As forecast, SuperQuaich #1 was a mudfest. A proper mudfest. Maybe 20% of the course was faster to run than ride. Should’ve done less cycle training and more running training. Even with my Cunning Plan of being careful to avoid mud-build up and even taking time out to clear mud from the frame, by the last couple of laps I think my bike weighed double it’s normal clean weight. Which, when you’re carrying it for 20% of the lap, is a pretty substantial addition. Each time I came past the pits and saw someone emerging with a clean bike, I was rather jealous! I dropped my chain mid-race after the rider on front of me baled out on the camber entering the first field which lost some time (would’ve been more time, were it not for a kind spectator who pointed out why my chain-re-attaching efforts weren’t working).

No close battles this time, the tough conditions meant people were either going forward or backwards – although I noticed Brian McCutcheon once again me passing mid-race with his winning formula (he starts slower but stays consistent, whereas I start fast and then slow). But the course had plenty to keep the mind occupied. Amongst the muddy fields were some rideable uphills, some non-rideable uphills and fun offcambers. I enjoyed the couple of fast woodland excursions, and the short/sharp ups.

My lap times were around 10 minutes, which made the mental maths easy for a 1h race. Mid-race, I was lapped by Dave Duggan, Davie Lines etc, and so when I saw “2 laps to go” I thought there was a decent chance I might be caught by the leaders again before the end. And shortly after the hairpin near the end of the lap, I caught sight of Mr Duggan coming the other way. “Phew” I thought, he’ll pass me and this’ll be my last lap. However, as I got to the finishing straight, I looked behind and saw that he was still a decent way behind and consequently I was going to be one of the final people “lucky” enough to do an extra lap. Karma.

The group just ahead of me were pulling away, and there was noone now behind me, so it was a case of surviving the last lap with my mud-laden 20kg bike. I chased down a couple of riders, but turned out I was lapping them so didn’t gain any place. In the end, my final lap was a 16 minute epic (vs 10 minute first lap) so total race time was something like 1h16m – quite a shock to the system after the 40 minute SCX vet40 rounds!

In the end, I finished 58th out of 89 starters, 65th percentile. Almost exactly where I finished last year. On paper, that look lower than my other season results. But the “A race” has the fastest 100 people from across all age categories, so today I was racing against the best senior/vet40/vet50/females all together.

In races like this, it must be night-and-day between those who have one bike for the whole race vs those with two bikes and/or pit helpers. It was incredible how much mud + grass was stuck to my bike, how much weight and drag it added, and remarkable that it continued to function until the end of the race. Although, given the time it took to clean one bike afterwards, on balance perhaps it’s just as well I don’t have two!

Next weekend is the (delayed) SCX Strathclyde Country Park round. I like the course there, big hard climb then swoopy woodland section. After today’s race, it’d be nice if we didn’t have another mud-fest field to contend with, but given the recent weather that’s probably a bit of forlorn hope.

Plan for the week is a day of rest, a couple of Trainer Road sessions, and some Arthurs Seat loops to simulate the Big Red Climb of the next race. Last year’s Strathy Park was torrential rain, surely the weather can’t be any worse than that?!

It was a rather odd two weeks between rounds two and three. After the Irvine race, I literally could not walk for days and it was only through a lot of careful stretching and gentle exercise that I got back to a place where doing round 3 wasn’t insane. Happily, all went well in that regard and I managed the race at Dunfermline without any injury worries.

Dunfermline last year was a mudbath. This year, despite the sunny start to the day and short-sleeves weather, conditions underfoot were true to tradition meaning plenty of running, sideways drifting and horrible grindy noises from the chain.

I’ve switched to tubeless this year, which went well in the mud at round 1. For round 2, I switched back to faster tube’d tyres and when it came time to remount my tubeless mud tyres it was a really hassle getting them to seal. I didn’t understand it at the time, but subsequently I found that the rim tape was coming away near one of the offset spoke holes – ie. nothing to do with the bead at all. This was to play a part in my race day sadly!

