Mud, Sweat & Gears MTB Round 2, 16 May 2021

My first race back in over a year went ok, with lots of positives, and the negatives we can work on. The main thing was I went and didn’t stress, in fact very little nerves. It was very wet & muddy in forest, and 50% technical which I’m less good at, but even more so when wet and slippy. I fell off twice in the forest during warm up which didn’t help my head, so dropped the tyre pressures 2psi and did another lap ok. I was gridded at the back 60th out of 60. I decided from the start to let everyone go and not get caught up in the pack, which was my first mistake as as soon as we hit a single technical drop, everyone came to a standstill and we ended up sitting there waiting! I took it steady on the fast descents, tried to build my confidence in the technical forest, and passed loads on the climbs. Lap by lap I ended up picking people off and moving up the field. As my division is 18-60 year olds I was in the mix with all ages, but it felt great to pass guys I normally race against in my CX age category. All in all a great day!

In the end I came 35th out of 60. Happy with that from the back row of the grid and taking it easy at the back on the first lap.

Andy Fountain