Battle in the Bowl 2021
Having not raced in anger, nor at least any real intent for 24 years, and with the might of gravel bike adventure empowering me, I knew just the event to start back on that ever so slippery slope of competition. Oh yeah, and I’ll enter the Elite V40 category while I’m at it! Nice idea hey? Let’s enter The Battle in the Bowl.
So, my racing was way back when. Back to a time that suspension had just arrived on the scene of XC racing. I raced at county level and yes, back then, I thought I was the man, well, a boy actually. We’re talking the mid to late 1990’s. I raced the CMBC championships and South West Series and did really quite well at that level. Our little team ventured to Wales once and I got my arse kicked so I quickly went back to Cornwall and carried on racing there.
Sadly, through injuries I lost my love for racing. If you were to ask my team mate of the time, James Williams, he’d share some stories of my crashes. He always said how spectacularly I crashed and landed like a sack of potatoes. I wasn’t one of those pro tuck and roll crashers. In my late teens and early twenties I’d lost my love and moved on.
Riding never leaves you and I simply could never walk away from bikes and always rode them although I didn’t race. If I ever found myself drift away from riding I’d always find myself back again. For me to enjoy my riding I always want to be race fit even if I’m not racing, until now. Now, I want to race again.
As always when I get ideas of racing grandeur again I enlist James Williams to coach me. He’s awesome, has always supported me and put up with these come back ideas I have. We’ve been working on this program alongside me developing the Forwards brand and GR20 gravel bike as a race platform. The plan is to develop our bikes through real world testing and for me racing is part of this. Ultimately I have a fully supported gravel race team in mind for the future but that is a whole other story for another day.
The Battle in the Bowl is an extended CX/gravel race around Matterley Bowl near Winchester in Hampshire, England. It is a 2 hour race and categorised.
Preparation went well and my numbers had steadily increased as we had hoped. I was briefed on what to do during the race. I was set. Luckily, local Sotonia racing legend Tom Budden was also on hand on the day to help settle my nerves.
So, how well did I execute all the hard work preparing? Well, let me explain.
The weather was shocking before free practice and during the previous events with rain and wind battering the circuit. I had 2 sets of wheels prepped and wait for it, 2 sets of tyres that I had never ridden. 2 brand new models to use on race day. Note, mistake one. With the Challenge Getaway 700x40c tyres mounted on my Sector GCi race wheels I set off on a practice lap. Nerves were certainly high and the tyres slipping under me on the main decent spooked me so I decided to swap to my HUNT Limitless CS wheels for anther practice lap. These were running Maxxis Ravager 700x40c tyres which are really a mud tyre. These felt great, gave me loads of confidence and I was strong on the decent but I failed to think about the potential and likely drag. Anyway, my choice was made and off to the start I went.
I found myself joining the start line later than I had wanted and was way back in the group waiting for the gun. Mistake 2. We waited while they gathered the senior elite race at the front and promptly set them off. We followed shortly after with no warning. Mayhem commenced.
I went out like a total idiot with my power numbers way over my FTP which would not be sustainable but it’s a hard start, I knew I had to go deep to keep up with the pack and it would all settle down wouldn’t it? Well, it didn’t, not for me. In short, and to keep this report as short as possible, I went flat out until my power started to dip and I could barely make two thirds of my FTP nor increase power on the hills. I had flatlined, power wise, mistake 3. I forgot to drink and eat, well, actually, I totally miscalculated the lap times and was in no fit state to read what my Wahoo was actually telling me. Ultimately, along with my flatlining power, I blew up on lap 6 of 9 which you can actually see on the lap times via the link below. I carried one and bit bottles of fluid and three gels to the line, mistake 4. In my dazed state I didn’t even think to down the lot and see what happened, mistake 5. Madness you say? It really is the strangest thing to go this deep and lose all perspective of what is going on and what you’re actually doing, it’s worth trying I’d say, just to see what it feels like. And those tyres? Well, most excellent on the slippery stuff but as the track dried out during the event they dragged and dragged on the infield, gravel sections and loop, mistake 6. Oh, and just for the record, I had forgotten my shorts on the day so that’s why I was wearing 3/4’s. And yes, that’ll be mistake 7!
And in the end… I finished 19th out of 62 starters. I’m OK with that, it’s a start but I can do way better if I just use my head and prepare.
