[Closed] 2017 XC Racing Thread

I class a man made obstacle as anything that causes my wheels to leave the ground for any significant length of time! 😳

I last raced at Pippingford at the national champs in 2010 and it was a cracking course so looking forward to it!

Sorry to hear that Krypton, really bad luck, mend well quickly.

Last Saturday saw round 4 of the [url= http://www.xcup.se ]X-Cup [/url]in southern Sweden, after my last success I was talking to myself to be prepared for less this time. Perfect start and race went well, never dropped lower than 2nd the whole race, attached with half a lap to go and won again start 2. Placed 26th overall, when including the elites and some 300 racers, so well happy again. Course was great, proper XC course through a forest with plenty to keep fun going.

[img] [/img]

https://bikingandalucia.com/bike-and-duathlon-competitions-and-event/
for some of the best XC events to be found, with fantastic scenery, weather, trails organisation and ambience.

Off to Switzerland in a few weeks for the GR BCVS, very simple question, i have 34 days to get fit.

If you were to try and get ready for 130km and 5000m of climbing in the Swiss alps which would be better to concentrate on distance/ride time or intensity? I can't do much about the altitude or the weather which i know cause me issues.

This of course assumes i don't break me, the bike or the alarm clock as has been the last three years!

5000m of climb? I'd cancel my flight!

Just completed my first week riding after 5 weeks ill. I've ridden to heart rate and taken it easy - down about 12% and pretty weak. Noticed a marked improvement on last ride.

Will need to build carefully - 2 week blocks, reduced intervals, reduced power targets, rest days etc etc.

Brighton Big Dog may be a bit much a bit too soon. G25 should be about right.

which would be better to concentrate on distance/ride time or intensity?

Intensity. You haven't got time time build base!

^^^. Yes but for that amount of time in the saddle Sweet sport might be best, and off possible time in the saddle...

^^^
A very good session is 'criss cross'

Warm up then 5 minute threshold intervals with 5 minute Z4 recovery and repeat x4.

This mimics climbing at Zone 4 which is reasonable for that distance/elevation with bursts of threshold for the really steep bits.

5000m in 130k is intense - very intense!

I do have some base to work from, last couple of months has seen a couple of 200k road rides, and a 150k mtb ride, plus shorter faster stuff. But no real structured stuff. Just starting to get jittery and questioning my sanity. Not helped by a lap round the verderers and seeing how far behind the top i am!

Next round of MMWM for me this week up at Lee Quarry, so plenty of rocks and hopefully no crashes.

Maybe I can improve on 15th from the last round, but you never know. Then it's 2 weeks jollybobs with a couple of ride thrown in in preparation for Torq 12hr Solo 😯

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/nationalmtbchampionships/article/20170718-National-MTB-Championships-Race-guide--2017-HSBC-UK---National-Cross-country-Championships-0

If anyone's interested in a read, a couple of XC type race/ride reports have gone up on my blog this week.

Normally race enduro but it's good to mix things up a bit eh! 😀

[url= https://orena45blog.wordpress.com/2017/07/19/ride-report-scott-mtb-marathon-exmoor/ ]Scott MTB Marathon - Exmoor[/url]

[url= https://orena45blog.wordpress.com/2017/07/17/race-report-cotton-burner-triple-2017/ ]Cotton Burner Triple[/url]

Nice write up on the Scott marathon. Was a cracking day I enjoyed it despite suffering a few hamstring cramps near the end. Pleased with my 3hr 59m as well.

first race for over 2 years, 8/28 in the lbs summer cx series, mixed cats/mixed bikes - did it on the mtb, everyone loves an action pic

[url= https://preview.ibb.co/k9rquk/20157128_1521868477836454_248590427892951578_o.jp g" target="_blank">https://preview.ibb.co/k9rquk/20157128_1521868477836454_248590427892951578_o.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= https://imgbb.com/ ]post image on forums[/url]

Well that's my 2017 season wrapped up. At the start of the year my plan was to "have a go" and to find myself moving in Expert cat next year im properly chuffed. I'm currently sat 5th national ranking in Sport Cat. Only one National event left on the calendar but I'm giving that one a miss.

