How the pros do it I’m sure, the day before the race spent painting and earning money, now that I’m not a student or nearly not a student. Crow Hill is the closet race venue to my home on the edge of the New Forest. It’s always good fun to race on and I tend to get more support from friends and family coming along to watch, which is always nice, though added pressure.
The race day started with an early morning spin to check over the Zaskar, and get my legs moving. I got to the venue a bit early as Steve (my coach) was bored and needed entertaining. Due to the dry sandy course and dusty conditions with the threat of rain which did not show, Ralphs were the best choice for tyres. I set off for a practice lap with my Lezyne kit in tow, just in case of any unwanted problems on the practice. The lap went well, with the course flowing in the opposite direction to the standard layout of previous years. I lined up on the second row at the start, which always seems to be a lot more chilled out at the Southern races.
We launched into the start loop and I didn’t get the best beginning, which is partly due to my lack of top end speed, thanks to Uni!! I managed to squeeze into a group with George Budd (Salsa Racing) and another rider. The lead group managed to gap us before I had a chance to think about them unfortunately. After the first lap the 29er was skipping over the roots and I felt really good, leading our group in 5th place through the arena. Though into the second lap I thought that a burm was harder than it looked, it fell like dominoes and I washed out face first into some nice and comfy dirt. I jumped back on though had to use the Lezyne multi tool to quickly straighten the bars. With the bars straight I chased after the others, though not from a lack of support, from my dad, brother and other friends, I couldn’t catch them. I rode the rest of the race alone, though I managed to catch Luke Gray and jump straight past him and carry on finishing in 8th position, which wasn’t too bad, though I needed the Accerlerade R4, gotta love a recovery drink after a race.
So overall great fun at the race and I will get better, though I’m looking forwards to the university Champs next weekend.
Thanks to all the Guys and Gals supporting me, I tried to smile; waving could have resulted in a crash.
Thanks to our awesome sponsors;
GTBicycles
SRAM
Schwalbe Tyres
Lezynne Tools
Eyewear Outlet
Accelerade Nutrition
Crankbrothers
Fuse
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