Published: 5th September, 2012
I entered the welsh champs knowing that it would come at the end of 6 weeks off the bike, my theory was that it would get me back into the swing of things!
Returning from the USA on the Wednesday I decided to do short local TT, man that was a bad idea after about 2 miles I thought I was having a heart attack and had to just roll my way to the finish! Things were worse than I expected.
So come Sunday morning I was a bit nervous about the race.
First up was my wife Donna and she had a great race looking strong all the way through, and it was a very technically challenging course!
I went out for my practise with Neil Hayward and embarrassed myself by falling off going uphill. This has left me with a bloody sore finger! The course was very tricky but a great MTB course.
My race started at 1330 and the experts were gridded last due to been the only non-champs category, which wasn't a problem as there were only 3 of us!
On the gun I took off and as soon as we went around the first corner I was struggling to keep the pace, I just didn't have any speed! At this point I started think it was going to be a long race!
Going into the first decent I had managed to catch a few riders but I think I was still last in my category. Starting up the main climb of the race I caught up with 2nd and got past. Over the rest of the lap I was not in a very happy place, but I did catch a few more riders. At the start of lap 2 I was still in second but there was quite a gap up to Mark Davies in first! I decided to forget about the race and just try and maintain a good pace. By the end of the lap I had Mark insight again and this spurred me on. Half way through lap 3 I managed to catch Mark and sneak past. For the rest of the lap Mark was right on my tail, come the next climb I gave it all I had and managed to get a gap.
The last lap was spent trying not to blow up and keep an eye open for Mark. I ended up finishing 1st which I was over the moon about and very surprised, as I had been off the bike for the last 6 weeks and was just hoping to finish without dying!!
Having said that I wouldn't have wanted to do any more as my legs were totally cooked!
I really enjoyed the course very tricky and you couldn't have a lapse of concentration for even a second or you'd end up on you arse!!
Thanks to Scot and team for the event and hopefully we will see a return of the Welsh XC series next year!
Congratulations to all the Welsh Champs
Finally Thanks to Donna for feeding me and motivating/screaming at me during the race!!
Thanks to my sponsors
Xcracer.com
Accelerade
MT zoom
Exposure lights
Fireman, dad, racer and team stalwart...
Read More By philThis blog post was written by a third party and their views do not necessarily reflect the views of XCRacer.com
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