Chilling out at BMBS rd 3 Wasing

Since I have returned from Austria I have been taking things easy. I have been unable to get a solo spot for mountain mayhem so decided that a well earned mid season break is required. Nothing really happened in the way of training, just having some fun on my bike in the woods.

I had entered BMBS rd 3 at Wasing park with a view to use it as an opener for mayhem though. I didn't really want to waste the entry so i decided to race it anyway.

I also decided that riding the Rollapaluza Brighton Rolla Riot on Friday night would be excellent for opening my legs for the race Sunday! Unfortunately I am horrifically at sprinting so the 500m qualifying heats didn't really go to plan i.e I was rubbish and didn't qualify! So I decided to take note of the age old cyclists phrase 'never stand when you can lean, never lean when you can sit, never sit when you can lie'. As there were no chairs in the bar i decided the best option would be to lean on the bar all night (and most of the morning, whoops!)



Come Sunday the weather had turned for the worse along with my motivation. To be honest I really couldn't be arsed to race, it was wet, cold and my legs felt empty. I had woken up early and driven to the race though so couldn't bail. As far as my starts go this one was ok. I managed not to miss my pedal or drop my chain or both. My starting effort however more than made up for it! I sprinted as hard as I could and still went backwards!

The course itself was quite fun however the series of 4 short sharp muddy climbs in the first few Km's of the course really wasn't my cup of tea. I was rubbish and struggled to keep up. The 2nd half of the course was great though, gentle gradients, rooty single track and 29er friendly bumps.This is were I made all my time and gradually worked up through the field after being held up in the first few sections of single track thanks to my appalling start.

I picket off a few riders a lap untill I was in a group of 4 with 2 laps to go. We were positions 7- 11th. Into the last lap my race instincts really kicked in and I decided i wanted to win 7th! On the first part of the circuit I stayed near the front of the group knowing I just had to keep up. Then about halfway into the lap I gave it every thing in a hard attack. I managed to gap the chasers and smashed the singletrack as hard as I dare in the quickly deteriorating conditions.

I managed to successfully negotiate some back markers and held a good gap over the group to take a rather muddy 7th place. Considering I felt pretty flat in the race I was quite pleased with my last lap effort. I was even more pleased when I checked the results this morning. Turns out the back markers were actually in my race so I finished 5th..BONUS!

Maybe I should do some xc race training rather than just enduro, I might do ok then!
Unfortunately the helmet Cam didn't fair so well in the rain so there isn't any race footage.

Now for another 2 weeks of playing in the woods before the big push for the late season races begins!