Edited since posted:
First race of the year. Always nervous, always apprehensive, always a big start to a long season. THe course was big, the course was long, the course was more akin to a mountain bike race than a cyclocross course.
I was not impressed at first.
Lurgan has held some fantastic races in the past. This year its to be the national championships so they are aiming to step up to a race that needs to be run well or they will receive abuse. The location is excellent, huge area of land with a tennis pavillion at the start, food, playgrounds and a massive amount of mixed parkland to work with. But suffice to say the water jump raised its head again....arrghghg. I don't mind it, it just takes one twat to cream him/her self on it and they are screwed.
The warm up was odd. With a 12-13 minute lap (told you it was long) only 3 laps were done in warm up. very little time to learn the course and by the 3rd racing lap i had maybe got it sorted in my head. Not a good sign!
The MTB support race ripped up the ground less than expected and to top it off Pauline got 3rd place. Well done that girl...now to get her a cross bike. Lining up on the start line you could tell that it was going to be a hard start. All the fast boys up the front and not very much space.
Race kicked off and 50m in Matt Aider bumps me on the left and then he's on the ground. 3 other riders went down on the fast tarmac start, but this happens every now and again. Fair dues to the guy he chased back on and won the race! But...100m down the road a bunch of 7 of us had got away. At the first turn a rider went down taking myself and another rider with him. Straight to ground in a heap. Picked up bike and ran to notice chain was off. 6th -last in a split second. Myself and Rob from WORC started to chase back, but at that point it was race over.
First lap saw me get back up to 16th position but i'd spent any energy i'd have used for later in the race. Havent had to go so hard for so long in a while, good to know i can do it, but not the time to use it. A stupid mistake on the last lap saw me drop from 12th - 16th as i missed a gear change and hopped my chain again. Suffice to say i was angry crossing the line. Course ran better in racing than warmup, bike and rider are ok if a little bruised, but not the best start.
But hey, thats racing.
*I am thinking of changing my name to Theo Bos....
Photos to come later:
http://picasaweb.google.com/paulineg/LurganCX2010#
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