Mull seems like a very very long time ago. Many beers and mince pies have passed over my lips since then, and not many rides to compensate! So Sunday’s race at Rouken Glen in Glasgow came as a bit of a shock to the system.
The Super Quaich series takes on a different format than the Scottish Series as it’s made up of an A and B race with every man and his dog being put in whichever group reflects their past results in cx races and other events. It’s also a longer race than normal with an advertised 55 mins plus a lap. Pfft..what could possibly go wrong?!
A LOT of snow had fallen on Saturday night and as we drove along the M8 I wondered if skis would be more suitable than wheels for the race. Apparently TLI races never get cancelled. It seems that anything goes and with ice and thick snow on the ground the normal challenges of a cx race seemed like a distant memory.
We arrived in what we thought was plenty time and I headed over to the race area with Jac Marquis. When we still hadn’t arrived after 10 minutes of trudging through thick snow and icy paths I started to get a bit anxious. I had stupidly scoffed at warnings that “the race area is really far away”…it was!
The long queue at the sign on gave me a chance to catch up with friends, all of whom shared the same trepidation as me. The words ‘mental’ and ‘carnage’ were being thrown around freely and my nerves were growing. Finally with my race number, timing chip and strawberry waffles clutched tightly in my frozen hands I made a mad dash back over to the van to get changed. I got back to the race area with a whopping 10 minutes to spare. Maybe I’d miss the start of the race and I’d have to skulk off to the garden centre cafe to eat scones and drink tea and consider my cx future. ‘Luckily’ Maddy Robinson saw me looking lost and shouted that I needed to get to the start area NOW! I had no clue where it was so Ian Dunlop kindly escorted me up a very slippy path that joined onto a well gritted road leading downhill to the start line. Damn it…the scones would have to wait! I had a few minutes to get my warm layers off and let some more air out of my tyres before the claxon was sounded. The ominous silence was replaced by the noise of pedals being clipped in and folk shouting as they touched wheels with the riders in front. Up hill through the snow covered trees we rode, then left into the woods and the craziness was underway!
This is one occasion where I’m glad I hadn’t had time to pre ride the course, cause if I had I might not have started the race! It was slow going for the first few minutes as 85 of us made our way through single track into the open, but that suited me. When we finally came out of the woods I was faced with white, compressed slippy snow. Never mind skis… I needed ice skates! I immediately knew my tyre pressure was too high and I should have stopped and let some out early on, but I didn’t so I spent the rest of the race skidding around on top of the ice like Bambi!
I’m not great at remembering my races and what happened when, but what I do know is I was holding things together pretty well for the first half an hour despite the conditions. I was riding close behind team mate Jac which is where I usually am in races, so I was happy enough. My legs felt ok as I’d spent a week off the bike with a cold, but my chest was tight and I was coughing quite a bit as the Arctic air entered my lungs. At one corner I heard someone shouting and looked up to see a rider who’d stopped to warn us that 4 people had just fallen there. No sooner were the words out of her mouth than I made it 5! That was the point when I lost 2 things…the little group I was with and the will to live!
The extra race time was catching up with me too and as I grovelled up the muddy rise to the road section for the 5th time I was feeling shattered. I’ve always said I’ll only DNF if I have a mechanical or a bad crash otherwise I will try my best to finish, but during this race I did think about throwing in the towel. It was the first race where I made a conscious effort to slow down in the hope that the winners would lap me a couple of times so I could finish early.
Finally after what seemed like an eternity I passed the finish line for the bell and I knew I just had to get round one more time (hooray!) I reached the switchbacks and probably should have jumped off my bike and walked them as the snow had given way to extremely greasy grass, but normally I can ride corners really well so I persevered. Smack! A combination of bad riding and tiredness meant that on the last turn I took a really hard fall and landed on my elbow and then my head. I heard a cracking sound from my shoulder, felt a sharp pain and feared the worst. Several riders checked I was ok which is part of why I love cx racing, but luckily it was only my pride that was injured and I managed the pedal of shame back to the finish.
It wasn’t until later, when I was sitting in the comfort of my own home with a beer in my hand watching the cx World Cup on the tv, that I realised it wasn’t the race itself that was the problem. Albannach put on a cracker of an event. So many nice touches like marshalls in magenta bobble hats instead of lumo vests and beer mats being handed out that you could exchange for real live beer at the finish. The course itself was cx at it’s best, a real Belgian style course and if it wasn’t for the snow and ice I’d probably have had a blast. The problem was me…not fit enough for the 1 hr 10 minutes that it finally took me to complete the race and not savvy enough to know my tyres were too hard for the conditions. Amateur! But hey…that’s exactly what I am.
The important thing for me is that my poor performance at RGCX didn’t put me off, instead it has spurred me on. There’s very little I can do to improve myself for next Sunday at Doonbank and even at the 2 races in February I’m likely to finish at the back of the field again, but I can improve my attitude and go to the next 3 races with the aim of enjoying the experience. And the good news is the new season is only 9 months away and what I say is…bring it on!
crosslove 
Go Elisa!
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