As a road rider, Thruxton was the setting for the last win of my road career, with a long solo break... fond memories indeed.. But I wasn't kidding myself.. while the weather was very similar. ( freezing northerly wind) I had no illusions that today's result was going to be different.
This was to be first outing with my 'new ' carbon wheels and first ride on tubs.
I know I know, I bought them weeks ago..but I have been faffing with brakes.. I needed some pads, so I had a choice. Do I go for the standard size road cartridges or swap to the longer V brake (RX) cartridges off the Tektro720s.
I opted for more brake block with the V pads. But after a three week wait for yellow swissstops carbon pads I was informed that they don't do them anymore!! so small pads it is then...( which I could have gotten weeks ago)
Trying to set the CX8.4 mini Vs up was a pain I just couldn't get them right.. The rear wheel has a tiny wobble on it and as the pads run so close to the rim I faffed and faffed, but in the end I got up early on race day and swapped back to my Tekros. nothing like last minute changes.
I travelling up with Phil Chinn of Fareham Wheelers in his well kitted out LT relaxed, babbling the whole way and talking about The Fareham Wheelers Cross race on the 5th Jan next year.
Parking was easy and soon we were bimbling down the hill to sign on.
A sea of tape, on the side of an amphitheatre, greeted us..what a cracking venue for spectators...
it was impossible to trace the course standing at the bottom the hurdles were right in front of the sign on and the majority of the crowd. but the only other obvious feature was the regular vertical lines climbing the banks,.again and again.sweeping out to the right and back again into the grim headwind.
So here it is... a tidied up GPX track:
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| Twisty then:... |
The starting straight was pretty long and went stright up the hill
and by the first hairpin, things were spaced out reasonably. I would describe it but basically it was a long series of sharp turns in a sea of tape. once you were on it it was fine though, off camber corners, 180s into another hill.
The course was well drained with no muddy patches. A few of teh corners got progressivly torn up throughoutthe race, but mainly it was damp grass. A few long straights were welcome respite and a well built set of barriers. Basically an excercise in off camber riding, switchbacks and short sharp uphills.!! definitly the most corners in any race yet. The hardest part was a really sharp off camber left hander, down on the southerm part of teh course. steep and very slippy....
This pic shows the pits barriers and a few of the steep bank switchbacks. ------------------>>
( it doesnt really give the impression of how steep they were!)
Racing.
Commisaires called up riders to the grid, but this race instead of the top 20 or so they called everyone on the Wessex database forward in turn, As I am not affiliated this year I was in the remaining few riders a long way back, I estimate at least 50-60 or so riders ahead..
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| Graham Robbins |
A minutes silence was held for the passing of Wessex cyclocross stalwart Geoff Shergold . The quiet only punctuated by the wind and garmins chirping threshold alarms.
The whistle went, but instead of caning it straight away, a lackadaisical meander started, I didn't really really shift a gear until we dived into the first series of chicanes.,. then that was it Hammer time. heart rate nicely elevated, time to start picking off. corner, accelerate, pick off a rider, no aggression, but by either accelerating on a short straight bit, or by out cornering. I was soon moving up through the field.
My mate Phil came a cropper on one of the steep uphills, so as riders cursed and had to ease up in the bottle neck, I was off running and sprinted up the hill, making around 15 places in one go. steep switchback,, out of the saddle and accelerate up the next part of the bank. the course was always variable and there was only one section where you could shift it to the big ring. I had a good ding dong with an Army CU guy, Ed of VC Venta was passed and things were going pretty well.
I sprinted as hard as I possibly could along that top bit, as other riders seemed to be taking a bit of a breather, knowing that the wiggly bit at the bottom was easily defendable.,
The trickiest part of the course came way off to the right of the course. (Yellow circle) a short climb, offcamber> followed by a very off camber switch back, that was very slippy and really hard to find a clean line through. I nervously crept through this segment each lap.
By now I was up to near my usual rivals, Army CU guy , and a pale blue Wesbury Wheelrs rider were close. I was passing Phil Boarer of South Downs passing on the opposite side of the switch back. Keeping the pressure on I blundered and accelerating into a rise I dropped the chain.. Off the bike as riders started to pass, I lifted the chain back on and span the pedals to make sure it didn't drop again. Tried to remount ... (Blunder!) dismounted and then ran up the bank careful not to remount too early. I had lost about 10 or so places, and was livid.
I spent the rest of the race chasing those down who I had already passed once... picking them off one by one, and gaining all the time. Phil yelling encouragement where we passed.
On the Bell lap I over cooked it a bit on that nasty corner I mentioned and I went over the bars and over the tape. The bars dug deeply into my left thigh giving me a good dead leg.. My most recent passed opponent (Wight Mountain guy) quickly and smartly accelerated past as I remounted and limped off, slow to get back up to speed. I was still chasing him down, as we approached teh finish, both getting out of the saddle to sprint for the line... he did manage it, but it was a good race..Turns out that I managed to wind back up to 21st. so overall not bad from such a shit start and mishaps. Somehow I managed to lose a contact lense in teh melee as well!
Post race diagnosis and catching up with a few familiar faces.. A warm cup of tea and a sausage sandwich from the superb grill that had been put on,
We watched about half of the Seniors, where I did a bit of gentle heckling of Ben, who was out on his first race for a long while.
What went well:
Raced very hard, made a lot of places up. really worked through the bunch . Pretty pleased about that.
Raced on tubs..even though they were a bit too hard, the wheels seemed to accelerate quickly.
Not so good.
Out partying the night before..Spanish Ex-pats night out...I volunteered to drive so got away with a baggy head, but it was a late night...
Tubs a bit too hard
Not being gridded and starting at the back.. while its a good workout, ultimately I really want a top ten.
Dropped chain.. No idea why, its never done it on that bike, or since.. should I buy a chainkeeper?
Crashed.. ahh well that racing.. but my thigh is still bruised and feels dead.
Bad prep of spare bike. Yet again I forgot to check tyre pressure. so they were well flat ( Latex tubes!)
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