South West CX Regional Championships 2nd
Why did I race the South West CX Regional Championships?
After messing up and missing the entry deadline for my local Regional Championship I asked around to see if there were any way I could get a late entry. After all, it’s just a name and payment, it’s not rocket science. It’s exceptionally sad though that some organisers have absolutely no flexibility for fools like me who make an error, instead they quote ‘thats why we have deadlines’, brilliant, nice work, well done you.
So, I reached out and asked about other races that weekend. Newnham Park in Plymouth was set to host the South West CX Regional Championships on the same day so I used it as an excuse to pop down to see James Williams and settle some scores with Newnham Park. The organisers of this race seemed like they knew how to handle the admin and had a much later entry deadline of 23:55 on the Thursday before, maybe that’s due to smaller numbers though but it was perfect. I was promptly emailed to say that I would not be eligible to win the championship as I was from outside the area but I was OK with that, I just wanted to race.
Newnham Park
Newnham had been the venue of my infamous shoulder injury in the late 90’s that plagued me for decades with a recurrent shoulder dislocation injury. It was all due to an opening lap crash on the mighty pipeline decent during an XC race. I’m not even sure that if it’s actually that mighty now with the standards of todays bikes but let’s just say, the pipeline is mighty, so I don’t feel so bad about crashing all that time ago.
Anyway, lets forget all that and look forward some 22 years and at my new found love, Cyclocross.
The Race
It was interesting to race against a new field and the race was very different to the Wessex League. The start was slower and it was slower at the front with loads of dive bombing and shoulder barging. Maybe that was just for the new guy though, and that was obviously me. The plan I had was to sit and wait to attack as I still lacked the confidence to attack too early, fearing I’ll go bang far from the finish. This was even more of an issue here as I was racing for 60 minutes, not the 40 minutes back home.
Anyway, I kept to my plan and all was going well until the end of lap 5 when one of our lead group of 4 crashed in front of me and enabled Ollie, the eventual winner to get away. I didn’t panic, I casually but foolishly, checked my watch and with plenty of time left on the clock decided to wind up the pace steadily and pull him back. I did just that, I didn’t go into the red on the next long climb where Ollie was clearly pulling away and planned to punch it on the shorter steeper climb later in the lap, which I did, which was nice as I’d been going really steady on this for the previous laps.
What wasn’t so nice was shortly after this on lap 6, when I rapidly caught up with a back marker, approaching the switch backs, I carried way too much speed into the first right turn while overtaking him and tucked the front wheel crashing heavily on, you guessed it, that right shoulder. Newnham knew I was back and was showing me who was the real boss and it clearly wasn’t me as I lay on the floor feeling like a bit of a prat. I was rattled, along with my shoulder, side and ribs which are still killing me now as I write this. Regardless of this, I was going to get a result.
I was strong on the final laps but had lost the eagerness of before and was conscious that Lee, a fellow competitor and the guy with the aggressive shoulders was coming back to me like a train. In fact, his final lap was a real blinder, kudos to him. In hindsight my goal had switched to staying on the bike and not getting caught rather than chasing for the win.
In the end Ollie won by 20 seconds and I held onto 2nd, my best result in Cyclocross and best racing result in some 20 years. Ollie put those 20 seconds into me on lap 6. I should have won the race but, Ollie was ultimately the better racer on the day and my hat goes off to him. Next time Ollie, next time.
One final note, we all know that 2nd isn’t what I am after and I know that there is loads more to come! Roll on Clanfield, my old home town.
Result and time gap analysis
Result: 2nd/35 V40 and 7th/109 All
Time from 1st: +0:20
Time from 3rd: -0:03
Time from 5th: -0:60
Lap time analysis
Time: 45:47.77
Laps: 8
Gap: +00:20
Lap1: 06:20
Lap2: 08:15
Lap3: 08:15
Lap4: 08:32
Lap5: 08:32
Lap6: 08:24
Lap7: 08:37
Lap8: 08:39