Despite being at the course early, I elected to skip any sighting laps to keep my drivetrain clear of mud. This also meant I got to the grid nice and early and was something like 35th our of the 132 starters heading into the first few corners. The chaos corner was a 180 degree muddy offcamber. From watching the women’s race earlier, it was clear that the fastest way round was to dismount, flip the bike 180 degree, run the initial mud and then remount to ride the offcamber. Then you spilled out onto a short concrete section which was a nasty trap for the unwary – slick with mud and with a metal manhole cover just offline. The following field had a few tweaks since last year; instead of immediately going over barriers, the course followed some hardpack before switching back for the barrier – this has a good flow to it. Then off up to tree corner before grinding up the gradient back onto tarmac. Midsection through trees was a mixed bag – it felt like it ought to flow, but the grip was just a bit too sketchy. I lost my frontwheel on a tarmac transition midrace, managing to hop off before it hit the deck. The third quarter of the lap is zigzags through muddy fields which thankfully had Just Enough grip left to avoid the momentum sapping from last year. But the last part of the lap back to the start line was unrideable mud. Even the seniors were running it. Fortunately, despite never practising running, my long legs help me out and generally I recover ground whenever it turns into a running race.

The race was pretty steady, with me gradually losing a few places each lap. This is a good sign – it means I started at about the right place on the grid! I was in 38th/40th/41st over the line on laps 2-4, looking good for another top-third point finish. But just after that start of lap 5, with 2 to go, my rear wheel punctured. On any other course, this would’ve been a disaster. However, Dunfermline is so obligingly muddy and soft that I really wasn’t too much slower on the muddy sections. Thankfully the tyre stayed mostly attached to the wheel, so whilst I didn’t have any suspension I still had grip. I wasn’t relishing the idea of doing 2 laps in that state though. Thankfully the leaders were my salvation as they caught me just at the tail end of the lap. I lost four places during the lap, then another four in a group right at the end, to end up in 49th position. Miraculously still in the points!

It was a fun day, and I stuck around afterwards to watch the seniors with plenty of action and spills! Pretty happy with the race too, given the state I was in just a week prior. To finish in the points again despite 20% of my race being on a flat tyre was nice.

After a lot of futzing, I’ve found that the initial wrap of Stan’s rim tape wasn’t sticking down properly. My rims have offset spoke holes which make things fiddly. Need to try again with two layers and do a lot of brutal test rides before Round 4 at Lochore Meadows.

Another race weekend! This time, a big drive through to Irvine for a warm sea-side race.

Unfortunately for me, this turned into a nightmare race. As is traditional, I did ‘just one more warmup lap’ and found that the previously empty start line had filled up with a hundred eager racers. Ah well, been here before. Plenty of chances to power-surge on lap one and make up position.

The starting whistle goes, and we funnel round the first few turns before I get a chance to accelerate hard down the side of the straight and sweep past the crowds. Swinging into the hill climb, I followed someone up the right side of the track, but they have a ‘moment’ and stop and I had to unclip. Still, around the high parts of the course I continue my progress and by the time we’re up to the runup I’m feeling pretty good about my progress.

Remounting after the runup, someone shouts that I’ve got course tape wrapped around my rear wheel. I stop immediately – it can only get worse – and step to the side to clear the racing line. My initial tugs removed some of the tape, but the rest was trapped under the chain so, as all the pack whizzed by, I had to flip up some gears before I could get the rest out and rejoin towards the tail of the field.

So, nightmare start, doubleplus nightmare to lose all the places gained with tape-gate, but my bike was still intact and plenty of time to make amends. Next couple of laps flew by as I retook places. I was strong up the climbs and runups, and carried confidence on the off-cambers to pass people high and low.

But, on the day before, I’d pulled a muscle in my hip picking up cheribum #2 and although it wasn’t affecting my pedalling too much, it was taking a hammering every time I jump on or off the bike or ran the last part of the sand. On the lap 4, it went from ‘sore’ to ‘excruciating agony’ and after struggling through the end-of-lap sand I was close to giving up and DNFing. But, since I could still (mostly) ride I figured I’d push on, see what I could make up on the momentum sections and see if I could minimize losses on the bits that required working anatomy. But the lap times tell the story – lap 2 was a decent 6m59s which crashed to 9m24. It was agony physically on the runup and sand, and although I was still passing people on the other bits of the lap all the good work was undone when I needed to get on/off the bike.

