Sunday morning and a short hop up the A38 over the border to Wellington in Somerset for SWCX Round 2 at Courtfields School. Autumn has suddenly arrived....with a chilly start to the day and rain promised for around lunchtime....just when I'd be racing....should be good!
A quick practice lap between the youth races unveiled a nice fast course with not too much tech or running which would mean a fast and furious race. By now the wind was beginning to pick up and with wide open fields to race around the likelihood would be that some drafting would be required.
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| photo: Simon Rawling |
Around 30mins before my race I did a good warm up on the turbo before heading down to the start line where I was gridded on the front row with a stacked field of 65+ riders. After a slight delay we were off and I got a mint start, happy to sit in second place with Vin Cox leading it out.
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| photo: Simon Rawling |
As always the pace of the first lap was high with National Champ Steve Davies moving through to the front. I tried to stay on his wheel but knew the pace was too high whilst american rider Kamden Reedy pushed on to battle with Steve so I dropped back to the next group of four riders - Matt Loake (Southfork Racing), Tim Carpenter (eliteVelo), Matt Noble (Plymouth CX) and Alister Lovell (Royal Navy Cycling).
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| photo: Simon Rawling |
As predicted the rain started to fall halfway through the race and the surface became pretty greasy and as the laps progressed the two Matts dropped off from the group making it a three way battle for third place overall. This group worked really well with Tim and I sharing the workload on the front to manage the gap and maintain our position.
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| photo: Simon Rawling |
Having left a bit in reserve and knowing overall third place and second Senior was within reach I knew I had to attack so decided to make a break. Halfway around the final lap I went off the front of the group and sprinted all the way to the finish line.
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| photo: Simon Rawling |
Stoked!.....my first season in Senior and a third place overall and second in the Senior category - oh and £20 prize money....sweet!
Full results from the race can be found
here.
Big thanks to Mark Deakin for a great event and
Simon Rawling (www.simonrawling.com) for the fab photos - many more from this and previous events can be found on his
Facebook page.
