Welsh Cyclocross League Round 8: Trehafren Fields, Newtown

The fifth weekend of racing in a row. I was keen to get one more result in the bag but also looking forward to a weekend off. This was also the longest drive of the season: Newtown is just over 100 miles away, so I treated myself to a night in a bed and breakfast, an 8 o’clock alarm and someone else to prepare my pre-race breakfast. I’d heard the course here was quite technical, and indeed it was. The first half of the lap was a straightforward blast across flat parkland - albeit into a strong headwind, but the return leg meandered up and down a wooded hillside, featuring a long run up a flight of steps and a couple of rooty, muddy downhills in the woods that would not have looked out of place on a cross country course. Rain was forecast but never really arrived, but the course was coated with enough sticky mud and leaves to bring bike changes into play. Fortunately my team-mate Craig had made the trip from Cardiff as well, with Doug, his ever-present and helpful dad, who did a great job in the pits for me. The race started with the long straight grassy section, and the headwind made things reminiscent of a road race, as a large bunch sat in behind those who toiled on the front in the wind. I lost out in the first couple of pinch points, but got through lap one just about cleanly, surviving having someone directly behind me crashing on a technical section, hitting my back wheel hard but not doing any damage or taking me down with him. It soon became clear that, fun as it was, this was not a course that suited me all that well. I was getting round all the technical sections, but not as fast as the good bike handlers, and taking the ‘safe but slow’ lines on some sections. Several times I would chase down a gap of several seconds on the long straight into the wind, but then be unable to drop the rider I caught as he sheltered behind me out of the wind. The only time I was gaining was on the long run uphill. By the last couple of laps, I was on my own and happy just to maintain my position. Some sections of the course were by now very treacherous but I managed not to make any major mistakes (making some minor ones is OK, at least that way I know I can’t push any harder in the corners without falling off!). I crossed the line 19th on a bike very heavy with mud, despite have changed bike twice.