Whyte Winter Series, Round 4, Mixed Fun Race

Before the race

I bumped into Rob just after arriving. Although it was good to see him, I wasn't surprised to see that he looked pretty disappointed to see me, no doubt thinking if I was here then his chances of sneaking a win at the last round might be fading, although as I said to him, anything can happen during a race. Although I felt good, you can never rule out a mechanical and although I try to keep the bike in good nick, I could make more effort on the maintenance front. I rarely check it for between races for loose parts, just clean it and lube it and make sure it feels like it's working ok. This is why I decided to make the effort this year to learn how to maintain my bike, rather than relying on the bike shop. Anyway, I was ready, the bike was ready, Rob was here but there was no sign of Andy and Dale. I needed Dale to turn up to put the pressure back onto Andy as through the series it was clear that Andy's training was definitely working well for him. I felt like he had increased in speed and at the rate he'd been getting faster it was going to be a close run thing, maybe I was just being paranoid having been unable to think about anything other than the race for the last couple of days. God knows how Malin must be feeling. She was hoping to walk away with the four hour female series win today and although I obviously thought she deserved it, it was still very much to be decided.

I looked around for Andy but there was no sign of him and we were within an hour of the start. It remained to be seen if he had fully recovered from his shoulder injury. Dale was fast but as far as the series went he was out of the picture even with a win. Rob had third tied up, but who would grab first place overall with both Andy and myself tied on 440 points? I had more wins that Andy (two first places and one third, Andy had one win and two second places) but according to the series organisors the final round position would determine who won the series in the event of a tie. It felt a little ridiculous to be thinking this much about winning the series, we were in the Fun category after all but as novice racers it was our first opportunity to show what we could do when we were up against other people of equal ability who wanted to win just as much. Winning this category isn't such a big deal, but the racing had been tight and the three of us felt like we wanted to show each other that we had the upper hand and were able to push ourselves that little bit harder to secure the win, whether it was a race win for Rob, or a series win for either me or Andy.

Andy and Dale turned up on the start line about ten minutes before the start. We were all here, the banter had started, the race was very much on!

During the race

On the start line I made a slight schoolboy error by clipping both feet in and leaning on a post. The commissaire immediately offered to disqualify me and I went back to the more traditional (and legal) one foot clipped in approach. I have no idea what I was thinking but it seemed like a good idea at the time. This is why I'm in the Fun class for this series, I need to learn a few more lessons and make a few more mistakes before I feel like I'm not going to make a complete idiot of myself in a National race.

Details from the race I have to be honest are pretty sketchy. I didn't really have any problems and the bike was fine. The course was another superb course as we've come to expect from Thetford MTB Racing. It started from the same venue (FR 6) as the first round did, although this time it was re-routed so that we went down the big grassy climb instead of up it. There was the usual areas which we use on this side of Thetford Forest and it was great to see them included although some of the course was run backwards like the climb up Plumb Buster which was harder than it looked given it isn't particularly long or steep. There were some slight detours from where you would expect the course to run, one benefit being the final climb being cut in half as we joined it from the left around half way up it. An excellent course and thanks to the dry weather is was in superb condition.

I have no idea when Dale went and dropped everyone. I was keeping my eye out for him but he got past me at some point on the first half lap, probably as I was mainly concentrating on keeping an eye on Andy. I spent most of the first half of the lap in front of Andy and Rob, pushing on as fast as I could and taking a few chances here and there, trying to get past as many riders as was safe to do so when we hit the four hour tail enders. The plan in my head seemed to be going well and maybe I was a little over confident, I had been deliberately not looking back for Andy as I thought it would be better to just do as much as I could to open a gap and not worry about him unless he passed me. Towards the middle of the first lap the pace was really starting to get to me aerobically, which is my weak point as I almost always finish races exhausted but with good legs, and on a stretch of fire road I was beginning to to think I could get away with taking it easy and catching my breathe. Andy then sailed right past me with the usual poker face, looking totally relaxed as usual, unlike me, huffing and puffing away!

Although I was trying not to lose touch with Andy, he was opening a gap on me, albeit very slowly. I tried on occasion to close the gap but he just seemed to maintain the gap so must have been pushing on when I was although he was never more than a couple of hundred yards away. I was aerobically not in a good way, the legs felt fine but I felt like I was not getting enough oxygen into my lungs, despite using my regular technique of taking regular very deep breaths as sometimes I have a tendency to take shallow breathes when I'm fatigued as I'm sure other people do. I was really enjoying the course and the lack of mud for this round and aside from an entry into one of the wooded singletrack sections where my bike almost went one side of a tree and me the other I didn't really have any 'moments' during the race. Before I knew it we were getting towards the end of the lap so it was time for another big push to try and cross the gap, but it was in vain, Andy had the bit between his teeth now and although I did catch him slightly he'd done enough to cross the finish line ahead of me.

