Published: 3rd March, 2013
Coed y Brenin round 2
Today was round 2 of the Welsh series held at Coed y Brenin. The weather was perfect, dry and even the sun mad a nice appearance. The 2 hour drive up is always a bit deceiving but we arrived an hour before my race so enough time to sign on, have a chat with a few fellow riders. After getting my board on I headed out just to have a look at a few sections, kinda wish I hadn't as I freaked out at the downhill drop off towards the end! The consequences of coming a cropper last weekend and winding myself, I didn't want that again and just wanted to actually start the race.
11 o clock soon came around and the 6 women all cats bunched
together set off a minute in front of the vets! Not the best of starts for me
and was last going up the fire road; however I managed to get past 2 riders on
the way up it. The course was a bit confusing as there was a half lap to start
bringing you back into the arena and then another 4 laps scheduled for us! In a
snap shot the course was tough, not that much climbing, but some tricky tight
corners, plenty of rocks and roots and of course the slabs. The first lap is
always a bit of a disaster, people pushing, people breathing down your neck,
shouting there coming past, then make you slow down, they take a while to come
past and you lose all ya rhythm. Well that's what happens to me! After the
first lap I was back to fifth place but 4th was not too far in front
of me. My aim for the race was to complete it without ant offs and to regain a
little confidence. Not the best course for that, but never the less I completed
my mission. Before the race started I had gauged my position, and I was right! In
addition I managed the whole course with no offs, although I managed to catch
sight off quite a few.
I really enjoyed the technical course, although I'm keen to
go and ride it not under race conditions, as I always feel a bit on edge when
someone is behind me.
I was really chuffed not to get lapped by my cat, but it did
mean I had to complete 4 and a half laps!! In my head I thought I would get
caught and would be doing a lap less, SO that's a step up from last year as I got
lapped. However, the fourth lap I'm sure will be my slowest, as there was
nobody else on the course, as the vets etc. did a lap less than us. Nobody to
catch up, and so eerily quiet. On the plus side to that I managed to ride three
quarters up the slabs, not been under any pressure!
Well done to all the other riders, but especially the women.
Tough ride/race in the bag girls!!!
Thanks to all involved and to Mad and Jay for their hard
work.
Now Phil's bit!
Next up was my race, 1330 start and the usual Welsh race faces were in attendance. Knowing that it would probably require a mechanical to give me a chance of 1st as Jon Pugh (cycle-tec) is flying!
On the whistle I had a fairly good start and got myself into 2nd behind Jon and followed closely by Martin Graham and Grant Leavy. On the half lap to start I went really well not losing anything to Jon and gaining a small gap to the guys behind. Then up the winding climb and Jon started to show his strength slowly getting a gap. Come the next climbing section up the pins and needles I was about 10m back on Jon and then the same back to 3rd. I pushed on trying not to let the gap get bigger but was failing badly! I finished the first lap about 20-30 secs back. Having said that I was really pleased with how I was riding managing to ride all the tech sections without and real problems. To cut a long story short the rest of the race was fairly uneventful, Jon continued to gain on me finishing 4 minutes up which I think is fairly good going! I finished 2nd with about 2 mins back to Grant in 3rd.
All in all a great race which certainly required some bike
handling skill to get around in one piece!
Well done to the organisers it seems that the Welsh XC
series is defiantly roaring again!
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Read More By philThis blog post was written by a third party and their views do not necessarily reflect the views of XCRacer.com
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