Blog May 2023
To be frank, this month has been a disappointment at a national level of racing. We started in Matterly Basin on the 7th of May, we arrived on the Friday night and initially the course looked boring, easy, and fast. However, on the Saturday, the heavens disagreed and after hours of non-stop rain and hundreds of riders, many parts of the course had become unrideable for the clogging of the wheels.
After an alright start and a good first lap, I was in the leading group of four. However, as I started in the woods on the 2nd lap, I started having mud and rocks jam my front wheel leading to me losing contact with the leaders and then the partial cause of a multi rider crash. After this I killed myself up the hills then did my best on the down dealing with these jams and a chain off, finishing in 5th.
Unfortunately, I did not have suitable tyres for these conditions because this situation had never occurred in my many years of racing. But I do now!
Two weeks on and I am racing at Lochore at round 3 of the Scottish XC Series. After creating a gap on the first climb, I road to victory.
Over these last few weeks, I have also been completing my eight National 5 Exams which had made training difficult and has led to increased stress. I have found this has impacted my focus and I am glad these are finally over. Studying has reduced my total time on the bike with less longer rides, so my endurance has been affected.
Fresh from the completion of my last Nat 5 Exam, we trekked down to Cornwall for round 4 of the British National Series. For the first time I also took part in the short track the day before. After a fast hard, fast race I came in 2nd not managing to keep up with Leon's powerful final attack on the last climb. The next day came and with it the XC and I was feeling nervous. Because of this I had a bad start, and I wasted a lot of power catching back up to 4th where I fought for a few laps trying to get a podium but finished in 4th.
The last month has been particularly challenging with the racing and exams, however after completing my last exams and now with a few weeks break to the next major race I am feeling considerably more relaxed, and after this week off the bike I will hopefully feel ready to get back to training and racing.
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