Soggy Bottom RD2

BY: phil Morris

Published: 10th January, 2011

Soggy round 2 2001

My famous words" here we go again!" My first race of 2011 and unfortunately my only soggy race of the series as I will be nipping down the slopes in March!

I always find myself feeling apprehensive and slightly nervous at my first race of the season and more so this year. Due to the fact that December has been turbo torture, due to the foot of snow and arctic temperatures we had in Builth Wells!!

Fortunately the weather gods were feeling nice for the day of the race, not a soggy bottom in sight and even a bit of sunshine!!

Despite the good weather the journey to the event was somewhat dodgy to say the least, the previous night had left the roads more like an ice rink!

After a few hairy moments on route we arrived all in one piece at about half eleven. I quickly headed to sign on and met a few of the usual crew. It wasn't long before I was called back to registration, as I had picked up the wrong number board!! Numpty!!

Now equipped with the correct board I set off on my practice spin. The start went straight into a really nasty climb, this then headed on to the bomb holes, shortly followed by some single-track through the wood. Then it was on to my favourite section of Newnham the cottage return decent, after this it was into the woods again for some more climbing and a load of muddy, tricky, slippy single-track

Finally a section of single-track along side the river back to the start. On paper it only had one major climb, but due to the soft conditions it felt like about 5!

I was pleased to see a load of new track, which I have not ridden before.

The start came and after the expert/elite and sport riders it was the masters turn.

Off we went on the hooters; I decided to go at the first climb hard and to see what happens form there. By the top of the hill I was leading, closely followed by Matt Loake and Alistair Lovell. On reaching the wooded section the 3 of us had pulled a gap. When the course opened up before the descent Matt caught me napping and went passed!! For the rest of the lap I sat on Matts wheel and just behind was Alistair. On lap 2 Alistair dropped back a bit. AT about the halfway point I slipped and Matt got a couple of bike lengths on me and by the end of the lap I was still about 50yrds behind. At this point I was suffering a bit to say the least and a bit of a shock to the system was kicking in!! I pushed on hoping Matt would start to slow. Lap 3 was pretty uneventful but unfortunately Matt was firing on all cylinders and gained more time on me. Lap 4 was going to be case of maintaining my position, unless Matt was to have a disaster. I managed to hold on to 2^nd place which I was fairly pleased with.

I finished well beaten by Matt, who had ridden away from me from lap 2. I was fairly happy with my first race since the end of the 2010 season. And we managed to catch and pass all the expert/elite riders who went off before us.

This is always a good race to gauge your form, so training starts proper now. Just hope we don't get anymore b****y white stuff!!

A cracking course with some nice new tweaks!

Thanks to Maddie and Jay (Fully Sussed) and Martyn and crew for another cracking slightly dry, soggy bottom!!

Shame I can't make the next one!

Finally a big thank you to my little supporters Donna and Hali-Rae

Phil Morris Riding for Xcracer.com, Accelerade and exposure lights

Thanks to Duncan Baldie for the pic.