Central CX Rd 5 Rockingham, 14 Nov 2021
After a mid-season break we were back for the last two rounds of Central CX for 2021. My plan had been to work on skills during the break but a neck injury followed by a shoulder issue meant this didn’t happen - I was able to keep up with the rest of training but my skills remain at the current (low) level.
Now then, how do I manage not to mess this bit up? Photo: Ann Tur
The Rockingham course was another I hadn’t done before, and after a couple of recce laps it was very clear that this wasn’t an ideal circuit for me! About half the course was a ‘conventional CX’ type deal, with grass, corners and twists through trees, but there were also a couple of highly technical single track sections which were likely to prove a real challenge. The queues during the practice laps also meant we didn’t really have the opportunity to try them properly before the race.
Starting from the third row of the grid, I resolved just to do the best I could. I made a good start - too good as I ran into the back of the guy in front of me! - and settled in for the ‘easy’ part before hitting the woods. Some of the sections I managed to get a good handle on after a few laps but other sections I never did well at all! I managed to crash just the once (annoyingly on one of the easy corners) and lost some time straightening saddle and shifter before continuing. A brief summary of the tricky bits:
A ‘bomb hole’ drop-off followed immediately by a climb back up - ok once you found the right line for the drop off and if there wasn’t anyone in the way on the uphill
A very steep (slightly terrifying) drop-off with an immediate left turn at the bottom back up another small uphill - I didn’t get this right once!
A run up section where the ideal was to remount at the top, go back down the other side and then ride up again - I tried different approaches for this and didn’t get it right once either!
It felt like Groundhog Day - you had to keep doing it until you got it right, except I never got it right but eventually it was over. Amazingly I came 25th - nothing special but actually my second best result of the season, which I never would have expected at the start.
Tim Phillips