After a hiatus due to illness, I was back on racing, starting with my only national xc of this season, at a home English Schools and some longer racing at round 1 of the Southern XC MTB Series.
Another last bit of racing ended the month though, competing at the British Triathlon Super Series Performance Assessments in the Midlands last weekend.
English Schools XC
With a rapid start as usual, I was in a decent position in the start pens, having qualified 1st, but was a little back at around 40/50th at the first corner. I quickly pushed up round the outside to get to the front (there in yellow, in the above photo, just after).
I held on the front for a minute or two before starting to get overtaken and dropping back. I placed around just outside top 40 after lap 1 and gained back a few places over the remaining 3 miles.
With little in my legs I struggled to make any significant gains through the field, but pushed on for a few more places to finish 33rd and was 1st Sussex through, also winning the team for the Wigan Trophy for being part of the county with the highest 8th place finisher.
Timing wise rather than placing it was a lot closer race than usual being just 25s off a top 10 and 50/55s off the winner.
On my result position wise 33rd definitely doesn’t satisfy me, but considering a less optimal racing and training lead up into the race, the result was good and at the time working forward from there was the way I looked to go. The effort was good but I still had some take-aways to work on from the race, and wanted to improve from that point, and have one more chance at the English Schools XC in my final year, next year.
Southern XC MTB Rd.1
Racing in the Junior cat. for MTB for the first time, I was racing with the quick elites and adults.
My previous longest MTB race having been about 45mins, I raced 7x laps for just under an hour and a half, on a dry, fast course.
A slipped pedal at the start unfortunately cost me a small bit of annoying time I could have saved, but every second counts at the start. I was still away well to the first corner, and found myself on the back of the reasonably big front group at the top of the start climb, which split as soon as we hit the wooded section. Over the rest of the race, the effort remained high and I was 6th junior by the end of lap 1, and closed up to 5th and 4th, before dropping one and then gapping the other, although he slipped out.
I held my position over the rest of the race, and finished 4th after some much longer racing than before. Was a good bit of bike prep to get my legs riding for last weekend, but again I’m looking for closing up to the leaders and improving over the rest of the season.
British Triathlon Performance Assessments
For the last weekend of March, not in the usual triathlon format I was racing a 400m TT in the pool followed by a 10k/2.5k bike/run the following day.
Swim – Swim was good but I messed up my pacing, going out the first 100m in 1.05, then was 2.19 for 200 at half way and finished in 4.51. Glad to have made some progress over the last 3 years here, going from 5.10, to 4.58, to 4.51. I believe I can go quicker, which I think was possible yesterday, however a better gage of pacing was needed. The first 200 I was getting really solid turns and fly kicks off the wall, but then after that the lactic set in and brought down the efficiency through and out of the wall.
Bike/Run – I had about just over 15s to close to the main group of most people, which was a gap but not impossibly massive either. I started in about 30th after my swim and closed some good time in the first transition quickly and found two good wheels to use to spring me up places. The course had a decent amount of dead turns and with a pretty awful headwind/crosswind going out, I tried to position myself out the wind. Onto the 2nd lap of 2, 5k in, I was just outside the top 10, with a couple groups of about 3 or 4 having broken away separately, ahead, and were working better, gaining some time.
Off the bike I came into T2 in 10th with some others just behind. Out of T2 I stayed in the same position and caught one person straight out. I didn’t progress that well on the run and struggled closing up some places to finish 7th overall. I wasn’t able to deliver a kick at the end which could of gained me a couple more places, with 6th just 1s ahead, 5th 3/4s and 4th 7s ahead.
I had the 3rd fastest run, but the speed and strength wasn’t there yesterday on the run and working forward I’m understanding where I need and want to improve but I know how to do it so that’s a good start.
This month overall from start to end has been some progression which is good and yesterday was a good race overall. 7th to start the season in the British Series gives me a good working point and position to improve from going forward, so I’m looking forward to implementing things for the next triathlon, in about a month’s time.
My new Moda Finale from https://moda-bikes.com/ was great to race for the first time and rides rapid and the setup is pretty on point for aero gains so be sure to check out their range if looking for a swift race bike.
Thank you for the ongoing support from Pedal Potential, XMiles and Moda Bikes and I’m looking forward to training and future racing this year
My Triathlon Journey 
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