Wessex League Round 11 Thruxton...Squirellyness 1.0

Not many races left to get it right. By the time I get it right, it will all be over, there is only this one and Fairthorne., ( with the Army CU in February too far off to focus on at the moment and I am abroad for the Christmas Crabwood race)
So this weekend...Thruxton.. Last years race was interesting.. a last lap crash and unshipping my chain had put paid to a decent result, but its a tough old course..http://haywil.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/racing-wessex-cx-rnd-10-thruxton.html

So to this year, its been raining ....a lot , not as windy as last year, but last weeks circuit was anything to go by, it was to be a muddy one, making tyre choice easy... muds... but
The circuit had changed a bit, about 1.2 miles... and a lot of corners..  Uphill ones, downhill ones, inside camber, offside camber, flat ones... tight ones, carving ones.. a confusing sea of tape, punctuated by corner after corner, and what appeared to be a muddy version of Heathrow Terminal 2 Passport control at on the western edge of the field.

Sign on is easy.. this week I had Pre entered, and after travelling up with Phil, we were nice and early..Parking in the lee of the garages we quickly sorted stuff out while getting wet, until someone pointed out that the garages were open ,.. The Pit bike was readied, and the race bike was quickly sorted..yet again I am faced with a pressure quandary. go low and risk another tyre blowing off the rim? or high and end up cornering like a happy shopper.. I go for 34 psi at the van...and then take a squirt out a bit later on. I have really struggled to find a pressure that works for me this year. In training I can get pretty low and on the edge of squirrellyness ( is that the new Svenness? -- Squirellyness) but anxiety of race speeds and the additional stresses of cornering at race speed force me to err on the side of caution and go a bit higher.

Negotiating the off camber Photo Graham Robins

So to the course.. gentle uphill start up a bumpy field easy right still up hill to the top where a pair of switchbacks take take you to a very awkward steep off camber right hander.. slippy and difficult to take at anything other than walking pace. the exit was just as tricky as the camber forced you to the tape.
up the bank at an angle to a slippy off camber left hander. down the hill gathering pace building speed to get as much speed up a steepish kick. a vicious bump forced caution, while bleeding speed that left you troubled at the top . a scoot across the top to an easy drop to the running barriers..over these a straight bit and back up the bank at an easier angle. Up down, in out the pattern repeated as the course folded in and out. Each of the corners at the top difficult and off cambered, while at the bottom, they were more open, but muddier and difficult to hold speed.

Passport control

Eventually this meandering led to the a strange feature of 11 straights , punctuated by tight 180s.. ( ooo my favourite) As the race went on the latter stages of this section got increasingly cut up and harder to keep the pace.  It looked like Passport control. after that it was an quick up and down before turning back onto the starting straight. a lot of corners. hard switchbacks and closed off cambers,... .

 Warmup went ok.. a lot of riders again, but I managed to push a wee bit harder than just bimbling around, I spotted a decent line through the off camber.. not a Sven line, but one that suited my chickeness.. in the drizzling rain I regretted not bringing a turbo to warm up on..
It wasn't long before gridding started, 4th row again.. not really improving, but better than missing a spot in the surge of  "and the rest of you"

Aaron Taylor ( Banjo) with the off camber in the background)

