With the weather set to be warm and a lunch time start for my race I packed up the wife and kids into the car and headed off to Frith Hill for the fourth round of the Gorrick Spring Series.
Arriving at the venue, the car park was again packed with race goers. With sign up and a change into race kit done it was time to head off for a sighting and warm-up lap which revealed some great new single-track sections and the usual tricky climbs. Coming towards the end of my practice lap, heading up a tricky little climb, all of a sudden I was met with a chorus of shouts from my support crew. Not knowing they were going to be there, this put me off slightly and caused me to stall… much to their amusement. Hopefully knowing that they will there next time won’t put me off!
Race time: With a 80 strong field spread out behind the start arch I knew getting a good start would be important, but unfortunately this did not go according to plan and I found myself getting caught out in the middle of the pack trying to squeeze through the archway. Luckily the course quickly widened out, so brave line choices saw me pass riders and head into the first dusty and loose single-track section in the top half of the field. With the single-track being quite tight it was hard to pass riders and it made it more important to put in the hard efforts and pass slower riders on the wide fire road section. Crossing the line after the first lap and hearing that I was in 12th place was very pleasing and spurred me on to keep my pace up for the second lap.
The second lap went well with me catching and passing the 11th place rider early on and then passing 10th place towards the end by taking a tight inside line on a tricky right hander and pushing hard to get a good gap.
The third lap saw me maintain my good pace which helped calm the last lap nerves and saw me nearly get in touch with the 9th place rider, crossing the line only 8 seconds behind. All in all it was a great race and thanks to my support crew for very enthusiastic encouragement and I think I have finally coughed up all the dust that I swallowed!
Just one final thing that I would like to see if I can get cleared up – spotted on the start line was this riders bike. Could anybody tell me why he had a carrot taped to his stem?! Is this some sort of new energy supplement????
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