I've learnt a lot this year. I've also learnt that 12 races was too many races for me to perform consistently towards the end. I had a cracking start to the season and even bagged a 2nd place regional race and a 4th at the Nationals. I've got 8 results well within to the top 10. That being said, the last two races were terrible including my performance at the national champs today (sport cat again). I'm just worn out. That's all there is to it. My training has suffered in the last 4-5 weeks as I'm taking way longer to recover than I was at the start of the season.

I can take what I've learned and apply it to next years training. I'm already excited about it but more exited about the fact that in the meantime I can go back to just riding for fun!!!

Made some great friends this year and look forward to making some more next year.

Hope everyone achieved what they set out to do this year. All it takes is a bit of commitment (and a Zwift subscription....)

Well done mate, I think it was pretty clear you were going to be going up to expert by the time the second national was done!

I have one more race to go next weekend, last of the welsh series. Not even touched my mtb since the welsh champs over a month ago, not even cleaned it (though it only had a slight sprinkling of dust after that one). Guess I better take it for a spin. Kind of lost excitement for xc racing a bit after the champs and am really thinking about cx now. Can't see me doing well as planning a hard training week this week. Have an outside chance of a series podium (currently in third), but the two behind me have done one less race and beaten me both times so I don't think its likely, and we have such a small number that do most races in the series its more a podium by default.

r8jimbob88

Brilliant work mate, both on the bike and in your reports. Thank you.

first race for over 2 years, 8/28 in the lbs summer cx series, mixed cats/mixed bikes - did it on the mtb, everyone loves an action pic

Open with Stepcast - that's got to be a light bike!

FWIW I'm glad I didn't go down that route - much as I love the frame and weight I couldn't get past the HA. I wonder now if the Procaliber etc will have eaten into Open's market with sub 1kg frames.

Last race of my season today. Was third for pretty much the whole race till David jey that occasionally frequents on here pipped me in the last 150yards to get third by a couple of seconds. Pretty gutted, probably my only chance of a podium all year 😆 made too many mistakes though so can't complain course was taped but had no arrows and lots of sharp turns off fireroads when I went the wrong way twice in the first two laps 😳 also managed to Crash and tactically didn't realise how close David was to me at the end.

Not sure I'll bother with the Welsh series next year, should be pleased with fourth but as only 6-7 racing in sport doesn't feel good at all, would rather travel further and race proper fields. Also last race of the series and think I was top three in the series but a) as so few people did enough races seems pretty arbitrary and b) they didn't bother with series podiums so not sure why I bothered driving around Wales to get my four. Hasten to add I'm not complaining about the guys putting on the races or the commissaires who organise but just think xc is dying in Wales.

Question is what to do, just nationals? A few random speciality events? Or just do a proper base and build to focus on 'cross

I'm targeting 'cross so just did a mtb marathon every six weeks or so to keep motivation up over the summer. Worked really well and haven't suffered from that ground down feeling you get at the end of an xc campaign.

Turns out it wasnt even a couple of seconds.. chip timing has us on the same second! still he only won a towel so I'm not that disappointed, last time i was in the top three I won beer!

Got an email with a survey through from WC about the series so I'm hoping they will look at ways of boosting participation next year.

Anyone interested in a rider for pairs/team at BBD? I currently have a solo 50+ but I don't think its realistic for me to do this given my recent illness.

Still pretty fit just can't do 6hrs.

I'm nearly finished my season now and it's been great to meet a few of the guys on here and cheer them on in races, share the highs and some of the lows (ferrals, jimbob, especially), I didn't quite hit my XC aspirations (so far, one to go) of top ten nationally, I think my lack of experience works against me in shorter races where really, really good technical skills are essential. My best so far is 12th in National XC and several 4th and 5th in Midlands. I started mtb'ing at 45 years old and only raced as a grand vet for a few years so I'm slowly picking up the skills, very slowly!

I do seem to be better at longer events and managed to win the V50/grand vet National Championship on Sunday after 6 hours and 40 minutes of pain and suffering where I managed to ascend and descent 10,800ft, brutal course but great for me.

If you have a spare half hour to read the race report, it's here with pictures and I'll put the words below:

Race report, National MTB Marathon Championships, Isle of Man, 2017.

