Merida Brass Monkeys rd 2

It's been a few months since my last race which ended in disappointment due to illness so I wanted to leave 2012 on a racing high. I knew a few people who were racing the Brass Monkey round in Deepcut, Surrey and went for it. I was familiar with the course having races there for the Are You Tough Enough races so knew the course would be fast and fun.

The sheer excitement and determination that was building in the week up to the event was enough to spur me on to do well but lining up among a hundred or so other riders realisation dawned on me. I'm not the fastest off the start line and prefer to catch other up as the race progresses but I found myself trying from the start. After a lap of the arena I went into the woods in about 40th place so had a lot of work to do. At the start of the singletrack there was a bit of bottlenecking which only got worse when we hit the bomb-holes. All things considered the first lap went well with a few overtakes. The second lap went quicker now that the riders were spreading out and I felt strong despite my legs feeling the strain from some of the short, sharp climbs that this course in known for. Despite doing a lot of road riding recently I was pretty confident on the epic and was quite happy overtaking on the singletrack sections as well as the fire roads. Something I wouldn't have even considered at AYTE.

On the third lap I felt good and having fun popping and pumping through sections. I hopping into the final bomb-hole only to exit a lot quicker than previous laps. Unfortunately my reactions weren't quick enough to hop over a root on the exit and caught my rear wheel jarring my lower back. The rest of the lap was painful, I could feel the smallest undulations. Motivation was disappearing too especially when the 2hr riders came past me. The speed of George Budd and the other two hot on his tail was phenomenal - it was like a watching a 100m sprint but constant!

Remembering how I felt after Big Dog I wanted to push through the pain and pass the finish line knowing that it was gone 2pm so I carried on with the 4th lap. At the start of the singletrack the roots were causing me a lot of grief so I stopped to soften my rear shock hoping that may help. Riders in my category were overtaking me and there was nothing I could do. In the final few corners one of the 2hr riders went down hard on a flat corner unable to bend his leg. Turns out it was only cramp but the look of panic in his face put all thoughts of racing behind me as I helped him out. As I crossed the finish line I called time at the bar.

Hobbling back to the car I was glad it was all over. I ended the day in 34th in a time of 3hrs49 so all things considered I'm quite happy with that.