Happy New Year to all our members with best wishes for a successful 2012 season.
Dan Taylor has kept us entertained this year with reports of his cyclo cross races. He was due to race the day of our Christmas dinner and join us later in the afternoon. He was unable to do so and we learn why below in his last race report of 2011.
December had started well with me getting 9th place in the Welsh CX Championships then things immediately took a turn for the worse. I caught a nasty bug that led me to miss the penultimate race of the Welsh CX series at Govilon.
I recovered through the week and tested myself on a couple of evening training rides but still felt like I was in recovery mode by the weekend. For the Cardiff race the plan was to finish somewhere inside the top 20 and try to add a couple more points to the board if possible.
Once the juniors were finished I headed around the circuit for a warm up. Just as I was coming into the second lap I felt the front wheel slide out a bit too easily on a muddy corner. After closer inspection I could see the tyre was almost flat. I looked at my watch and saw had minutes until the start of the race. I quickly slung my spare wheel in, let out a bit of air pressure and headed for the start.
By the time we were on the line the early morning ice had thawed and you could just about feel your fingers enough to know your hands were still gripping the bar tape. After 3 cheers for the Brilliant work Liz Slater has done as the commissioner we were away for the final race of the season. I’d been gridded on the second row and headed into the first corner without letting the usual hoard of people past; things were looking OK early on! The majority of the course was covered in mud and I’d taken the usual amount of air from the tyre to help gain as much grip as possible on the slippery surface. One thing I’d not taken into account was the large, semi-exposed pebbles hiding just under the mud. I hit one on the first lap and felt the rim through the tyre, with no spare bike or wheels in the pits I kept my fingers crossed that I didn’t DNF!
The course utilised a steep ridge that ran the length of the circuit to full effect, going up, over, down, turn, up, repeatedly. At every race this season I’ve ridden the warm up laps thinking ‘don’t fancy that much’ or ‘that looks tricky, I’ll run it’ but once the whistle goes any doubting thoughts totally disappear and I’ve found myself throwing the bike into obstacles I’d panicked over in practice.
With a couple of laps to go the three leaders came past and I eventually had to give in to a rider who had been on my heels for the best part of an hour. I finished 15th on the day and came 12th overall for the season.
Before the season kicked off my main aim was to get some good results in the top 20 and hopefully sneak into the top 10 before the season finished. I’m very happy to have achieved both goals and am more than looking forward to next season. The bike may well be clean by then too!