It was with some trepidation that Marc, Stuart and team friend Richard Gregory set off for the Isle of Man for the Marathon Championships. The event had been billed as the ‘toughest ever’ MTB marathon and the Championship event was to be held over 100km but including nearly 11,000 feet of ascent, or to put it another way – for every 6 miles you ride you’d have to climb 1,000 feet and descent 1,000 feet, over ten times!

We travelled on the Friday, taking nearly 11 hours door to door by the time we’d negotiated the ferry. The plan was to have Saturday free to sort bikes and do a quick course recce. Morning arrived and it was pleasantly not raining (– rain had been forecast off and on for the whole weekend) so we loaded up and headed out for a short recce. When we came to unload the bikes on the famous road at the top of the mountain where the TT runs we were immediately hit by the incredibly strong wind and the fact that it was freezing compared to sea level. This was looking like less and less fun for the race!

I think we managed to pick the only bit on the course with a road and smooth bridleway to recce and this gave us a nice one hour loop to loosen the legs. Due to the 6.30am race start time we had a very early meal, signed on, went to the race briefing and then in bed for 8.30, not your usual Saturday night on the Isle of Man!

Race day morning came and breakfast was the usual early start hotel room fair at 5am with muesli, two porridge pots, eggs boiled in the kettle and couple of mini sausages, at this point I could hardly move far less race but I knew it would be a long day and had to make sure I had enough fuel in the tank.

The Marathon Championships was being combined with a sportive event so it meant that around 250 riders were lined up at the TT grandstand for the off. We had the first 3 km’s neutralised with a full police escort out of town before we got down to the serious business of racing. My strategy had been to ride at a very consistent pace and not get carried away by pushing too hard, especially in the early phase of a 6+ hour race, this can be disastrous. However, all good plans have to be modified slightly. As I sat in the main pack, the pace ramped up for the first few miles and when we hit the first climb I realised half way up that if I kept trying to hang on to the front runners then I would be in serious bother as my heart rate and power levels were both getting into the red. I opted for the sensible option at that point and backed off to my prescribed power output level on climbs while watching heart rate and making sure it never went higher than zone 4.

At this point I had no idea how many riders in my category were ahead of me but I did count three at least come past me on the first major climb of the day which did not impress me much as I knew I could not sustain the pace that these guys were setting over the full race distance. At this point I was riding with Nigel Gregory who also races XC and is a regular top 10 finisher at National level so I knew I was in good company. We rode virtually the whole of the first 50km together, yo-yoing slightly on position depending upon the terrain. It was also evident that we were starting to catch up other riders by the time we were getting to the second feed stop at 50km, we’d been riding for just over three hours at this point. The terrain we were riding over was pretty extreme, the climbs went from sea level to 1,500 feet and then straight back down again, the first descent was harder on the body than the climb itself due to the amount of loose rocks and steepness, I felt absolutely exhausted at the bottom, just to head straight back up another one again!

Nigel and I headed into the second feed stop and timecheck riding together but he had a disaster and could not find his bag of supplies, now, as good a friend as Nigel is, it’s still a race and he’s in my category so I legged it out of the feed stop as fast as possible, determined to open up a reasonable gap and got back into my game plan of riding to power output which seemed to be working well.

At this point I think we had passed another rider in my category but could not be sure. I could definitely see the next guy ahead on one of the long climbs (they were all long climbs!) as he had a bright green top on. It took me about another 15-20 minutes of climbing to catch him and I tried to make sure I went past him quickly enough that he did not latch on. At this point, and 60km in, I thought I might be in the top three possibly but knew Nigel would be pushing hard to catch me after his delay.

I could see two riders ahead of me on the next long climb up to the third feed station. I was slowly catching them but it was taking a long time to close the gap and although the strategy had been to work to a set power output it was really starting to hurt maintaining a constant effort level on the steep and rocky climbs we were being taken over. I caught the two guys at about 70 km, just before the third feed stop and realised it was Chris Green who had passed me earlier and one of the favourites for the race in the V50 category. We headed off down the part we’d recce’d the day before on the only bit of tarmac and with the wind behind we were hitting speeds of 50mph. We got to a sharp climb and I tried to keep the momentum going but Chris attacked hard and I had to let him go as I would have had to go into the red again to stay with him. After the pleasure of the tailwind we soon turned round into the wind again to grind up yet another long climb and I managed to get back on terms with him at the top. At this point we dived down a steep descent and it was the only part of the course where you could see riders ahead than had completed the now familiar ‘down to sea level and back up to 1,500ft’ scenario. Amazingly enough, here’s Marc heading the other way, he just had enough time to tell me how brutal the last climb was! – Thanks Marc, that did not help me!

