Good old Pembrey. Butting up almost to the beach on firm, sandy and well-draining ground, this course always makes a change from mud. It's also pretty flat and open, so is usually a bit of criterium on dirt, favouring those with the biggest legs.
I arrived to good weather - sunny and mild for the time of year. Mind you I suppose some people would argue that's not good weather for cyclocross! The course was a bit more twisty and technical than previous years, but still very fast.
Practice and warm up done, I overheard one of the marshals remarking on the size of the field - 165 riders had signed on, smashing the previous record for the league, itself set only a few rounds ago. As we rolled to the start it was obvious that this was going to mean some stiff competition: as well as all the usual suspects, I was gridded next to Steve James, a rider who is up the pointy end of National Trophy races (and due to ride the World Cup at Milton Keynes the following week). Probably not someone I was going to beat into the first corner, or at all.
Remedial cyclocross tip 101: if you forget to start your Garmin and only realise this after the commissaire has said "I'll start you in the next ten seconds", this is not the right time to start fiddling with it. Consequently not the best start of my life, down in 40th place or so into the first bend. But who should I see leading the field as I look ahead? Yep, the man who started next to me on the third row, Steve James (who went on to win the race).
I picked a few riders off in the first half lap or so, but after that each position gained, or defended, was a struggle. By the nature of the course, there is a lot of time spent pedalling flat out, and aware I had not made the best start I was trying to wring out every bit of speed I could and accelerate as hard as possible out of each bend. I found myself in a fight for position with one rider or another for most of the race; wheel-to-wheel racing like this is great, but I seemed to be the one getting gapped more often than creating a gap! It also meant I'd been riding at 100% pretty much continuously since the start, as there was very little rest anywhere on the course. Therefore when I found myself alone with about three laps to go, I did seem to back off a bit, and even thought that I might blow up completely, something that has never happened to me in a 'cross race before.
As I started my bell lap I had another rider in sight up ahead, so it was back to full throttle for one more lap. I managed to close the gap, and create a small gap of a handful of seconds, but I had to work hard all the way to the line to stay ahead.
Apart from a less-than-perfect start I had ridden hard and mistake-free all race, but I had a feeling I was further down the field than normal, especially given the large turnout. Indeed, the results revealed that I'd only placed 33rd. Somewhat disheartening when you know you couldn't have tried any harder.
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