8 June 2014: Bristol Bikefest (6 hour mixed pairs), Ashton Court

Another race in a similar format to Erlestoke - how many laps of an XC course can you complete in a set time limit, either on your own or as part of a pairs or team relay.

With Angela back to fitness we were racing as a pair as planned, with no last minute changes to solo this time. Things did not quite start as planned though as I overslept and picked Angela up 45 minutes late! We still managed to get to Ashton Court with an hour to spare and managed to get everything done in time to make the start.

I was out first and, along with everyone else, had to complete a short run to my bike before riding up a fireroad climb and across the start line. This format is designed to spread everyone out on the first lap, a necessity at Ashton Court as it features lots of tight singletrack and it's crucial to not get stuck in too much traffic (I have had to stop and queue before on lap one in previous years). With that in mind, I ran fairly hard, collected my bike and then went up the climb at 100% to be as far up as I could into the first singletrack section. I know the course pretty well but I hadn't ridden it for a couple of years, and overnight rain had left it slippery in places so I took my time to being with as I relearned the lines.

I'd agree with Angela that to begin with I would do double laps and she would do singles. This gave me plenty of time to learn the course as I did four out of our first five laps! The overnight moisture disappeared and the course got grippier as the morning turned into afternoon. After two stints of around an hour each, with just half an hour in between to refuel and rehydrate, we switched to doing single laps each, to my relief as I'm not sure I could have kept up those efforts. Things were made more complicated in the last hour by the return of the rain; a couple of ten minute showers were enough to soak the course through again, and although the surface is hard and does not really get muddy, rocky sections were made slippery and treacherous. Angela did the last lap for us and she got the worst of the wet conditions; fortunately we were under no pressure from behind by this point and she made her way safely round to secure us 4th place in our category. Not bad but not quite the podium!