I line up behind Will Macdonald. a good rival and a a rider who has been going better as the season has progressed.  I feel calm, pretty confident... and as the whistle goes I get a good start. easily finding my spd and powering up the hill, that first corner comes and I accelerate again and by that first hairpin I am probably in 10th. a few riders I expect to pass later are in front, and as it settles I am content. Tim Hyde goes down on the off camber, and the race settles down again. Brakes squealing and its down to the task in hand. Who's in front, who's on your wheel.
My regulars are around me.. and I make a point of having a good dig on the gentle uphills, I seem to have gone well on these this year so try to capitalise when I can. I enter passport control, that first corner had a decent line that you could really carve into .. then it was eleven corner sprint, brake as late as you can, sprint , brake sprint. each end taking stock of how you were gaining on the guy in front, or being caught. just working to hit the corners the same time as the chasers, despite my admissions that I struggle on these all that cornering practice and countersteering messing around seemed to pay dividends as I didn't seem to lose ground on this section.
I pass regular opponents, Pete and Gareth and at one time I overtake Will. and work up to Robin Wilmott. I seem to be able to corner inside him, but he is strong and can power away on the outside as I come back up to speed, we pass each other a few times, until he messes up one off the tricky off camber lefts and a streak of white grass appears as he loses his rear wheel. I quickly pass and get a gap. Will has a dig and passes me on a uphill section . I lose ground to him on the downhills and those slow bottom turns., but manage to keep Robin at bay.
The bell lap comes early at 38 minutes and it a dig in time, careful not to overcook that off camber.. go wide and commit to the torn up apex.., same with the approach to the running barriers . I almost get up to Will, but his last lap effort me maintains the gap and finishes around 9 seconds in front of me..
A very contented 9th in the race and 7th Vet.. very happy with that as I felt it was a proper race. no screw ups, no excuses.. raced to my ability finally.. very pleased.
Trouble is there's not enough races left to work my way up the league tables.

What went well:

Good result.

Good tyre pressure choice.

No misshaps

not so well.

Should have bought Limus Tubs not Open Tubulars then I would have the confidence to go lower.

Need to practice barriers again.. I've got slower.

Punch short banks are lagging at the moment.

Wessex CX League Round 10.. Eastleigh

Almost my local race, just a few miles down the road and where I very nearly restarted racing back in 2012,( see last years write up). Last time I had done reasonably well, on a sunny day early season.. .. but this year, a few weeks of rain meant that this outing was to be a very different affair.
Eastleigh isnt really my stomping grounds, and I generally avoid the place, but Sotonia once again laid up a superb circuit up at Fleming park.
Sign on was a tad different, with Vets not opening until 11:30, a mere hour before the race..As I hadnt pre entered I was alarmed  that the roster may fill up before I could get to the front of the queue. either that, or have no time for a warm up .
I needn't have worried, things worked them selves ok and I pinned on number 40, stood around chin wagging and sorted out my pit bike..
A damn fine circuit, a mix of parkland, with a few banks, and making good use of a copse and long steady rise.
The start differed from last year. directly up the centre of the hill. quite steep for a start, but a good use of the circuit, with riders likely to be well spread out before the first bottle neck, and with the lower speed, less likely to have a tangle.
a 180 turn and a toboggan run back to the bottom, a cut up muddy corner through some trees and over a 2 foot high bank..
a long boggy climb that just seemed to sap the back wheel gradually firming up as it headed under the trees . short drop down the bank, left hander back onto grassy field. a 180 and a short straight, leading to a rideable bank..
past the pits. a few meanders, up a bank, and another straight to a lonely pine tree ( well the ground was strewn with needles) a few tight corners. of cut up mud. a sluchy slick run down to the West most part of the course..  prepping out left before a quick dig up a steep bank... My warm up came to an abrupt end when my chain snapped on this bank.. and I had to scoot back to the car... ( a massive thanks to Sean Williams and Gordon for helping me out..) back on it .. from the bank,. a off camber drop, tightening into another off camber blip up, then a straight run to the copse. dismount, run a few steps  over a log , unless you are brave enough to bunny hop it) remount into a left hander around a tree and a easy flicky bunny hop over a second lower log.
right hander around a tree and onto the top wet grassy field. straight, corner, straight >180.. and then a long straight back to the bottom of the hill, only punctuated by the sand pit ( easy this year) , a right hander greeted you at the end of the descent, before digging in up the start straight again.
The bikes are prepped, worried about tyre pressure after the last race blow out..I opt for 34-35 psi... just hoping thats not too much..
the call ups start...and I get gridded again, third or fourth row ( I cant remember).. kicking myself for missing those early season races. I realise I have left my gloves on the roof of the car. ( I bet they have disappeared when i get back... ( Eastleigh is a tad rough in places) I look around, checking out what gearing people are starting in.. Usually its the big ring and 2 or three down , but today I opt for the 36 . Sean Williams is in front of me, I couldn't ask for a better wheel to follow....

