Raceright

WDMBC Black Park Race report – March 14

An hour and a half of hard fast racing on a flat but fun course helped to build the condition for later in the year, over at the West Drayton MBC organised event. The race has been running for a few years now, but this was the first time I’d competed, but not the last as it was great fun out in the fast and flowing singletrack, and I will definitely return.

It was the second MTB race of the year, and I was looking to improve upon the last race, while getting in some good quality, no pressure training. Lining up in the decent sized combined sport and masters race, I finally got to meet Langers and the UK Biking riders before we set out on 7 laps of the 3 mile course. I knew it was going to be a very fast race given the nature of the terrain and figured it best to go out hard and keep going as long as I could. It wasn’t the type of course where it was easy to close a gap once they had been formed.

Off the start we went along the main stretch before a couple of left turns lead into the first singletrack section, it seemed like I was in around 20th spot, seems I wasn’t the only one. After the initial rush things began settling down somewhat as everyone got into their rhythms I found myself with one of the host riders, Stephen Tebbet, and we began working our way round the course together. It felt like the kind of race where you could see the actual fitness levels of the riders, compared to other races, such as Gorrick, which require more of a fitness/skills balance. Anyway, we worked together for a few laps, sharing the load and making sure we stayed a tight unit as we covered the laps in around 15 – 16 minutes.

Keeping count of which lap I was on was becoming a problem as it was all happening pretty fast, but that wasn’t the only issue I found. Finding spots to drink was proving tricky and noticed that I wasn’t really taking in much liquid, something which I would surely pay for later, especially as it was the first warmer day all winter. Round and round we went, until eventually I began to slowly lose contact with Stephen as he gradually pulled away.

I think I had a lap or 2 remaining so just kept my head down and carried on, as it was a fast course it was easy to maintain a decent speed, but went through the usual roller coaster of red lining it. A few minutes feeling bad, coming round to being strong again, only to dip again, then have the strength return. I see this as a good thing as it showed me that I was doing my utmost. I managed to finish on a strong point, were I seemed to recover fully for the final couple of km’s to cross the line in 12th spot. Much higher up the field than I thought so was satisfied with the day.

Results from all the races are here. Next on the agenda is a week training camp, followed by the first round of the BMBS.