The next morning I went to breakfast feeling a little bit nervous but also anxious of what to expect. We arrived at Sherwood pines in plenty of time & I started my warm up swiftly after, once my legs were warmed up I headed down to the start arena for gridding where I was seeded on the front Row.
Just before the start the forecasted rain began to fall which would make the course a lot more slippier than in practise yesterday but hopefully the Racing Ralph tyres would still be ok, The start of the race was fast & I had a really good start and I sat 4th going into the first singletrack round the start arena, It was a fast pace race and people were frantically attacking to move up including me, People were moving up and down the positions but I stayed in the same position in 4th.
Daniel Tulett opened up a gap and it just kept growing and then once we hit the first part of open track Ross Harnden flew passed but no one seemed to attack however this didn't seem to matter because I found myself in a trio who had managed to get away with Callum Fernie and Cameron Orr, We stayed together opening up the gap to 6th taking it in turns on the front on the fire roads, I was feeling really comfortable and was feeling strong sitting behind them at their pace, however disaster struck coming back into the arena with my rear wheel coming loose and rubbing against the side of the frame, I pushed on for about another 20meteres but it was not falling back into place , I had to stop and I tried to tighten it as fast as possible and hop back on, by now Callum and Cameron had gone off into the distance and Tom Piddcock had also passed me but I managed to get back on and was sitting 6th with Tomos Mein sitting behind me.
Later that lap Ben Healey came up to join us and we worked together again and I was feeling comfortable and was trying to push the pace to try and make it back to the next rider so I could still maybe get a top 5. we stayed together for the next three laps until Tomos attacked and me and ben chased, until again my wheel came loose again but this time I only had myself to blame as I had been the one who had rushed to get it fixed as quickly as possible. I once again had to stop and tighten it up but luckily was not caught by anyone when doing so but I could see a trio of riders coming up in the distance, in the end I ended up being caught by harry yates and we worked together to try and catch Ben who we were slowly bringing in towards the end of the last lap but there was not enough time left and we couldn't catch him, Harry ended up attacking before the final single track and getting ahead of a lapped rider giving him a small gap that he then held to the line. I ended up finishing 9th which I was satisfied with but was a bit annoyed that I had been in the running for third until my wheel fell out so the Lightweight KCNC Titanium skewer has been replaced in favour of a more Substantial & hopefully reliable Shimano item for the future.
I now know my winter training has gone very well & my form is there so I still felt like I had a good ride and now look forward to the next round of the BMBS in Newnham park in Plymouth on April 18-19th.
Im off to South wales next week for a 4day Mtb Training Camp with Welsh cycling which will be really good to get together with the other Welsh riders for plenty of quality Race training & Skills practise.
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