On Sunday I raced the Midlands Championship mountain bike race and had one of the best fights In my 20 years of mountain bike racing. The result was ok, 7th place, my legs were good and I was riding the Scalpel to its very limit and beyond on a couple of occasions. Crashes were causing position changes every lap and it was a race I had no intention of settling in to.
Loamy sections were proving difficult for the weight weenies who were running semi slick tyres, giving me and my Panaracer Rampage a very big advantage. I did get my suspension set up slightly wrong with too much air in both the front and rear, but that firmness allowed the Scalpel to zip away from my competition when the course opened out. On the last lap I was clear in 6th spot but a root rolled the tyre and I had the dilemma of riding it to the finish and risking rolling the tyre off completely on the big bomb hole section or quickly stopping to put some air in, I chose the latter and was passed by my nemesis, Darren Alexander (Mini Adventure).
I rode hard to catch him back up waiting for my time to attack, which came on the final steep loamy climb where I hit the 180 cranks hard and powered away to a 20 metre gap. As the finish line approached my chase and attack was being paid back and I looked round to see Darren closing me down. He put in a good finishing effort and beat me to the line, a fight I will continue in the next round.
The race was an experience I will recall to lift my spirits in future races. On reflection It wasn’t the result that mattered to me, it was the way the race unfolded and how I managed to focus on gaining places rather than holding position and fight hard to the end.
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