I tried to stay on terms with Chris down the descent but lost the front of the bike on wet grass and went down hard on my left side, thankfully no damage done just a bit shaken up. Back down at sea level again and I pushed really hard to catch Chris again on the only flat section that must have been all of three miles before the final feed stop and then up the last monster climb.

We hit the feed stop together and much to Chris’s dismay I did not stop but rode straight through, I sensed it might be close and had loaded up with extra at the last stop to avoid the 30 or 40 second delay from picking up more food and drink here.

The first part of the final climb was a pretty constant 15-20% gradient on a tarmac road heading onto gravel. I kept my head down and tried to keep to the prescribed wattage which was becoming harder to maintain as we were now about 6 hours into the race; I just focussed on the numbers and keeping a smooth cadence. One of the great things about the 2017 Top Fuel is the Sram Eagle gearing, I was running a 32/50 lowest gear that allowed me to spin at a reasonable cadence up most of the hills which helps control fatigue levels massively.

I reckoned I was about half way up the final climb when I had to stop for yet another gate. I had a quick look back and there was Chris only 40 meters behind. He must have pushed really hard to close the gap as I had really given it everything so far. This was the deciding point of what happens next. Another 30 minutes of agony and completely turn myself inside out or back off for what would still be a good, possible medal position? Decision made, up the wattage to over 300w and see how long I can hang on for. I absolutely hammered it as hard as I could for the rest of the climb and I could see the gap was opening again only to find that what I thought was the top was not actually the top and there was a whole load of technical, unrideable, scrambling to be done over another couple of false summits before heading down! Great I thought, the last descent will be really good, nice flowing single track into the finish, how wrong was I! It was another bog-fest descent on stream beds and with huge ruts, at this point I could not see Chris but reckoned he was pretty close and I had to keep pushing, I caught my front wheel badly in a rut and went down on my right hand side, just to even things up a bit! Thankfully I landed in a nice soft, wet bog so no harm down.

I kept pushing as hard as I could, taking as many risks as I thought reasonable to hit the finish arena still clear, only backing off 50 yards from the line when I knew I was safe. I was utterly exhausted. I had suffered a small amount of leg cramps and stomach cramps in the last 30km but thankfully they had not become too bad. Marc had waited at the finish for me after finishing third in Vets which put him on the podium again in a highly competitive field. I had no idea where I had come but was starting to hear rumours that I was first in for the V50 Grand Vet category which I could not believe, stuff like that does not happen to me!

I went to the timing hut to find out and YES, I was National Champion, unbelievable! I never thought something like this could happen, especially having just started mountain bike racing a couple of season before.

I think Marc was grinning more than me at this point, both of us still unable to take it in. I know people spend a lot of time thanking everyone at this point but I do know that without using Marc’s strategy that he has developed for riding marathon events and fine-tuned with our coach, Jenny Copnall, I would not have been able to ride such a consistent race.

I also know that without having all the support we do from Andrew and Tracey and the team at Cotswold Cycles and Trek, the support from Tony and Adrian at WNT, Nicholas from Cutts of Campden, the guys at Halt who cheer us on at the races from their trade stand and Emma at Bexson Chiropractic for straightening me out, I would not be riding in such good kit, on a bike that is perfect for this type of racing and in good form. Lastly, if it was not for Don dragging me over all those bloom’in hills on training rides that I would have avoided if left to my own devices I would not have had the conditioning to get through 6 hours and 40 minutes of climbing and descending on some of the most severe terrain that the UK has to offer. Thank you.

Fantastic Iain! Well done! Good write up too

Well done with the Champs. I did the 100km open event and it is always a tough day out, even if the weather was calmish.

Well done, great result. It's a tough course for sure - I managed to complete the 100m version last year, just about dragged myself round.

Thanks, I could not imagine how tough the 100 mile event would be!

