Round 2 of the Welsh XC.

BY: phil Morris

Published: 5th March, 2011

Welsh round 2

The event was at Cefn Dyrys, a stone's throw away from my house. (Well nearly!!) So definitely the closest race I have had to travel too, which makes a nice change from the usual 3 hour drive!!! Also I was lucky enough to have done a pre-ride for the website, last week. However, this left me with no excuse's come race day!! No pressure!!

I got to the event around mid-day and signed on. As I got there, the vet's race was just finishing. The winner was Jay Horton, who had made the journey up, all the way from Devon. He was closely followed by Mark Spratt and Mark James.

After a quick chat to Jay, to see how the course went I decided to warm up and do a lap, just to see if there were any changes since my pre-ride. Luckily there was only one minor change, so I was rearing to go!

Being in the masters, we were off last and after a minor issue with somebody's bar plugs at the start we were off! Having had a good start, I managed to hit the first corner in the lead, followed closely by George Rose and a few others. The first wooded section was fairly uneventful and things stayed pretty much the same until the bottom of the first descent. On the turn I managed to drop my chain!! For a change I didn't panic and decided to stop and take time to put it right, instead of trying to pedal it back on and break my chain. After this mishap I was down to fourth!! I thought no worries, as there was along way to go. I soon got back on the wheel of third and on the major climb, I wanted to try and get back to George. By the top I had got myself back into second, but I was still about 10 meters from George. We were now starting to catch the sport backmarkers, this helped me as we hit the single-track and I managed to get back onto Georges wheel! I sat there till the end of the single-track section. (Trying to recover a bit from making up my lost time!) When the course opened up a bit again I thought I'd try to get away, but George had other plans!!

At the next section of single-track I had regained the lead and on the next climb I gave quite a big effort, hoping to get a gap. On reaching the top I had a quick look over my shoulder and I hadn't gained a blinking inch!

The rest of the lap was the same story. Come every climb I was going for it, hoping to get away, but never really seemed to achieve my aim!! The next couple of lap's things stayed the same with George matching my every move. I was hoping to maintain a pace and for George to slow down! It was becoming clear that this was not going to happen. So at the end of lap 4 which I thought was lap 5! (think Im going to need a lap counter this year!!) With the added "he's right on your wheel Phil!" (From Donna) I grit my teeth and gave a big push to get away. At the top of the climb I had made a small gap and I just pushed and pushed from that moment on! Finally I had got a goodish gap! (But with no room for mistakes!)

On the last climb to the finish I had about a 200 meter gap. At this point I thought this was the finish. So I was a bit disappointed to learn that I had another lap to go!! Fortunately I managed to hold off George for one more lap.

I finished a very happy first, knowing that I had a great battle for every inch!!
George came in second, followed a little way back by Ian Bedlam.

In summary an excellent event, which I couldn't fault at all!! The new short course format was really good as you get much more support during the race. Chatting to my wife and others after the race and they pointed out that it was good seeing the riders more often.