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| Before After |
Going into the final round on Sunday I was looking to consolidate my top ten position in the series. A similar situation as the previous two years, where illness and mechanical problems had twice conspired to leave me outside the points.
You will always need a helping hand from Lady Luck to navigate the best part of 18 hours racing spread over 3 months, without a mechanical, a puncture, injury or illness. You can help yourself with careful planning and preparation. So by all accounts I should have been in serious trouble come Sunday.
Exhausted after a hectic week at work which had included 6 hours on Saturday, when I finally got home all I'd really felt like doing was putting my feet up. Instead I huddled in a chilly shed checking over the bike. To my horror I discovered that I had clearly finished my last race with the cranks no longer attached to each other! A frantic dash for spares to the one local bike shop that was still open, enabled me to fudge a solution using some ancient old cranks scavenged from my wife's bike. Once this work was done it was too late for a sensible dinner, instead I settled for two fish fingers and a bacon butty before heading to bed. Hardly the food of champions!
The series has been quite spectacularly blighted by poor weather -the latest winter storm sweeping in just as the riders gathered for the start. The rain beat down on shivering bodies and soaked into the already saturated earth. I was wet; I was cold and that was pretty much how I remained for the next 5 hours, except I got considerably more muddy! The hilly course was already a challenge of endurance, the increasingly slippery conditions contriving to make thing much tougher; stealing all traction on the climbs and robbing you of control on the decents.
Days like this are all about survival. I entered my own little world, a cacoon of shivering arms and tired legs, just turning over the pedals and staying out of trouble. I have no recollection of people talking to me or offering encouragement from the sidelines. I lost count of the number of laps I had completed, crossing the line in a daze. Seeking comfort in the heated marque, warmth slowly seeped back into my limbs bringing me back to life. Focusing on the live timing screen infront of me I read - Ben Connor : 8th!
This evening nursing aching limbs and some bruises from a fall, I sat down to calculate my series position. (The official results will be published later in the week.) I am hugely satisfied to complete one of the grimest winters of racing 6th in the overall standings. All those hours of toiling in the mud and training in the rain have paid off. I'm genuinely very pleased with this positive and encouraging start to the year!
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