Island Games Mtb Criterium Race 2011

If anyone came to watch the Island Games Mountain Bike Criterium Race this afternoon and thought the course looked hard - It was! So was the competition; with quite a few professional and semi professional riders from Guernsey and The Isle of Man.

I'm happy with my result though: 19th overall and the second fastest Isle of Wight rider behind Sean Williams who came in 10th.

Click here for: Results

The Course

The course composed of a long sprint and series of switch backs through a grassy section on the top of Fore/Cheverton Down, it then plummeted down the side of the down towards Cheverton Aggregates Quarry and took a tricky right hand bend at the bottom of the downhill - a challenge when you we hitting the shale/broken clay pigeon strewn corner at close to 30mph. There was then a sink hole that you drop down into and back out before beginning the short, sharp ascent back up through some singletrack to the top of the down. The Men's course was 50mins, plus 1 lap - and you certainly felt every one of those minutes!

The Race

Onto the race itself: We had a short delay at the start as they changed the course from the women's event. Then it was a sprint off the line; my start wasn't great, but I was able to just hang onto the main pack as we headed through the grassy section of the course. After a while the pack splintered and I was left with four other riders from Jersey, Shetland Isles, Faroe Isles and the Isle of Man. For the majority of the race we stuck together, no one seemed willing to make the effort to jump back to the main pack, so we remained about half a lap behind (each lap was about 4.5mins). As we went into the final few laps I managed to break away from all but the Isle of Man rider, who without me knowing (I was at the back of the four man group) broke free on the penultimate lap and took 18th in front of me.

At the front of the race Team Guernsey controlled from start to finish - chasing down any potential breakaways and taking all the podium spots. It was impressive to watch, they raced perfectly and all credit to them deserved to win, though it's hard to pit yourself against semi-professionals that are able to train for hours each day.

The race was definitely a 'suffer-fest'; for the first time in a long while I felt absolutely mentally and physically exhausted at the end, not wanting to eat anything and feeling quite physically sick. Perhaps the grimace in this photo gives an idea of that:

Despite that, this was probably the most enjoyable race I have ever done. I have to thank Bill Pewsey and Sean Williams for their great effort in organising it, and I'm sure the XC race on Friday will be an equal success.

I'm looking forward to going to watch a bit of Windsurfing and the Road Race tomorrow, and will keep the blog updated as I head towards Friday's race.

Hope you are all enjoying the Games too.

Rampage XC Race 19/06/2011

As I had to head back up to uni to pick up my masses of kit, it seemed like a good opportunity to find an XC race to do as a bit of practice for the Island Games which is less than a week away now. The Rampage XC event in Checkendon seemed to fit the bill and would serve as a useful bit of practice for starts etc..

I certainly learnt a lot, put it that way. My start wasn't great and there is little time to jostle for position before you are into a long section of single track with little opportunity to overtake. Unfortunately my poor start landed me in a rather slow group heading into the single track and I couldn't break out of it until about halfway round the course. By that time the front group had really broken away out of sight and I was left riding the majority of the course solo between the two packs - not the best situation for pacing or challenging yourself.

The course itself was interesting - masses of very technical single track and not a hill in sight. That in itself didn't really suit my riding style. Having had 10weeks of not riding a mountain bike my single-track skills were a little rusty to say the least, and without a big climb to push myself on, I found I couldn't really go flat out and still had juice to burn at the end of the race.

Having said all that, it was great fun and a well organised event. It served its purpose of testing out the bike and understanding starts very well: basically get to the front f**king quick and stay there until you hit the single-track.

Luckily the Island Games course is quite open for the first section so there is plenty of opportunity to spread the field out before we hit the single track; which hopefully will play to my advantage. I'm on the training taper down to the event now and feeling reasonably good about getting a respectable result. The course is "bedding-in" nicely and I've been able to get out there to ride it a number of times. Another blog post soon as we get closer to the event....

The Island Games Course

I went out and rode a few laps of the XC course that has been made for the Island Games yesterday. With a Force6 headwind all the way out to Cheverton Farm I was pretty worn out already when I got there, but the course itself is certainly one that is going to leave no prisoners.

It starts at Cheverton Farm, on the Gatcombe road. From the start there is what I am sure will be a pack sprint for about 400meters until you turn up into some woods, here is where the fun begins. The woods are set on the side of Brighstone Down, and the course snakes its way up through the trees and then hairpin turns all the way down. Especially after yesterday and Wednesday's continuous rain, the ground was super greasy and on every turn and climb you had to work hard to stop the back-end drifting out; if it's like that during the race there are definitely going to be a few bike-engages-tree moments for those that don't know where the course goes exactly - could make for some exciting viewing for the spectators!

Crossing over into another set of woods the course then passes by the Cheverton Aggregates quarry before really ramping up as it heads up on to Brightone Down - the lung burning climb takes you through some fields and then onto some single track, and certainly promises to spread the riders out as they strain up the incline.

Once on top of the downs there is a loop down the southern side, promising another difficult climb as you head back up to the top. Another fast descent through the fields on the quarry side and another ascent back up, will leave all legs definitely weary. Luckily this then only leaves the fast downhill to the finish.This is a super-fast track that runs parallel to the Gatcombe road and sends us racing back into the arena at Cheverton Farm.

It's going to be an exciting course and potentially carnage at times. Either way it will be tough and certainly worth coming to watch if you get the chance.

Map of the Course available here: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/fullscreen/36771602/

Please note there is no public access to this course prior to the event, don't try and check it out yourself - The farmer will get angry! - I was only allowed a once round under special permission (and had to talk nicely to the sheep so that I didn't scare them).