Trying to find my mojo at the Gorrick Autumn Classic

There were only 3 ladies in the expert field which was hugely disappointing after the mega turnouts for the spring series. However, with Emily Iredale busy with her new baby, Kat Ross deep into winter endurance miles, Louise Fox busy winning the National Off-road Duathlon championships, and others busy focusing on different areas of training it is not really surprising. Anyway, Amy-Jo Hansford was not going to let a little matter like entry numbers put her off and she virtually flew away from the line. By the end of the first descent (Crowthorn has a very unusual start straight that is basically a hill – up then down) she had at least 100m on me. However, as the course picked up again I was able to catch and pass her to make it into the single track in front. Almost the entire race course was tight twisty single track with a couple of short steep climbs thrown in. This suits me down to the ground and I settled into it, enjoying the autumn sunshine but wishing it wouldn’t shine directly in my eyes all the time!


The start "straight" at the beginning of the Men's Sport race

The twisty course meant I had no idea where Amy-Jo was. You only need a gap of 10-20 seconds and you can’t hear or see anything. I caught the tail end of the men’s sport race at about the half-way point of the course. This was also the point at which my pre-ride stopped and so I was riding blind. As these things go, it was also the technical part of the course. I did struggle with passing and one particular section (a clay slope towards to end of the lap) was complete carnage with bodies everywhere but my aim was to keep the pace steady and stay on the bike. Having a format where the ladies expert category goes off only a minute or two after the men’s sport can be a double edged sword. Depending on the course, we can end up catching the tail end of the men very quickly and if we are still all together this can be a real pain. On yesterday’s race course however, because of the significant lack of hills, it took nearly half the course to catch them and by which time they were well spread out and it became quite motivating to pick them off one at a time. The old format sent the expert ladies off behind the expert men and I could spend an entire 4 lap race on my own.

On lap 3 I caught sight of Amy-Jo in the Corkscrew section where the course doubled back on itself. She couldn’t have been more than 20 seconds behind me. I really tried to put this out of my mind, dig in and ride steady. I had seen quite a few riders become the victim of the slippery roots and tight corners and I did not want to give away time to silly mistakes. By the time I reached the Corkscrew on the 4th and final lap, Amy-Jo was nowhere in sight so I pushed on to the finish, very glad to roll over the line in first place with a mere 57 seconds in hand.


Riding to the finish

By midday it was very pleasant in the sunshine and the course had dried significantly – predominantly thanks to the fat bike tyres of Roki Read who powered his monster bike round to 5th place in the Men’s Vet Plus category. I wouldn’t say I have got my mojo back but I have definitely caught a glimpse of it. It’s not gone, just temporality misplaced.

It proved to be a course for close results. In the Men’s Expert Category, Isaac Pucci had to work for his living with Phil Pearce sat directly on his wheel for almost the entire race. Isaac just managed to drop Phil on the very final section of the course to pull out a 5 second overall lead. There was also very close finishes in the Men’s Master Plus category, where Kim Little beat Simon Allard by 8 seconds, and in the Men’s open race where only 1 second separated Jason Hints and Shaun Hurrell. 

Well done to all who raced and shame on all those who looked out from under the duvet and chose to roll over, you missed a great race in great conditions.
Many thanks to Gorrick who put on another excellent event and provided a little light at the end of the tunnel that is the search for my mojo.