We woke this morning. To glorious blue Baltic skies and crisp sea air. The camp long race is a world ranking event for the elite riders and reading the final bulletin I was glad to be only riding 1/2 of the elite men’s distance.
After lots of chatting and catching up with old friends I headed out, to be honest a little apprehensively towards the start. The route to 1, involved a slow climb option on a fire road which I took, avoiding the steepest of the climbs. I was feeling a little depressed as rider after rider overtook me. I wasn’t working that hard, trying to be careful with my back, but soon found the red mist coming up and starting to push the pedals a bit too much, particularly on the road section to 2. I paid for it straight away with an over the handlebars into a wet ditch and then after hauling myself up onto a fire road and relocating a realization I’d missed a track junction (my only real mistake of the course) which ended with me in a swamp splashing around in some brambles off track. I calmed down, enjoyed the sublime views of forests and little lakes, the low sun reflecting fantastic light through the trees and concentrated on a mistake free ride and the faster riders stopped worrying me.
Although a little muddy in places, some of the single tracks were great and I enjoyed my full sus Whyte E5 for the first time properly chucking it about. At the half way stage I was starting to feel tired and was temped to bin it but the 2nd part of the course was a little less hilly and all to soon I was rolling into download.
So no win today but to be honest that shows I am on the right course for my current capabilities and I am more than happy with 5th – 10 mins down on the old men.
