Welsh Cyclocross League Round 9: Gilwern Outdoor Centre, Abergavenny

After a weekend off, the final third of the season begins with a short drive to Gilwern near Abergavenny, the first of four races in five weeks before the end of the Welsh League.
Mud was on the agenda before I even got on the bike; access to the car park was through a muddy field which required momentum and commitment to get the car through without getting stuck! Fortunately us cyclocrossers are comfortable with sliding through the mud, just normally on only two wheels. I raced here last year, and found the course similar: quite technical, with a fast descent and a long muddy climb each lap. I didn’t go particularly well here last year; and I had a feeling that, like Newtown, I was going to lose out to the people who were faster in the technical sections than me. Looking around as we lined up before the start, I also noticed that this was a very strong field, with all the main Welsh League protagonists in attendance plus a few strong English riders making guest appearances from over the border. This was going to be a tough one then. I got a good start this week and made sure I moved up before we hit the first corner. I then spent the first couple of laps drifting back down the pecking order: sure enough I was losing time in the twisty, slippery sections of the course, and on the fast muddy downhill through the woods. I settled in though, and made up what time I could on the power sections and the climb. Although I rode it in practice, this climb was definitely quicker to run, and the preceding 100 metres was so muddy that it made sense to dismount for that too, pick the bike up and run the whole section. This made for a total of about 1 minute of running each lap - suddenly those running intervals I’d been doing in training all autumn seemed worth it.

Carrying a perfectly rideable bicycle up a hill. Photo by Behnaz Dye.

As the race went on, much of the surface evolved from slippery grass to more playdough-like mud. This suited me more - there was more grip so less tiptoeing round corners, and the energy-sapping surface was hurting some of those I was racing more than it was hurting me. I went into the last lap just behind two riders I’d been with for all of the second half of the race, and my strategy was clear: stay as close to them as possible through the twisty sections (where they were both a little quicker than me), and then go 100% from the bottom of the climb, as the finish line was only a short stretch of tarmac beyond this. No longer interested in bike preservation, I rode the first of the mud this time, overtaking one rider in the process, and then ran full gas up the climb to pass the other. I was deep into the red at the top, but a glance over my shoulder as I turned onto the tarmac straight to the finish showed I had got the gap I needed. I finished 23rd.