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Welsh Champs - Welsh Series Round 4

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BY: Stephen Steven Hodge

Published: 19th May, 2013


After a promising race last week at the South West champs where I felt great and finished 3rd, I was keen to build upon my rising form and hopefully score my first podium in the Welsh series (if not the title). Especially with Margam Park being a traditional climbers course I was keen to see what damage I could do.

Driving up the night before to in the team van to stay at my parents house payed off well with a good nights sleep in the bag and a not too early a start we found ourselves in a rather dry Margam Carpark much unlike the last time we visited here for Round 1 in the poring rain. Choosing to do my practice lap with team mates Brendon (who was racing first) and Dex we found a simular course to the last round but with a couple of added loops and a newly cut trail, one thing of obvious change was the bone dry and dusty track. Heading back to the Van after this I felt pretty positive with no areas of concern and my legs were feeling pretty good.

The Race

Choosing to run a semi slick on the rear and my usual racing ralf on the front I lined up to the start line thankfully sat on the front row, keeping an eye out for a currently absent team mate of Dexter Hurlock I finally spotted him lining up late at the rear but no longer concerned at his absense I was able to focus on my race now. I'd chosen to experiment a little with my race prep by riding with no Garmin and Chest strap and choosing to drop an energy gel on the start line. These both seemed to pay off with a great start, initially missing my pedal on two rotations I clipped in and opened the throttle the course goes into the initial drag which gradually increases in gradient till it tops out. I found myself mid pack for the first bit of the climb untill everyone's initial start bursts eased off and I then hit the hammer getting into 4th before the course went into singletrack. I looked up to see who was ahead of me and somehow during the initial start surge team mate Dexter had launched from the rear to the front sat in behind Lee Williams. The places stayed the same for the rest of the lap with Dexter and Lee going at eachother and me and the person in 3rd sat next to each other. It was great riding the downhills and feeling 100% confident in my riding for once my Mondraker Podium has a lot to answer for!

Going into the second lap I could see that Dexter and Lee were slowly edging away from us so I sought about jumping 3rd to try and minimise the gap so on the second section of climbing I opened the throttle a little bit and made the jump riding through the next bit of downhill and singletrack fine I found myself right on Dexter's tail thinking this isn't right I'm not that fast! It turned out Dex had an injury playing up from last week so frustrating for him but was a welcome boost for me to find myself in 2nd. As I crossed the line with the previous person I had jumped to make it 3rd (remember I was 4th at the start of this lap) still in my tail I found out thanks to some helpful commentating from Jay Horton that this guy was in fact a master so I was in the top 3 all along score. I continued in this form for the next lap not loosing too much time to Lee Williams who was just in sight ahead we motored on through till the lead master made a move and although I tried to keep with him he managed to drop me, not to be too disheartened I carried on untill the 4th lap and disaster struck, riding the wooded steep section I must have clipped a dodgy root as my rear wheel went down in an instant balls! Talking to myself I said 'Steve you know what to do don't panic', removing the gas can from my rear pocket I swiftly undid the valve attached the canister (which was done by a simple hose) and engaged pssss hose flew off the valve, re-attached engage pssss hose flew off the canister, re-attach enegage this time holding both ends slowly filled up but could then hear it leaking inspected the hole lowered it to the bottom of the tyre to help the sealant fill the hole no good booo! No option but to walk back to the start/finish area when 3rd place overtook just as I was setting off thinking wow I had quite a gap had my tyre inflated I could have held that. The walk back was frustrating but I was still cheerful at my great form.

Making it back to the pits team mate Brendon offered me his rear tyre knowing I couldn't accept outside mechanic assistance I had to swop the wheel over myself before I was able to ride on by which time I had dropped back down to 7th (which I think was last) before riding on I checked with the lap takers that I was good to continue a nod from them and off I went. Knowing I wasn't going to do anything from this position I just enjoyed the course knowing I was at least going to get some points for finishing and evading a DNF.

So a great race which could have been outstanding had I not punctured but at the end of the day that's racing and I was lucky last week thanks to someone puncturing so swings and roundabouts. With two weeks now till the Hopton BMBS I'm looking to give my body some full on abuse to hopefully bring on a peak for one of my favorite national courses.





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