Southern XC round 3 Wasing Estate

Arriving later than scheduled I walked over to the sign in tent to collect my number. The number of pre-entries in the sport category was a lot higher than round 2 and with a handful of on-the-day entries we were looking at a good number of riders on the start line.

With time getting on I quickly got the bike out of the car and went for a warm up lap. I'd heard quite a bit of talk about two drops and I didn't want to get caught out during the race. Another lad had the same idea so we went out for a lap together. The course was fairly flat but in the usual Southern XC way they made a course which was fast and by no means easy . If you weren't two wheel drifting around corners into oncoming trees you had tight bus stops, short sharp mounds and narrow chicanes meaning you had to keep your eye on the ball... or stumps... at all times! The practice lap was about the 24minute mark at a nice easy pace so I would be hoping that I would be hoping for about a 21 minute race lap. 

As two o'clock approached the elites down to the sport categories were lining up ready to go. I was a little surprised when I heard my name called to be gridded but given the number of entries I was quite happy to be closer to the front. The whistle went and we were sprinting towards the first bit of single track. I felt reasonably comfortable but the pace was ultimately too high for me to sustain for long but just hoped I would make it to the single track near the front. After a stretch on a short tarmac stretch we hit a dusty track. It was pretty choking and I could feel my chest tightening. Not great considering my hayfever has gone into overdrive this year. I lost a fair few places to those who were obviously able to MTFU. I settled into a pace I was comfortable with and kept going. With a lot of tight single track overtaking was difficult and I was stuck riding behind a RAF rider until eventually I got passed. It seemed as though the front group had bolted and there were only a few sports in front. I was loving the tight technical sections and was making up time on other riders on their tractor bikes but as soon as it came to the open ground they were off like rockets. 

A couple of laps in and I was having trouble with my gears. Touch wood, I don't have many mechanicals when riding but in the last few races I seem to be suffering with chain suck or the chain coming off. On a few climbs the chain would slip and I would yelp in anticipation of crushing my nads on my stem. 

On my final two laps I was starting to catch up with riders although some were in other categories. On the final straight down to the finish line tiredness was already showing. A master in front of me lost it on a slippery right hander and I narrowly avoided contact with him and a tree. 

The last lap came around and I could see a Henry Beaumont, a Corridori rider, in front of me so I did my best to catch up and stick to his back wheel. With the exception of a few gear issues and some classic gurning I managed to ride with him, overtaking some others in the process. With the finish line nearing I was trying to overtake on the single track with no luck. As soon as we got to the final fire road we both stamped on the pedals. The left hander into the start arena on the loose gravel felt like some speedway challenge although it was probably looked more like Bambi on ice to the spectators. I carried on sprinting as hard as I could to the finish line with legs burning but pipped him to the line.

I finished 21st putting me in 5th place in the series. Reasonably happy with that but I am suffering from the 3Ps - Piss Poor Preperation and need to sort it out before the next race!

Podium postions went to Tim Dunn, Edward Rose and Rich Hobbs. Full results on Southern XC