Very well done! That course is really tough - to race it brings a real risk of blowing up and not finishing.

hi all, did my first ever race the other week at the nationals at cannock. Coming from a motocross racing background i knew id get the bug! It seems that the 'season' is ending mostly know though so im struggling to find another other than the FNSS which is reasonably local to me. im based around derby and don't really want to travel over 2 hours at this point! Any body know of anymore races? id like to do another before i decide if to commit to it next year! Thanks

FNSS is probably your best option, have a look at events on the British cycling website and it will list everything that's going on.

Not quite XC,

But got back on Sunday from the Sudety mtb stage race in Poland. Raced with my partner.
Prologue plus 5 stages. 350km and 11000m of climbing.

A good hard week on the bike. Prologue was an exciting short and fast 4.5km loop in the park.
Day 1 was 80km of fireroad and tarmac. By the end of the day we wondered if we'd made a mistake and signed up for a gravel smash fest!

But trails improved throughout the week. Some exciting wet sections had lots of Riders running down the hills.
Overall a good race. More singletrack as the week went on, and a few savage hike a bike sections too.

Would recommend it to others if seeking that sort of race.

Congratulations Iain. Having dipped my toe into marathon racing this year I know how hard it is.
Enjoyed reading about your strategy. As a repeat offender of the trying to keep up with the front guys even when my hr is through the roof, I need to hear stories like this. (Although it did pay off at a Scott marathon in Wantage where the course was flat enough to draft a bit)

Notice the western league in Bristol and surrounding area has a new website. All dates are up

https://www.westerncx.net/dates/

Rollindonut - thanks, it's so important to not use 'all your matches' on the first few climbs or you just grind to a halt before the finish. A power meter is the best thing you can have for a race like that but HR will work ok, you just have to be aware that it will drop with fatigue through the race. I tried to aim for 260-280 watts for all the climbs, never going over 300 watts after the initial start. It allowed me to still have enough left to go higher on the last climb when I had to. Always stick to the plan and know what you are capable off over the distance.

How did you get on in Builth Iain? (and anyone else that went)

Somewhat regretting not entering when my Saturday turned into an ikea furntiure assembly line 😆

Hi Ferrals, Builth started off as a nightmare with all those bloody man-made techy bits added, turned up on Saturday in the pouring rain and could barely keep the bike upright, only did the rock garden and gap jump as a lines and gave up after one lap!

Sunday was dry so managed to get enough courage up to do the big drop off plus all the others I had not done and they were okay. Finished 9th in the race which I was pleased about, no legs or head left after the marathon champs last week! The course was dry and rode really well, did all the a lines apart from the rock garden on the last lap as I was a bit 'wobbly' by then and having started a new job a few weeks ago, I was keen to stay upright and unbroken!

So, if you were racing Sport then good decision not to do it! But Sunday racing was good fun.

We were at Builth. Sad to say the infamous launch pad claimed more serious victims both days before they lowered it. I think the issue with that kind of feature is there are only two outcomes - clean it or crash with broken bones and concussion. No chance to bail, dab or jump off.

Alison had a good race - 3 vet wins out of 3 NPS races. Just frustrated she couldn't get it together at the national champs. Boy happy with his ride and all home in one piece.

I see STW report is another verbatim reprint of the BC write up with no mention of anyone but elite....

Well done both. I saw on the photos they'd lowered that launch pad, agree its a bit of a do or die feature, shame to hear more injuries.

turned up on Saturday in the pouring rain and could barely keep the bike upright...racing Sport then good decision not to do it

Good to here, nice and sunny at home 😀

edit, yeah shame from STW re. the coverage, surely they could get a few snippets from people... they could probably cobble together something better next year for the races just stripping bits out of this thread! Guess we could offer to try and put reports together as a collective effort?!

Ferrals, I only took on that drop once they'd lowered it, no chance of me going over it in the higher position for the reasons well stated by mick.

Getting a better write up would be good, I have a friend on the BC XC commission and will ask her if they could cover at least some of the other races.

What I found weird about that drop at the welsh was at the lower position you could ride over without even thinking, but even though the height raise was only a foot or so, in the higher position there was no way in hell i was going near it 😆
think its the chnage in angle of te take off rather than the actual increase in drop

Crikey the overall national standings are close! I was 5th a few weeks back. Now i've sunk into 12th! Top 15 get shifted into Expert next year. I know there's a few races left before final standings are more or less stable too.

