Category: Mountain Biking

After a hour or so relaxing, messing around on bikes, and generally being extremely childish, all 150 of us formed a huge pelaton that wove its way out of the town where we had had lunch overlooking the sea and sand dunes. Drivers coming the otherway on the narrow roads were forced to pull over and wait as we streamed past handlebar to handle bar, nobbly tyres roaring on the smooth tarmac. After about 20 minutes riding, we all formed up and were given 3 maps each ready for a mass start. Firstly we had a 1:15,000 traditional foot orienteering map with 18 controls spread all over it. Then there was a 1:25,000 OS style map with 3 controls, and finally an A-Z type map of the town with a further 5 controls.

I got a good position at the start and streaked off towards one of the obvious first controls in this 90 minute score race. It was all elbows as the track narrowed, but strangely an orderly queue formed at the control as we all waited patiently in line to punch it (very British). I then made the mistake of trying a shorter route on the more minor tracks to the next but soon had to bin it as the ridability was terrible and went back around to the major track options. I then got stuck in, ducking and diving with a group of very fast riders, my control order choice and navigation keeping me in touch as we split and rejoined around the forest. After enjoying a sweet single track I punched the last control on the first map and swapped to the 1:25. It turned into 30 minutes of howling tyres blasting time trial style around the narrow lanes picking up a couple of controls before navigating off road on a woefully inadequate map. It was then a last desperate race around the town on the A-Z map. My last control was on the top of a dune overlooking the town, and I realised at that point I was going to be on a mission to get in on time. I gave it everything (silly thing to do with an ultra-long race the next day) and picked up a few other riders on the way in who promptly jumped on for a tow.

I finished to my reckoning a couple of minutes late which would lose me 20 points, but the results show I was a couple of minutes early! I know many riders took it easy but I know some were gunning it as much as me, so I am particularly pleased with 9th, which I suppose could be considered my first ever top 10 international result 🙂

The weather improved dramatically overnight and we all enjoyed the fantastic coastal scenery on the hours drive out to the venue for the middle race. Some bemused scouts, gathering for their Saturday morning meeting, soon got used to the 150 mountain bikes tearing around, warming up, and making sure bikes still worked after the sand of the long race the day before.

I started well but lost about a minute on control 3 after taking an early track junction. It took me a while to get my flow again but I picked a much better route choice than most on the way to number 8, opting for the fast forest roads rather than the more direct route. I did this again on 9 and found I was pulling past riders normally much faster than me. I had a wobble coming out of 14 and ended up losing the track completely and thrashing around in the brashings before breaking out onto a major track and relocating.

I had the last couple of controls on a bit of the map flapping away to the side of the mapboard in mid air as it was too big, but having such a good ride I didn’t want to lose time to refolding, instead however I lost 40 seconds or so after missing a track junction on number 17. I gave it all for the line and felt I’d had one of my best races for a while, especially physically. Having passed a few ‘names’ in the forest I knew I’d done well, but I was particularly pleased with 20th, and a few minutes faster would have taken me up a few more places.

Poor fellow GB rider Alan Hartley had a  bad day at the office, following a coming together between his rear mech and a big stick early on. Unfortunately this ended with him in singlespeed mode for the majority of the course but fair play for getting stuck in and finishing it, just a shame he coudnt get it to work on the middle ring.  I think he might need some sponsorship from http://www.onefgear.co.uk !

Wind and sand, in fact so much a land yacht would have been more useful than a mountain bike. Stopped at the traffic lights even the minibus was being blown forwards by the powerful gusts, and after parking it was like being in sand blasting booth.

The morning was spent training for the long distance race in the afternoon. We all cut it short, worn down by the sandy conditions and vicious winds, and escaped to McDonalds, the only warm ‘cafe’ we could find for lunch.

Following a well earned McFlurry I felt ready for anything lining up for the start of the long race, which was only 15km due to the sandy conditions. I started at a run on a horrible, sandy track, but got going onto the better tracks and felt I rode really well. I struggled slightly with the map on number 3, the tracks seemingly not joining up as indicated but I soon relocated and was then joined by GB newbie, Dan Mathers, for a few controls. Luckily he was there to see me nail probably the best bunny hop I’ve done in years, over a log, which but a big smile on my face. The riding in the first part of the course was excellent with lots of technical single tracks (even if the map was a little ropey) and we were sheltered from the wind.

I lost about a minute or so on the way in to 10 in the complex path network but got a good clean route somehow to 11 where I caught Alan. We both slithered our way down a very steep sandy ride before the long leg across the map and the turn for home and back into the wind. I made a silly mistake taking an unmarked track on the second last, and Alan pulled back ahead. Punching the final control I took a risky route choice down a sandy track rather than out and round the road which was a mistake as the going was really tough, but throughout the course you won some and lost some to the unpredictable sandy ridability.

I felt fairly pleased with the race, feeling much better, my cold pretty much nearly gone. I was even more pleased to see the results – 25th, mid-table, top Brit and 16 mins down.

It was a bit of a shock to the system after a mornings training and an afternoon sprint race to be donning smelly cycling kit to go out after our evening meal for the longest race of the day, a night middle distance race.

Even more of a shock was the provision of a colour photocopied 1:15 thou map not 1:10 as advertised on the start line which we all really struggled to read, particularly the brown roads which were invisible. Although there was practically no climb the stiff breeze and sandy conditions on many of the tracks made the going very hard at times.

I rode fairly cleanly, just stopping to much and just wobbled on a couple of controls, struggling to read the detail on the map but it was my legs that were the problem tonight. Not so much sore, but just very tired which made my navigation even more careful. I was really hungry all the way round, and my slow pace made it worse the longer I was out. I’m not sure if it is a hangover from being ill, or doing too much in the day as I certainly felt I had eaten enough.

The course snaked its way round the plantations of this army training area and included off track riding on some solid yellow areas and some intensive navigation in the dense forest blocks.

Turning for home after number 27 was a relief with the wind behind me for just a short while and I was glad to finish feeling completely drained. Rather than going to bed straight away, a few of us treated ourselves to post race analysis with a well deserved beer in the officers mess which went down very well.