Towards the end of the race, someone passed me with course tape wrapped around their rear wheel, so I returned the earlier karma by shouting to tell them. They glanced at it, but kept going across the offcamber. As they dropped down off the hill there was a horrible crunch as, I assume, the tape wedged their rear mech and did nasty things to their bike. At least I wasn’t alone in having a nightmare race, and I was glad I’d taken the time to calmly clear the tape from my own bike.

Final result was 86th out of 123 starters, 70th percentile. I was expecting much worse given the calamity! The highest position I had at the end of a lap was 67th (54th percentile). I lost 40 seconds dealing with the tape, and maybe 3 minutes following injury as I struggled up the hills and kept off line the rest of the lap to not impede others. In the ‘fantasy league’ where I get to magically deduct those mishaps, I’d have finished in 50th place (40th percentile) which would’ve been spot on my expectation, given that Irvine is more of a power race than last time out at Cally Par. But, back in the real world, a bit of a painful day – I even had to ask a kindly fellow racer to help me lift my bike onto the car!

Thankfully, two weeks of rest before SCX #3 at Dunfermline.

This year, I had decided to get a bit more serious about training for the cx season. So, it’s the first year that I’ve done any kind of structured training – using a turbo trainer and doing power based intervals. I didn’t do anything fancy in terms of base buildup and peaking for races, but having the turbo trainer allowed me to fit in training time where otherwise it would’ve been impossible to get out on the bike. Did it make a difference? Let’s see ..

I had hoped to do six rounds of SCX, and four rounds of SQ. In the end, I had to miss Knockburn Loch through illness, and Lochore through family illness and I didn’t succeed in the Bo’ness lottery. But I still managed 4 SCX rounds and 3 SQ rounds. This year I moved into the vet40 category in SCX so it’s hard to compare my results with last year, except at Dunfermline where I entered the senior race when the vet40 filled up quickly.

Results:

• Round 1: Cally park: 63th/146 = 43%
• Round 2: Strathclyde: 59th/146 = 47%
• Round 3: Knockburn: DNS
• Round 4: Dunfermline: 56th (58%) (senior race)
• Round 5: Irvine: 58th/108 (54%)
• Round 6: Lochore Meadows: DNS
• SQ1: Rouken Glen, B race, 9th/104 (9%)
• SQ2: Doonbank, A race: 52th/81 (64%)
• SQ3: Foxlake, B race: 12th/114 (10%)

Back in 2014 I was finishing about 70% down the field in the seniors, and in 2015 it averaged out to mid 60’s. This year it has been around 50%. So looks like some progress was made.

The turbo training has helped with stamina to last the full race. It’s also taught me that I can go over the limit, and recover again without slowing down too much. It’s much easier to practise that when you have detailed feedback on power, so you know you’re hitting the same level of exertion.

I think for next year, I’ll aim to get a solid base with longer summer rides before using the turbo to really target the cx-style intervals. I also need to focus on technique all round. I gain a lot on technical downhills (from MTB’ing I guess) but if I could make similar gains on muddy corners, off-cambers or other course features it’d be all gain for no pain (ie. no more watts required!).

But for now, it’s time to chill out for a bit and think about all this free time I have now that I don’t need to wash mud off everything every weekend!

Foxlake, aka Thistly Cross CX, was my final cx race of the season. Having raced there a few years ago, I was looking forward to the technical nature of the course, and I wasn’t disappointed. It has steep ups, fast downhills, sketchy turns and plenty of twisty off-cambers. All in all, a great technical challenge and a standout course.

This time, I was in the B race and so hoping to match my 9th place in the B race at Rouken Glen. I got to the start line good and early. Everyone was being well behaved, waiting in a group back from the grid lines. But as new people wheeled their bikes in at the front, people started edging forward nervously before we all finally legged it for the grid. I started a couple of rows back, next to two riders who know are a tiny shade faster than me and hence are good people to try to stay with in the race. Plenty of start line banter about the world cx championships and green tyres, then suddenly we were off.

Normally, I try to avoid overcooking the first lap but on this course I knew there’d be several choke points after the initial fast flat section (at the muddy twists, then on the first downhill). So my game plan was to burn some matches off the start line to get clear of the masses and avoid holdups. This worked well, getting myself into 8th position by the time the course narrowed. I managed to stay in 8th for the first few laps too, despite a few holdups with people crashing on front of me.

