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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