I had plenty of time to consider the sanity of racing today during the 2 hour drive to Black Park near Slough. The rain was torrential and even controlling the car on the M25 was proving challenging. The thought of stepping out into the down pour and racing a mountain bike was frankly ridiculous!
Wellies would have been useful just to reach the registration tent and having collected my race number I abandoned any idea of a warm up for the comfort of a warm car. An amazing number of hardy souls had braved the elements and it was a strong field that assembled just after 1 O’clock. We set off in the usual frenzy but I soon realised that I needed to ease it back a notch. My first lap was around the 20 minute mark and it was obvious that the conditions meant that we were there for the long haul. Despite the 3 inches of slurry and deep puddles the course still flowed well and would have been an absolute blast in the dry. Instead it was a case of struggling to get the power down while remaining upright!
The rain started to ease but the trails became more and more churned as the laps progressed. The temperature dropped and there was definitely white stuff in the air. Sopping wet gloves lead to frozen fingers, making it impossible to change gear. Luckily braking was already pointless in the slime!
My early caution paid off and as the clock passed 2 hours I claimed back a couple of positions on the final lap to finish 5th, a minute behind the podium places.
After the race the car park was full of shivering, mud coated riders struggling to remove shoes and undo zips. We gathered for a well earned hot chocolate at the nearby café and recounted tails of a race that will live long in the memory!
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| There is a bike in there somewhere! |
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