Teammate James C on the slick descent.

The whistle goes... and we are off. Sean punches through almost immediately, and i do my best to follow in his tyre marks..spinning out, its a risk chuntering down through the rear block, hoping the chain isn't slapping around and crunching menacingly... the first corner comes and i am around 10th place.. fairly open..
My descending confidence has taken a few hits with my recent misfortunes. and riders easily pass me on that first squirrely ice rink... hugging what remains of any grass on the left.. the bottom dip is smoothly navigated and I start over taking again.. I struggle on the steep bank under the trees, fighting hard to stay in front of the little group forming around me. I drop down the earth bank, holding a good line, but the next turn is a slick off camber and i lose the front wheel and go down..
a handful of riders slip past.. and as I remount I realise, that was it, that was teh moment of my race... now the fight is on.. I am really struggling on the corners, far too upright and far too slow.. unable to find a good carving line.. I feel weaker than normal on the steep , but ride able , banks.. and am working harder than normal..

Digging in on the steep bank
  Photo Graham Robins

Its settled, I have a gap... keep tapping no more mistakes.. I seem to be losing time on the descents and the tighter corners, I can hold time on the flats. But manage to gain on the riders in front on the longer hills.. This surprises me as i figured that I would get pasted by the guys with road fitness on the endurance type sections.
Ed is long gone, and I occasionally see him as the course cuts back on itself.. and Eventually I manage to catch and overtake Gareth of South Down Velo.
I am no where near as smooth on the running dismount as normal, and shoulder barge the tree on the apex of one of the turns.
A Team quest rider is slowly but surely work is way up... its the bell lap and i do all I can to hold him off.
My descending nemesis catches me, as does team Quest guy and he attacks me into the finishing straight..I dig in as hard as I can to respond, to no avail and I cross the line 10th... not a bad result. Knackered..



What went well:
I got a reasonably result, recovered from the first lap crash .
I found my gloves on the roof of the car.. right next to a bit of chewing gum that I left there ages ago.
The bike held together..Mini vs annoying but not blocked.


Not so good
poor descending
weak cornering,
Tyre pressure was wrong for the conditions.
I am struggling to dial the open tubulars in..

Crashing... again

This season has been marked by a catalogue of crashes, incidents and general fuck ups..

 Firstly I cracked two ribs and my helmet in September, nearly burst my bellend in another, trashed my wrist a few times, but my most recent crash is worth thinking about..

If you read the last few blog entries you may know that I have been racing and training with two more broken ribs. So on a recent ride I decided to revisit the spot where I went down and piece together what the hell happened.

Picture this.. I am riding a Custom Steel frame, on loan from the shop, to give it some welly and an idea of how new geometry was working. I had been riding pretty well...

My regular Whitely Woods loop , gentle down hill approaching this:

gentle slope, a bit mucky, but fast and smooth..

I am doing 15.2 mph ( I checked on my GPS track after)

getting closer:

SO shift weight back a bit and pop a gentle manual to clear the tiny puddle..

can you see it yet ??

That red circle is a tree root sticking up just above the surface. to the left of it is a submerged step , only a few inches high but enough to seriously smack your front end. that root isn't straight either.. hit it and it will shove your wheel to the left.. invisible and a serious dampner as I found out.

basically I hit it hard, I remember trying to pop the front, to lighten it through the puddle, but smashed something very hard and ended up in the bush to the right.

No buckled wheel, bent shifter, but no apparent damage. Only later I felt a real pain in my achilles where the pedal caught it and my ribs .. i eventually went to A&E to get them checked as I was not sure whether I had cracked a shoulder blade.

It was only washing the bike down after Winchesters race did I notice this:

That is a fucked frame. James had noticed a gouge in in the bars where the stem clamps, but we had both missed this.. 

such an innocuous puddle causing all this hassle.