After the race

Crossing the line knowing I'd probably lost the series based on the final round finish results was disappointing, especially as I'd won more rounds than Andy but we all knew how it was going to go down to the wire so I knew what I needed to do before the race, I just hadn't come up with the goods. Andy's training is obviously working well for him as you could see through each round that he was getting slightly quicker than me, aside from round three where I was ill and nowhere in sight! It had been a fantastic series, it may have only been the novice\fun category but between Andy, Rob and myself we'd had a good scrap and had all thoroughly enjoyed it.

James did a top job supporting Malin, Stephen and Les. Here he's dutifully waiting at his post for the next rider, he was very organised and everything ran super smooth.

In comes Malin for a refuel and update on the current race standings, currently second behind Helen Findlay (Inners MTB Racing) but more importantly ahead of her rival on points, Bernie Wolff (Farrow Tri Club)

In comes Stephen, on his way to 35th place in the 4 Hours Solo Male category

Andy was heading towards the timing tent so I intercepted him and offered my congratulations on his series win. Dale had finished around 43 seconds in front of Andy and I was 33 seconds behind Andy (Rob came in 5th chasing home Paul Watson who had put in a blistering first lap 1.5 minutes faster than any of us but he must have had a problem on his second lap). We checked out the times and chatted about the series and tried to figure out what the final positions were but that's quite difficult when you're knackered, you've had too much energy drink and gels and (like me) you've travelled for hours just to be here and you're ready for a kip! It looked like Andy had won on his final round position, with me in second and Rob securely holding on to his third place. I decided to go and see James who was doing bottles for Malin, Stephen and Les who were riding for the club in the four hour race. Periodically people ask me if I'd won, a shrug was about the best I could offer although deep down I was now resigning myself to second place overall in the series.

About an hour and a half after the race finished I got the impression that things were not as clear cut as I thought they were. First of all Rob came over and said he'd just been to Registration and he'd seen a list with his name, my name and Andy's name on it in no particular order but my name was underlined. That could mean anything I decided, best not to think about it. The organisors had been pretty clear about how the final round was decided in the event of a points tie and with both Andy and my finish positions in this final round not being any better than any of our other finishing positions, there was no change in the final points table (you drop your worse round and Andy had a win and two second places, I had two wins and a third, both totalling 440 points). Twenty minutes passed with me talking to James, riding parts of the course with him and just generally enjoying the end of the two hour race and the continuing four hour racers battling it out. Chris Nightingale seemed to be going well, as usual he was making it look very easy and was heading for a top thirty finish, wisely deciding that he wasn't going to do a 7th lap just to jump up to 25th place. Chris is one of those really friendly guys you pick up a lot of really good advice from and I'm always keen to hear what he's been up to as he's usually up at the sharper end of the results and is, as far as training goes, where I would like to be in the next 12 months...I'm sure it will take me a LOT longer to actually catch him up in the results though!

Chris Nightingale (Flow Racing), making six laps look easy!

Gerald Tudor (ex Beyond Mountain Bikes, now Owen Cycles) always looks fast and never looks like slowing down.

Malin ticks off another lap. The pressure was on at this point.

And after what must have been an extremely tough race, here she is going out on her final sixth lap with a good sixteen minute gap over Bernie!

A friend from Thetford (you know who you are) came over with a big grin on their face. They had just seen the unofficial results and I had won the series. I couldn't believe it, apparently based on the greater number of wins I'd had I would get to stand on the top step of the podium. I felt bad for Andy, but there again when the race finished I'd congratulated him as I think we both thought he'd done it. Winning aside, the thing I'll remember the most about this series is the very close racing and making two mates in Andy and Rob and although I didn't try to poach Rob, Andy is now riding for West Drayton Mountain Bike Club\Beyond Mountain Bikes and has been already enjoying the benefits of being in a big team such as the training sessions, support and discounted kit. Although I'll always look back on this series as being a fantastic experience it's now time to move up a level and try my hand at regional and national events in the Sport category and continue to work on my training.

Here's to a great years racing in the rest of 2009. Hopefully I'll get to see some of you out on the trails or hanging around the timing tent!

Things to change

The training had changed over the months but I still felt it was patchy and inconsistant. This was backed up with Andy having the edge over me in the last two rounds of the series. Illness or otherwise (we'd both been ill), I've got to come up with a good quality training plan and quickly. Now I've got my British Cycling race licence I need to be training for the races which carry ranking points (national XC series, Midland XC series, Dragon XC series) now. In 8 weeks time it will already be too late, although TwentyFour/12 is still the biggest race of the year as far as I'm concerned and I'm determined not to let Phil down.

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