Monday 7 March 2011

Finally the first race of the Season: Wentwood50

I'm lucky that I even got to the start of the race yesterday morning. I entered it late and missed out on an entry. When I was in Spain sunning myself I received an email from the organiser asking me if I wanted to take a place and swap names with someone. I made sure I had someone to look after my kids and accepted. Getting back from holiday we found out that my wife's Mum had been taken ill.
It wasn't until fairly late on Saturday evening did I find out that I could ride. I managed to get a babysitter.
I got to the start and went signed on. It was bloody cold standing in the queue but it went smoothly which was great for a 1st time event. The tent did smell of dog poo though. Wasn't nice. We were called for the start at about 10:20 for a 10:30 START. I was pretty cold but I knew we had some climbing to do from the gun and I'd soon warm up. If I'd been wearing what some of the guys were wearing I'd soon be over heating.
I didn't get to do a warm up as I had to drop my kids at the babysitter as late as possible. I got dressed, fixed up my bike just in time. Not ideal but hey you take what you have.
The start was on the road (which were closed for the start and finish) We went straight up the road for a few miles to the top of the ridge and into the forest. I was near the front on the road but not at the front. With no I was warming up nicely and made sure I didn't over do it early on. This was my first race of the year and only forth ride in almost 8 weeks.
I ended up in a small group of around 6-7 riders through the first few KM off road. At one point I was just following wheels and who ever was up the front of our group had taken us off course. I think a few of us had gone the wrong way as we were alerted by riders coming up the hill we were going down asking if we had seen the sign. Err nope. Anyway we soon found it. You really had to keep an eye out for the arrows. They were big and yellow but somehow we were still missing them. I don't know how we missed them to be honest as they were pretty clear but we were missing them.
I was enjoying myself but my body wasn't. Me legs were working OK but my arms, shoulders and back were aching. For some bizzare reason I was convinced I'd put my Skins compression tights on backwards. There seems to be too much padding at the front. All I had done was failed to pull them up enough. The shorts became a pain as I was looking for negatives. catching on my saddle. Fact is I was very rusty offroad. My skills are not the great at the best of times but pretty much two months without any off road riding I was struggling. I fell off whilst trying to put an empty gel pack in my pocket (I wish everyone else would have tried as much as me keeping the place tidy).
On the up hills as normal I would pull away from my group. then on the technical downhills they would catch me up. I really need to get out and practice more on the technical stuff.
about 2/3 through the race the small group of three i was with turned wrong again. This time we were defiantly off course and had clearly missed out some course. There were checkpoints around 3 in all for the 50km course. I had all three. I wasn't about to cheat but it was hard to find where we went wrong. A rider going the other way told us we had missed out 7km. turned out it was less than a km. I'd done more than that wrong already.
The great thing about the route which also was probably where so many went wrong is with some of it the route was natural. There was no obvious trail but easy to go wrong. It was great. With about 8km to the finish we had a long fireroad climb which then turned into a steep road climb. being local i knew this climb well. My head went. I was tired. The lack of fitness was showing. I got to the top of the hill knowing the way home was all downhill. Big ring the whole way.

I finished the 50km in about 3hrs 10. So way down. I didn't push myself too much but I clearly have a lot of work to do before my 1st 24hr race in 9 weeks time. basically I am in the shit. The 7 weeks of no riding has put me somewhere I haven't been for a long time. Can I do it YES I CAN

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/72107896

Pics and results up soon on http://www.wentwood50.co.uk/ I loved the event. Very well organised with the food stations and excellent route. I will be back next year for the event and back up Wentwood forest in a few weeks for a ride.

The Blackpark XC next week. Can't wait

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