XC Racer Blog Post

Welsh Rd 2

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BY: phil Morris

Published: 5th March, 2012


Following round one 'No Show' and quite late communication, I lost a day's holiday as I had booked leave and could not rearrange, so I was undeceive about doing round 2. I was keen to get a race and with the other two events of the weekend being 4 hours away it seemed silly to not do the Welsh as it was 30 minutes away!! If Fully Sussed started later I would have headed there without a shadow of a doubt, they never fail to put on a cracking event all round. (Bit gutted I missed it!!) So entry transferred it was!

The weather in the week leading up to the race had been great, but come Saturday and heaven opened and in true welsh style it was bloody wet.
On the race day the rain stopped at about 10 in the morning but it was still windy and felt very cold, or maybe I'm getting soft in my old age.

After finally finding our way up to the event, with a couple of scrapes to under the car!!(Uneven slippery twisty hill up to the start- or park at the bottom and one hell of a hike with kit, kids and a non-amused wife!!)
Having arrived at 1100 I had a few hours to get sorted as the race was advertised for a 1pm kick off, but due to a few factors it was pushed back an hour to 2!!

After bringing the family along, waiting another hour on top of a very, bleak cold hill was certainly not appealing. So it was either a case of forget it and head home or Donna takes the kids to Abergavenny. Thank god for Kingdom Come (play centre in Aber!!)

So I got my stuff out of the car and put it in to teammate Matt Lewis's car.

Matt and I then got ourselves sorted and headed out for a practise lap. The lap was very short been only 3km in length. The Lap consisted of 1 long fire road climb and quite a bit of very muddy descending and 1 more short sharp muddy climb which was un-rideable. The Muddy descent was in my opinion actually quite good fun!
The lap took about 14ish mins going at a steady pace so the race laps would probably take about 10-11mins.

After a couple laps it was time for the start. In my cat I think there were about 9 of us but we were going to start along with the Elite and Juniors which had some good riders in. Which was good as it would increase the number of riders to chase!

Off the start I got to the first climb in about 4th which I was happy with, from this point I decided I was going to ride my own race and not get carried away with the guys up front. Especially as this was my first race of the year and I just wanted to see what state I was in.

After a few laps I was in 2nd in the experts and probably 4th overall, happy days! A couple more laps went by and I had got past a few more guys. Still 2nd in the expert though. With about 2 laps to go I thought I've got quite a bit left in the tank so I pushed on a bit and I caught site of the leader. Which spurred me on! On the final lap I managed to catch him on the running climb. I guessed at this point it would be a sprint finish as there were no good overtaking points before the finish. So coming in to the final corner I got on to his wheel and decided to go for it, but made a schoolboy error and went around the outside and I soon realised I made a cockup of it! Well done to the Winner Ed Roberts who put in a cracking ride to win, also winning overall as well! I was Pleased with my 2nd overall and actually a bit surprised at how well I'd gone!

Got a week off the bike now on a holiday so probably be back to square 1 by the time I get back!!

I summary I don't want to be negative to anyone organising any event, but there were a few things worth a mention. 

Firstly the Parking was a major problem there was no way you could ever consider parking in the field in March in Wales. In the future I would suggest you don't even consider using a venue unless parking sorted. There was no way my family could have walked from the parking at the entrance!

The Course was good except for the second climb which did spoil it a bit as it was completely un- rideable, yes I know the weather has been bad but maybe a plan B route would be a good idea to replace the climb?

Personally I thought that the series last year finished on a high with the exception of the first round, which was obviously learnt from. Hopefully this year will be the same.
Because I do believe we have some of the best venues in the country here in Wales.

I'm off to hit the slopes of Bansko now so, that's all from the Morris household until our return and fingers crossed see you on the 18th at Cannock!! (Midlands round!)
Thanks to my sponsors

XCracer.com
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Mt Zoom
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Phil Morris
 

 





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phil Morris

Fireman, dad, racer and team stalwart...

www.xcracer.com

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