Thetford Winter MTB Series Rd 3, 12 Jan 2020

This was my first race of the season and I was treating it a training race in preparation for the Mud Sweat and Gears series. With a field of 108 vet racers, and as I wasn’t aiming for a placing, I started at the back. The vets were also gridded behind all of the other categories so in fact there were 175 riders in front of me, that were all going to hit the wooded single track first. I set off steady but soon realised that if I didn't beat some of the slower riders to the single track I would be held up, so in my normal fashion went straight in to the red and buried myself. Over the next hour I pushed as hard as I could on the faster fire roads getting past as many riders as possible, before easing up and recovering in the forest. My new goal was not to get lapped by the elites so that I could complete the full race distance plus the lap I was on. By the end of lap two I had caught and passed all of my club mates that had started with a better grid position, it was then a case of pushing as hard as possible to keep picking off riders, and trying to stick with the two riders that did pass me at the start of lap 3. I finished in 1:58, and 41st place. With a better start position I feel I could be in the 20's as I lost several minutes over the first lap, with all of the hold ups from slower riders going in to the single track. A lot of plus points pointing to the effectiveness of the last few training blocks, though cramp on the last lap cost me some speed and needs to be sorted before the next race. I had fuelled well pre-race, and through the race so I am putting the cramp down to either lack of salt or fatigue, I'm hoping the first!

Andy Fountain