Race Report

Here is a race report from Sundays race at Mugdock and a few pics.....

What a difference a week makes! After pulling out of my first ever race (cycling or otherwise) at the Strathclyde Park cyclocross race, was hoping for a return to some kind of form at Round 4, Mugdock Park. A good bit of rest for a full day, a turbo session on Tues and a ride to work on Thursday the week before, I hoped to get a spring back into my legs for this race.

Mugdock Park cyclocross, run by Glasgow Mountain Bike Club, is a classic on the Scottish CX scene delivers the most technical of the years courses and usually a lot of mud. Sunday was no different. After blowing up at Rnd 2 I have been making a big effort to carbo-load on the Saturday (this is actually quite difficult I have found!!) and due to the later race starts this year, I have been eating loads on the morning of the race too. Diligence I adhered to as I got prepared for the 13:30 start.

Mugdock is a difficult race to start due to the tight nature of the trails and the commissaire had decided to start us on a grassy climb this time. However, the grass in some places was a foot high and there were a lot of moans on the start line from the ‘pros’ looking for the best line. I opted for a cycling start where some opted for a running one! Sitting on the 3rd row, I was quite far back but when the gun went off, the field opened up in front of me like Moses Parting the Red Sea! Fantastic, I was about 6th over the top of the climb with a lot of the established stars behind me. This doesn’t mean I was going to beat them but it allows you to get into your rhythm earlier as you are not fighting for places before the natural order establishes itself. Round the finishing arena for the end of our starting lap and I was in a good 10th or 11th place and feeling pretty good about things. Second lap and my crash demons returned and an innocuous fall meant I was off running through the muddy woods before the end of lap 2. Unfortunately, I had to square up my handlebars and this lost me further time. No problem though as I had only lost 1 or 2 places.

My fall and mechanical put be back into the clutches of my good friend Brian and for the next few laps we duelled it out for position, me pulling away on the hills, Brian catching me on the technical sections. I lost my bottle on lap 3 when I put the bike on my shoulder for the steep muddy hill and with the rules stating ‘No outside assistance’ I had to resist the temptation to take the bottle from a kind spectator who had picked it up for me. I would have been disqualified. Oh the shame! Sometimes it’s a bit too easy to back off when you have no competitors around you and my duel with my friend was the competition I needed to push on a bit and within a few laps I had managed to get a gap on him and was starting to catch some of the guys in front. Not sure if I passed any of these guys but I kept a good pace up the race entered the last few laps.

Over the finish line and I was delighted to have some form back and feel normal again. My cold had clearly been working on me during Rnd 2 and I probably shouldn’t have started rnd 3 but I suppose it is a good indicator of how my body reacts to illness. I always think it has taken 37 yrs to understand my body but I am slowly getting there. Results have me down in 14th place, not my highest ever finish but given but still pretty good and some decent point on the board. A few weeks off now but the club duathlon will be a great training session to keep me going before Rnd 5. See you this Sunday!