Reading CC Wessex Cyclocross Race

Round 6 Reading Cyclocross Race

Waking up Sunday morning with a mild headache from the few beers on the Saturday night I was quite excited to race at Reading Prospect park as I enjoyed racing there last year. The weather the night before was really rubbish with it raining the majority of the night and waking up to a gloomy grey sky and puddles on the ground outside I knew I was in for a wet and muddy one. My bacon roll that morning went down well accompanied by some juice to set me up for an hour of hard graft.

We arrived at the race venue with about an hour to spare to watch the final laps of the vets and juniors race, check out the course and even preride for a lap trying not to clog my bike full of mud. Luckily despite the grey and murky sky it wasn’t too cold so was able to race in just my jersey and shorts.

After completing a practice lap at a very slow pace trying to not slip over in the mud and not cape myself with mud I could tell this course was going to be hard and very sketchy. With some very boggy open fields and climbs which were practically impossible to ride up it was pretty much a muddy mountain bike race, which I guess did suit me.

Having not been entered as a team before the start of the reason I was gripped right at the back of 45 riders. Which meant elbows out to try get my self up to the front. The gun went and straight away at the first climb we were up and running up the hill. Round the first corner and into the first muddy section of the course I had managed to get myself into about 9^th position which is where I wanted to be. I was at the front of the chasing group. At the laps continued I was able to hold off this position and battling with 2 other guys for 7^th, 8^th and 9^th. At the top of each of the running climbs I realised how much mud was clogged up in my tyres and breaks which was slowing me down massively. Realised I was already covered in mud and stopping for 10 seconds to clear this wasn’t going to loose me any positions and was the best thing to do. On the final 2 laps I was up to 8^th position and battling with Michael Guildford for 7^th. As we moved onto the final lap I made an attack through the think mud and managed to pull a gap on him. Realising that this was my last lap of the race I didn’t have much to loose and just continued to push through my fatigue and ride strongly to the finish.

All in all 7^th was a pleasing positioning only loosing 1 place from the 6^th at the previous race and was going to have to work hard before the next race next week to try get my 6^th again.