Then by mid-race a familiar pattern set in. Paul-in-blue (as I think of him) caught up with me, and we switched places a few times. Brian McCutcheon also moved smoothly by me, as he often does mid race – I think he paces himself better during races than I do, and by the time he’s caught me there’s no way I can lift my pace to stay with him. I also was passed by a pair of superfast riders hammering through the field together – I guess they must’ve started further down the field because they passed me midrace but at a thundering pace!

As usual, I gained on people on the technical sections – banzai’ing downhills and swooping through the twisty woodland. I was out-tactic’d on the steep climbs though – I took them at 90% to avoid going into the red, but others would redline it past me on the climb then recover on the next descent or flat section where it was hard for me to repass. Lesson learned!

I was glad for having decent mud tyres. It wasn’t an excessively muddy day, but the end-of-lap zigzags got chewed up quickly and the tyres gave me confidence to throw the bike into the fast downhill turns. After running 32psi in previous rounds (limus clinchers), I went up to 34psi as a bit of insurance against the many stones and roots. There was plenty of punctures and mech failures around, so certainly not a day to be risking anything.

Towards the end of the race, I was making time back on Paul-in-blue on front of me – catching him through the last woodland section, then losing a bit of time behind a backmarker at the bombhole, then recatching on the road to the final ‘stadium section’. I was right behind him after the offcamber runup, but opted to try and ride the hairpin hill (which I’d managed the previous lap) whereas he ran it. So I was a little bit back as we did the final switchbacks, and although I tried to seek out a creative grippy line for a sprint it was all to no avail and so I rolled in to take 12th place. And then collapsed!

All in all, a great day of racing – close competition, a quality course with so many interesting bits, and decent weather too. I couldn’t ask for more for my final race of the season! Kudos to the organisers, marshalls, and all the racers and spectators!

Last weekend was round 2 of the Superquaich series, this time at Rozelle Park in Ayr. This time, I was placed in the A race with the fastest folks. With my last A race (DIATD previous year) ending in a puncture and last place, anything half decent was going to feel like progress. The course was soft but flowing during preride, but after watching and filming parts of the B race it was clear it was going to be a lot more chopped up for the A racers. I shuffled into the grid about 2/3rd down and held my place in the pack through the first fast corners and into the mud. The soft ground was hard work, rewarding leg-out confidence on the offcambers but punishing anyone who asked too much from the grip. There was a lots of running – parts of the uphills were rideable with careful line choice but the bike would get caked with mud and then pick up the shredded bark which had been laid down at the top of the hill turning the bike into grinding machine. I had managed to ride the stairs twice on my sighting lap, but chicken out during the race once the approach got churned up. I greatly enjoyed the short gravel downhill midlap which lead into a lovely left-hand sweep into trees which could be taken flat-out, mtb-stylee, which was one of the main areas I gained time on those around me.

I was astonished at the speed with which the leaders (Gary MacDonald and Davie Lines) caught and lapped (then re-lapped) the rest of the field. In the end, only five people finished on the lead lap. Towards the end of the hour, I was pretty sure that Gary was going to catch me again but it wasn’t to be and I was one of the ‘lucky’ folks who got to go around again. The last lap turned out to be more exciting too, with falls and mechanicals all round then a 4-man bunch sprint to the line.

The later laps were much tougher as my bike got gunged up with mud. Looking at it afterwards, I’ve no idea how it still functioned. My chain came off on the second last lap, losing me a bunch of time. Every lap I’d hear the mud grinding on the wheel and frame and the rear wheel was not freely spinning. Whilst I’m certainly not “pro” enough to have a spare bike in the pits, on races like this I’d love to have the option of a clean bike mid-race!

But it turns out, I was lucky to even finish. Both tyres went flat a few days after race and I found that both had got thorns stuck in them (3 in the front, 1 in the back).

In the end, 52nd out of 81 starter, 64th percentile. Which, given the field consisted of the combined fastest senior/vet/junior male and females, is a solid enough result for me!

Last Sunday kicked off the four race Superquaich cyclocross series, with the opening round at Rouken Glen. I’ve never managed to race there before, always clashing with something or other. The photos from previous years showed a snow covered glen with rolling hillside, and for a while it looked like history would repeat itself with more of the white stuff falling in the days leading up to the race. But it wasn’t to be, and temperatures on race day got up to a heady 10C, leaving a moderately muddy day’s racing.

