Had a good week training, did some quality road work mid week and had no warning of what was going to happen in the race. Warmed up, the sun came out for my race and I was sporting new kit and go faster white socks. When the gun went off I blasted away up the climb into the arena and took quite a few places. Then into the first bit of single track I got held up and things took a nose dive for me.
I could not get a rhythm and found it really tough, I had bike handling problems which caused me to fall off a few times and by the end of the first lap I was going backwards fast. I came through to start lap 4 and for the first time ever I had to call it a day.
So what went wrong? Well it certainly was not my training because that was going well all week. Chris (rider coaching), was watching and he said he could see I was not right, and put it down to a bug that was going around. I genuinely had nothing in me, and was a bit dazed most of the day. So it is rest time for me, and this is the great advantage of having a coach. Some top riders and people who have cycled a long time can sort themselves, but it is great to have someone who can tell you when to push and also when to rest.
There were also some other issues which contributed to my poor performance which I should admit. Having a 2.25 old racing ralph on the front with 40 psi in to keep it on the rim was probably the reason every root tried to kill me. And swapping pedals to have cleats that I knew needed replacing added to the dismay as I could not stay clipped in on any climb. This is entirely my own fault and I should know better by now, anyway a pair of rocket rons ust are on their way as we speak. A lesson learned I suppose, and at least my legs are not killing me today.
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