds slower than any other lap, enough said. Rant over, eventually
I made it through the back markers on the 4th lap and could resume
my chase to the lead group. I’d been caught by a fair group on the 3rd
lap containing Ade Lansley, Seb Batchelor and Grant Ferguson to name a few and
knew I’d have to work super hard to try and get away from them again on the
tough course which didn’t encourage break away riders! I came across some luck
hitting the steep bank on the latter part of the course where I was the only
rider to get over it, slightly in part caused by my stall at the top as I lost
momentum. Unfortunately this left me in no-man’s land with no other riders now
around me I had to try and work up on my own, always a tricky place to be! Another piece of luck came towards the end of
this lap as one of the front runners from Belgium had a puncture and had just
changed a wheel as I passed the tech zone, I picked up his wheel and we rode together
trying to work up as far as we could to the now fragmenting leading groups. On
the last lap we could see the positions infront of us and having nothing to
lose I gave it everything I had to try and bridge the seeming impossible gap,
with less than half a lap to go my foreign companion went passed me and I just didn’t
have the legs to follow his speed anymore and just dropped a few bike lengths
off his back wheel. I gave chase as much as I could and he never pulled away
but I just could not manage to pull back those few seconds to him no matter how
hard I tried! As we barrelled into the finish arena I could see the 3 places in
front of me, I was sitting in 9th with only 9 seconds up the road to
6th place! There was maybe 300 metres left to go and 9 seconds...
could I make it? I will admit I tried my very hardest and anyone who saw the
gurn on my face will agree I was pressing on the pedals somewhat, but alas the
gaps were just too big for my legs to conquer after such a tough start to the
race. It ended up being exactly 3 seconds each separating 6th 7th
8th and 9th, it doesn’t get an awful lot closer than that
for 4 places!
I’m really pleased with how the race went, I’m the first to
admit I’m a climber not a power rider so to get this result on a course that
ultimately doesn’t play my strengths I’m over the moon! It was a good test as
to what parts of training are working and it does highlight areas where I do
need to improve. Always the case at Sherwood everyone has mixed words after the
race as we’re all in the same boat of not knowing where our form lies, but that’s
what draws me like a hawk to this race year after year, the unknown of what on
earth is going to happen! Next big race
on the agenda is the infamous Houffalize World Cup in Belgium, can’t wait to
get my world cup bid going now!
There’s still confusion on teams so I’ll try and explain
better! For MTB I will be riding for “Specialized/Hargroves” for road/cross I’ll
be representing “Hargroves” I hope that makes more sense! This blog has turned
into rather more of an essay I’m afraid but it’s nearly over fear not! With
national weekends containing so much riding and racing I get somewhat carried
away writing.
My 29er Epic really was the perfect bike for the course at
Sherwood, the efficiency advantage it gives you on such a flat/bumpy course
really is unbelievable and it did honestly play a role in my consistent lap
times and finishing so close to the top 5. I chose to run Specialized Renegade
1.95 tyres this week due to their impressive grip considering the road tyre
speed! I was running 24/25psi front and rear respectively. Forks were down at
105psi for extra cushioning whilst the rear shock remained at 165psi with two
turns off full brain fade. How much does it weigh? Good question and I’ll
endeavour to find out for you by the next blog people!
Until next time
Steve