The SQ series splits into a very fast A race, and a slightly less fast B race. Given that I’m midfield in the SCX round, I end up either end up near the front of the B race or the back of the A race. At Rouken Glen, the Quaich Masters had decided I’d be a “B”.

There was to be no gridding, just some advice to ‘hussle, hussle’ so I planned to get to the start area early-ish to avoid the first lap chaos. After my first sighting lap, I wasn’t sure where the start area was. In fact, I was entirely confused by the course layout since it didn’t seem to correspond to my reading of the course map earlier. Later, I found out that due to the twists and turns of the Rouken Glen park, my bearings were out by 180 degrees – somehow I thought north was south. This didn’t help my efforts to find the start line, and I ended up setting out on a second sighting lap and then quizzing about five different riders before I found my way to the start.

Start line was a bit chaotic and narrow, with a “prisoners dilemma” causing everyone to bunch at the start grid rather than the muster area. But everyone got away cleanly, up the start hill, and slip sliding through the first woodland section. By the time we reached the big dipper, I was about seventh and felt pretty comfortable with the pace. A fall just before the start line lost me a place or two – it was subtly offcamber which I hadn’t quite realised, but actually the early fall clued me into the available grip levels which became handy later in the race. I got up quickly, checked the chain, and got going again.

I stuck with a group of four riders for a while, before gradually getting dropped but then somehow a lap later I was close up behind them again. I’ve often found that I’m faster than my peers on downhill technical stuff and steep uphills, but I lose out on sheer pedalling-on-the-flat situations. At Rouken Glen, there was plenty of downhill technical stuff, tripod’ing my way down the fast curves at the start of the lap and the later zigzags was always fun, and the steep runups suit me fine too.

I really think I was right on the limit fitness-wise, slightly dodgy stomach midrace which passed, and always pushing on the ups and recovering a bit on the downs. I spent most of the second half race in a great back-and-forth with a blue rider (I can just about name colours whilst racing, but not much more!). He’d pass me on flatter sections, and I’d repass him on technical sections. I thought I’d passed decisively through the woods on the 2nd last lap, by sticking to the edge of the course where there was more grip. But he came back fast on the flatter end part of the lap, passing me as we started the bell lap. As luck would have it, he slid out on the fast downhill curves which gave me a comfortable gap on the rest of the last lap and a ninth place finish. Great racing, lots to concentrate on.

I was also able to stick around to watch the A race. Rouken Glen is great for spectating – a pile of rocks gives a great vantage point to see a large part of the race course. The commentator was also spotting the race from there, which meant I could see everything he was talking about. The quality of racing was high, with Gary MacDonald and Cameron Mason battling out in the front, David Duggan solid in third, then a bit of a gap to Struan Pryde and the crowd-pleasing antics of Craig Hardie and a flying John MacKenzie. They’re all blisteringly fast, especially considering that us “B” racers had mashed up the course for them. To put it into perspective, my fastest lap was 11m02s (first lap on clean course, by the end I was doing 12m30s) whereas Gary MacDonald averaged about 9m30s. It was interesting watching technique – GM tripod’ing around all the fast corners and looking a lot better than anyone else on the downhills, and all the fast guys hugging the edge of the course at the end of the lap to seek out grip. The course was getting brutal by this stage, with fifteen DNFs in the end – I saw tubs being rolled, mechs snapping and someone with front brake jammed on.

Lessons from the day? Starting near the front meant I was racing near the front for the first time. The course rewarded confidence on the faster sections – “hands off the brakes and look into the distance” stuff. I felt that my turbo-training and over/under intervals has taught me a lot about riding at threshold. But I’ve still not nailed the “raw power” sections, which have always been my weakest point. On that note, I wasn’t lucky enough to get an entry to the Bo’ness race this year. It’s a shame to miss the season ender, but if I had to choose a SQ round to miss then it’d be that one purely because it’s so flat and power-heavy and I suffer greatly on it! Maybe I can become a roadie over the summer and finally sort out this “racing on the flat” thing.

Next up, Doonbank at Ayr, where the SQ number crunchers have decreed that I am “A race” material, so it’ll back to reality and battling it out with the great & the good for the higher numbered places.