XC Racer Blog Post

Black Park - London Single Speed Championships

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BY: Louise Robinson

Published: 5th March, 2012


It rained at bit.

 

Not quite but nearly....

 

Well, it rained a lot really. Reminded me of typical June weather actually. You know, that weekend in June when Mountain Mayhem, Glastonbury and Wimbledon all co-inside and the rain is biblical. It was all the worse for the fact that Saturday was such a lovely day. Oh well, that's mountain bike racing.

 

I lined up with the other 3 ladies entered for the single speed race. Now, you may scoff about the numbers but considering that ladies mountain biking is fairly niche at the best of time, ladies single speeding is pretty much uber niche and four was a pretty good turnout. Anyway, the competition was against the weather and the mud so much more than it was against each other.

 

 

The first lap was mildly damp, quite slippery on the roots and without too much standing water. Lap two saw the rain fall step-up a gear or several. The rain was coming down so heavily it was falling between my face and my cycling glasses in such a torrent I was really quite worried I was going to lose my contact lenses. The noise of the rain falling in the trees was also so loud I thought my brakes had stopped squealing. By the end of lap three the rain had eased off enough that I could see again but I was soaked to the bone and with the temperature failing to just above freezing, the cold really set in.

 

 

The mud became energy sapping and my previously spinney 32:16 ratio became seriously hard work. The course remained rideable, although a particularly slippery patch of leaves had me off on lap four. The end of lap five couldn't come early enough and I headed straight to the car for some warm dry clothes.

 

First place was mine, shortly followed by Jo Fisken with Sarah Walker taking 3rd place after tenaciously completing all five laps. Sitting at home and reviewing the results in the comfort of my living room, I am in complete awe of the elite men (who I didn't see at all as they started just 10 minutes before I finished my last lap) who's lap times suggest they were riding a shorter course than the rest of us! An amazingly close result for the top 3 with XCracer's Rich Jones taking second place only 17 seconds shy of Jody Crawforth.

 

My greatest thanks (and deepest sympathies) go to the marshals who stood out in the rain all day (not just the 2 hours I spent riding round). Now, it may sound like I have been moaning. I'm not; the conditions were just really pretty unpleasant. However, it could have been an awful lot worse. The soil could have been clay, we could have been riding in the dark and I could have had 22 more hours to go - now remind me, when is Mountain Mayhem?

 

 





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Louise
 

Louise Robinson

Mum, Pharmacist and XCracer Team Rider

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This blog post was written by a third party and their views do not necessarily reflect the views of XCRacer.com

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