Lucky at Margam, finishing 4th

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BY: Melanie Alexander

Published: 29th June, 2011

Margam is a race course I struggle with due to the climbing. Practising Saturday my legs did not feel great but I enjoyed the muddy descents making the climbs more rewarding. I liked the course.

 

I wasn¡¦t slow of the start but as the race got going I just kept slipping further and further back, by the first climb I was in about 11th position. I managed to gain back the positions fairly quickly once in the muddy section which although it was now sunny had stayed sloppy for the first race. There were a few slips on the first lap. I temporarily was in 4th after Lee Craige, taking a descent at top speed, slipped on exiting its corner, I ran past though I soon slipped of trying to give Cait a wide birth as she was scrambling back to her feet and Lee came shooting back past me. Lee and Cait were in sight for most of the first lap on the climbs. I was trying my hardest to not let them extend the gap any further, I lost my back wheel on the traverse section of the last descent. At the end of lap one and I was 30 seconds down on Lee and a minute down on Cait. Lee had a quick stop in technical zone but was soon flying pass me on the climb out of the arena.

 

I settled into 5th position not strong enough on the climbs to catch up, and soon enough they were out of sight. I just pushed on hoping I would not tire and lose 5th position. The course was drying out very quickly in the heat and was getting easier to take the descent with more speed, I just wish I could say the same about the climbs.

 

On the last lap Lee who was chasing down Mel in second position unluckily punctured and didn¡¦t have the tools to fix it. I finished 4th quite a bit of the pace of the top three (Nikki Harris, Mel Spath, Cait Elliott) though no complaints. Jane Cumming in her first year of Elite finished 5th.

 

It was a tough race, and one that left me with mixed feelings, I had finished 4th something I had not expected at the start of year and definitely not Margam. But I didn¡¦t get the excitement of racing that I did at Wasing when I felt I had pushed hard, battled and deserved 4th. Still, no complaints.

 

In Just over 3 weeks we are heading to Poland for the Sudety Mountain bike challenge a six day stage race over the Sudety mountains. It can be raced in pairs or solo. I will be racing in the mixed pairs category with husband Mark Spratt. We have both raced stage races before racing together in 2005 at the Cape Epic, have both raced the Trans Rockies in 2006 and the Trans Alp in 2007 with different partners. It has taken us six years to decide to race together again ƒº and I am really looking forward to it. Even now only a few weeks away it doesn¡¦t quite seem real.

 

There is a small shift in my training leading up to it with this week and the next two weeks working more on endurance. This week I have 4 rides from 3 to 5 hours, intervals have been reduced to one session plus two recovery rides. I plan to race the national champs then have a recovery week leading up to the stage race. It should be a good month.

 

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