Couple of rounds of the Mud, Sweat and Gears and 3 rounds of the Scottish Series I think are left. Whilst I didn't set out to fight specificaly to get into Expert next year it was a nice thought and did look likely at one point! Now i'm not so sure!

Kind of kicking myself for bailing on the last National round. My bike is stripped with no wheels at present either eek! I had no itention of doing any more racing this year. I'd rather not chase easier races for easy points knowing that I won't be racing those easier races next year.

Sport or Expert next year makes no odds to me. I've almost got my training plan sorted which I hope will make me a faster me.

Only worth doing more if you have some in your top 8 that you think are easy to improve on though surely? If you have 8 good ones just wait and see!

Amusingly at the moment I'm the same ranking this year having done only 6 as i was last year having done over 8 races.

The worst of my top 8 results is a 9th. All races left are only standard regional points so I'd need to finish pretty damn strong to make it worthwhile!

Just to whinge and let off some steam. Got to Verbier, feeling reasonably confident, or at least as confident as you can when faced with a gentle 120km jaunt through the Swiss Alps, wake up this morning with a f************ cold. So got a week to get this cold out of the system and acclimatise as best i can.

Oh well. such is life i guess.

Indeed mrmo, hope it clears in time.

My seasons continues from high to low, it seems either I do well or a DNF! Was leading the last race only to get another odd punture and unable to repair it to continue 🙄

Never had punctures whilst racing for many many years, and now 2 only this year is odd for me. Currently come down with a cold so training on hold, next race is on the 27th August so have a week now to shift it, hopefully!

I finished off my XC season for the year by taking on Torq 12:12 12hr solo last weekend down at Minley Manor.

The course was excellent, not a climby as Mayhem but IMHO a damn site harder due to the amount of single track and all the roots.

I did a practice lap in the morning with my team mate and tried to make a judgement of race pace etc and a vague guess at how many laps would see me into a decent position.

It started pretty well, with good consistent lap times and about 5 laps in I started to struggle as for some reason my feet started killing me, a change of shoes on the 2nd lap of pain and some paracetamol and things came back; unfortunately I'd lost over 15 minutes on those 2 laps and dropped a place. After the shoe change, the lap times came down straight away, back to what I was lapping at previously and I kept that going to the end.

I came in 5th overall in Vets and 17th overall in 12hr solo which considering the distinct lack of endurance type riding I've done since Mayhem I was pretty happy with.

The photos are courtesy of a chap called Marcus on Flickr

[url= https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4436/36560135220_5dfc3c8817_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4436/36560135220_5dfc3c8817_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/XGGfsY ]36862274365_d2ae888df5_o[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/140228292@N02/ ]Steve Bowman[/url], on Flickr

[url= https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4438/36560136860_6ff1d02d6b_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4438/36560136860_6ff1d02d6b_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/XGGfXf ]36035822693_3beff59a13_o[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/140228292@N02/ ]Steve Bowman[/url], on Flickr

Well CX is more or less here. I've signed up to TrainingPeaks and have a winter training plan to get started on from the end of this month. Following my last race I took 2-3 weeks almost entirely off with just a couple of rides.

My mojo has come back big time and i've put 15+ hours in during the last week alone! I feel refreshed and ready to go again. In hindsight I should have taken a similar break and toned it down mid season as I'm sure it would have put me in a strong position for the last few races and more importantly the last National round that I missed.

So next Saturday and Sunday I'll be tip toeing around some of the CX courses as part of the North West CCA legaue. I cant dismount and re-mount for toffee. This is going to be interesting!

I rode the 2nd last round of the X-cup last Sunday, luckily I avoided any mechanical problems this time and took the win 8)

The biggest challenge was the mud, goodness, never raced in anything like that before. I had to run up most steep ups (CX training has started 😆 )and tri-sledge the downs, madness, some of the less abled were sliding down the hills on their backside 😮

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Final round is on the 16th Sept.

Well, thats my season done. A Fraught weekend after discovering a blown seal on my forks yesterday afternoon. Changed forks adding 120's so the geo was wrong but i wanted the lighter bike as its a climbers course (Langdon hills).

Felt a bit "meh" this morning after wondering all week if i would inherit the kids colds and im bordering an a top 20 eastern region league placing.

