Gorrick Spring Series - Round 1

I didn't head to Tunnel Hill with high aspirations. I have been quite ill recently and hadn't even touched a bike for over two weeks. However, I did make life even harder for myself. Successful racing is largely about prepartion and planning. Long term this means months of training, but it is also true for the days, hours and minutes leading up to the start.

Unusually I hadn't bothered to pack the car night before, which meant I ended up leaving home later than I'd have liked. A problem compounded when confronted with a pea souper on the A3 and a 40mph speed limit. When I finally arrived in Mychett I quickly grabbed my race number, but it was already too late to complete a warm-up lap. The benefit of a warm-up lap is two fold. First it stretches the legs and prepares the heart and lungs for the challenge ahead. Secondly it provides an opportunity to assess the course, identify the difficult bits, pick racing lines and maybe even tweak tyre pressures and suspension to suit the conditions.

Instead of my normal routine I rode the first 10 minutes of the lap and then set off back to the car. Obviously you can't ride backwards down the course, so I had to follow my nose. It might have been my recent cold but my nose had no sense of direction! I was soon lost, riding randomly through the forest. By chance I eventually stumbled onto a road and headed off in what I hoped was the right direction.

The final stage of the pre-race schedule is fuelling the body to prime it for 2hrs physical exersion. In my case this is normally a combination of water, energy drinks, a banana and then a gel. Having thankfully guessed correctly the road had lead me back to the carpark, but with minutes to spare I only had time to ditch a jersey before wheeling my bike onto the line, literaly as the starting horn sounded.

I was dead last and progress was slow. I coughed and wheezed my way past a couple of riders and some others repairing mechanical issues, but the body wasn't really ready for 200bpm heart rates. My challenge was just to finish, a task which became even harder as my poor race preparation left me dehydrated and as a consequence suffering from cramp.

However, two things made the journey worthwhile. I was back on the bike, the sun was shining and I enjoyed the great trails! Plus on a day when my cycling wasn't winning any awards I scooped the £50 spot prize!