Wessex League Rnd 8 Winchester

Not the greatest

The day didn't start that well, and the way things transpired, I should have curled up in the duvet and mooched around at home, maybe sorting out some of the DIY backlog..
So here is my catalog of excuses of why I was so shit on Sunday...
 I have got a cold.( not a sore throat yet, but snotty)
I crashed hard on Wednesday lunchtime while testing a Rock n Road custom frame. While I felt OK on picking myself up ( No cracked helmets , just a cut knee and I banged my achilles.  I am pretty sure I cracked yet more ribs, a walk in clinic beckons as my chest is very sore and I cant raise my right arm, I have pins a needles inside my elbow and pain across my back when I breathe deeply)
Not in tip top race condition if I admit, but once a number is pinned on, I am not the type to DNS so like a twat I decide to race.. bad move..

It had been raining, quite a bit so a boggy, claggy muddy course was expected. I decided to race on the custom frame as its sharp steering and classy handling was getting more dialled in, and as it was running Limus Open tubulars. (a clincher disguised as a tubular.) things seemed to be set for an interesting race.

I roll out on to the course to take a lap in and see the lay of the land..
Basically the same as last year..but with some of the really horrible bumpy fields cut a bit shorter. Its a long circuit.. ( the longest in the league I think) I am not confident, and struggling to get warm. I miss my T minus 15 energy hit as my son Aaron had wandered off with my Clif Bar Shok Blocks.. thinking that they were sweets for later. I place my usual Hiver race bike in the Pits. ( different this year as the Pits were split, with no transfer in between. choose carefully!!)
Instead of the hurtle up the lane, this years start was across one of the lower fields. through a muddy gate and onto the tarmac section. and out onto the side of the playing field. I liked this bit, the off camber slime was especially slippy this year, The Limus treads, bit  nicely though and the left hand line was pretty smooth and fast. a hair pin with a weird bump that you could almost berm off, a lefty , and a short bank.. up and over , past the first of the pits. wiggle along the edge of the playing field, to an awkward drop with a tight left hand turn at the bottom. a gentle straight up to the club house. through a flat curve and another steep step/bank. through a pair of easy gravel beds. a bend, and then an S shaped run through a deep gravel pit . remount, kicking pedals furiously trying to clear the pea shingle now lodged in the cleats , past the start / finish and off down a long down hill. This is possibly the longest downhill straight in the series, but this year punctuated with a drop off  and a very slithery off camber set of 180 gates.. the grass torn and streaked white and riders were unsure to run it or ride it...
Off down the hill again to a set of switch backs and straights across the field. bumpy , with no racing line rut.. past the back pits number 2. through a bomb hole. wend your way through a short woodland section.. enough to pic up some leaves and off down the field again..a few short banks, one to run up , then across the field trying to build speed up again.
Another easy short wooded section, a section of road, before another couple of wiggles around some trees and up rideable banks, culminating in a deft wind up to speed to dig over a steep cut up bank and behind the centre. more wiggles around trees, almost dizzying, before a steep bank drop and slithering onto the field again...a good course, not my favourite , but a good balance of technical windy turny stuff and a decent straight to put the power down.

 Steep bank by the Gravel pits     Photo: Jez Hart

We muster at the start... another huge field.  I am fairly relaxed and in , just get around mode.. not at all confident. I decide to take the start easy and pick off riders later.. I get gridded again.. Still third row but at least it a call. we hang around for ages as the V50s are gridded. eventually the whistle goes and the huge field tear off across the gently rutted field. I let myself be swamped, and soft pedal through the gate in about 25th place.. surrounded by unfamiliar riders, but as the race gets underway, the pain in various bits of my body subsides and I get my rhythm and the mojo starts working.
 I regret not going properly at the start, but soon start moving up.

Thats the world champ on my wheel   Photo Graham Robins

A youngster, cocks up one of the steep banks... dabs a foot in front. Apologising for holding us up, but I capitalise on his mistake and brusquely run through, levering my bike to make space in the melee and forging ahead.  Cross is all about taking these opportunities and burning a match when you need to. 

I get a gap and start moving up to the next quarry.

The next laps are settled. The Limus open tubulars are working well in the difficult conditions. Cut straw like grass, clogs the tread, but handling is pretty good, at 30psi they feel a little squirrely,... 33 next time,..