So, the start arrived, whistle and BANG - my chain snapped. FFS. I had half a mind to jack it in but knowing this would effect my league placing i sat on the grass (after being held for the GV's to start) remive the bent links and added the split link i luckily carry in my race "bundle" So i started with 7 mins deficit, eventually made up six places to 23rd on a gruelling course. Lap times revealed i was faster than 7 riders in front of me but i couldnt catch them.

Ah well, ill wait for the season league results to be published and see where im at but this is a huge Improvement after finishing 31st year 1', 26th year 2 and hopefully, 18, 19 or 20 this year.

Onwards to winter training!

One more race of the mtb season for me. After a road race last weekend I took part in the local mtb marathon today. As this part of Germany is devoid of any mountains I decided to give the Crux a run before the cross season starts as the course is distinctly gravel bikeish. I was riding on tubs so had to pump them up rock hard to try and mitigate a puncture which would have ended my day and made a long 15km walk home. Managed to podium in third place and all three of us were in the masters 2 age cat (40-50). We beat all the young guns! So next week it's off to some real mountains in Arnstadt (home of Marcel Kittel) and then a couple of weeks to prepare for the cross season which begins in the second week in Oct.

Kryton57, that was me on the whistle today at Langdon, I quite liked the cheer you got when you did get rolling, kudos for getting your head down and catching riders on a tough lap

*waves*

Thanks for helping out with the event. Yeah, i was thankful for the recognition. Never has fixing a chain (in 7 minutes) felt so long.

I just didnt want to finish last. Pride etc.

At least you had the best of the conditions, this morning would have been nasty for staging a fight back. Not been too Langdon for a couple of years and enjoyed the day, great too she a lot of new and old faces racing at MSG.

A couple of people broke chains so you weren't alone. All the best for the winter races.

I quite fancy entering some races next year, but not sure that these short sprint efforts are my bag.

Are there any 'marathon' races in scotland worth looking into? I'm thinking around the 40 - 50 mile mark?

Bad luck that Kryton but kudos for fixing it and finishing.

And that's my MTB season finished with the last round of the X-cup last Saturday at Orup, Höör. Heavy rain in the morning again turned the course into a bog in the muddy sections, combined with the lots of roots and rocks it made for a tough race, very technical and slippy.

After a good start I managed to break away at the lead after the first lap but was then reeled in by Andreas and couldn't break away again. Well, not until the last quarter till the finish when I used a back marker passing opportunity to jump and managed to hold a 4 sec gap till the finish line.

So very happy with the win again in Start 2, question for next year is whether this old man should go up to Start 1 to compete with the best racers in Southern Sweden. Looking at the overall results I placed 31st last Saturday, so I think maybe with my new winter plan this year I could be placing top 20 next year, all things going well. Maybe it's best to race Start 1 and have tough competition to push me harder, but is nice to be winning in Start 2 😆

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Now to the CX season, quite short in Southern Sweden but I'm on the TrainerRoad CX plan and will race as much as possible 8)

my chain snapped

SNAP! Me too! Properly gutted, I was pretty happy at the front of the elites, about 2/3rds into the first lap. I almost always carry a chain tool, but as it was the last race I figured 'all or nothing' and left it in the kit bag 🙁 Ran/scooted the rest of the lap, then borrowed a tool at the pits. Promptly blew myself up going off too hard afterwards, then seriously lacked motivation to push for the rest.

Weirdly I really enjoyed the riding though, and got back up to 5th elite/expert so not a complete waste of a day.

Kudos to Kryton for getting on with it, must be even worse having it snap on the start line.

Well done Kryton and Paddy for not giving up, at least us morning riders packed down the course for you guys. I went off in 2nd hit the first hill and really wished I had changed my chainring from a 34 to 32 i was going nowhere, I just rode to finish in the end and stay upright in the mud, came 16th. Had a proper dodgy tripod moment all the way down the A line 2nd lap and kneed to stem so today my knee is killing me.

wished I had changed my chainring from a 34

I rode 34 oval. My legs are reminding me of that this morning, although it seemed to help with grip on the hill as I was using the same Ralph I've been using since March..

Promptly blew myself up going off too hard afterwards

It was a tough course. I went too hard early on and had to slow down. Then dropped my chain before getting it together again with 4 laps to go.

It was my first XC race since may so it was a shock to the system.