My acceleration isnt that quick today, feeling underpowered, and I avoid shouldering the bike as my ribs are hurting like hell. Way hey .. suitcasing up steep banks :-), even reaching down to scoop up an errant beer bottle on the course..

Its damp.. I watch a pendulum of sweat and moisture swinging backwards and forth across my vision reluctant to release the brow of my helmet.

Things go crap when I drop my chain just after the gravel pit and as I mess around reseating it a steady stream of riders pass through.

Gutted, the fight is kind of taken out of me as the pain in my chest returns and I soft tap for a while. I become hesitant into corners were before I was attacking and holding good lines.  The bike is handling the tight switches around the various trees very well, the razor sharp tracking of the Wound Up forks,only let down by their magnetic ability to pick up sticky leaves.  A clod of mud fouls the back of the fork crown and I clear it with a very nervous flick. Dave Mcmullen the current world champ ( masters) over takes me and for a wee while I manage to stay on his wheel. I am ahead of a Cotswold Veldrijden rider , not sure who is ahead, Usually after a mechanical I burn a match and go a bit nuts for a lap or so, but Winchester is a tough circuit that I don't seem to be able to get dialed in and go well. Ride conservatively it is....

 The Bell sounds and its off down the hill again . resolute in one last hard dig... finish fucked remember.... I run through the switch backs half way down and yet again feel far to high  going over that steep drop half way down. " Rotate yer pelvis, breathe"... I pass the pits ( number 2) and drop through the bomb hole. The off camber exit leads to a tightening hander into the wooded section  and suddenly I feel a throbbing through the bars. 

I pass it off as yet another muddy lump..but the throb gets worse and as I lean left into the next corner a loud 'POP' resonates under the tree canopy.

Balloon modelling... do you know what it is yet? 

Cotswold guy breezes through as I look down to this:  Somehow I have rolled the tyre, wrapped the inner twice around the hub axle, then around the skewer, then around itself twice, before ballooning and coming to a halt against the brake and rim crown. no puncture but totally unrideable.

Riders pass as I shoulder the bike and start running, mentally ticking off each section as I pass through, only 100 m until that steep bank, only 100m to the grassy corner, then the short woodland section. The slim steel tube are digging into my shoulder and back; the bouncing is pretty excruciating as I run.  Riders and back markers pass , calling a cheery " Well done" or " Keep going mate"  as they go .  Of course I am keeping going... Like fuck am I not going to finish, just get to the pit, count it out.

I have to slow down to try wheeling the bike along, but that front is solid. I try shouldering the opposite side to no avail.  I stand aside to let riders pass, and work my way painstakingly to the pits.

1.1 miles ( according to Strava) and finally I arrive. All that running through last winter, and the shitty intervals on summer evenings finally came in some use.

The Rock and Road Custom special is quickly swapped and as quickly as possible its off again on my familiar Hiver,. feeling very odd after a week of training on the Special. I hardly build speed , before the final few corners pass, and with one last lurch through the gravel pits its a finish. Well down , bottom half, and probably my worst ever finish and race ever... all lessons I know, but I take this kind of thing hard. 

I know I probably shouldn't have raced, but hell, there is always January to June to recover...

What went well.

Fuck all

well I suppose I didn't DNF.

some league points..Any hope of finishing high up in the league is now a pipe dream, so I will take each race as it comes and see how it goes.

Not so well

Crap tyre pressure,

feeling crap,

crap start

rolled tyre.

running is shit.

will miss the next race due to being broken again.

#####post script#####

Since writing this diatribe, I spent Monday afternoon in A&E getting my ribs and shoulder checked, only to confirm that I had indeed cracked two ribs , one in my chest and the other just below my shoulder blade. that's the second time this season I have had to deal with bust up ribs. Also as I cleaned off the Rock n Road Special, I noticed this ----------------->>>> it looks like Wednesdays crash was far harder than just trashing my body. yes indeed that is a bent head tube and down tube. no wonder i was in a fair bit  of pain

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