HMBA XC Round 2

HMBA XC Round 2

With Round 1 washed out everybody was pretty keen for the first XC club race for the season.
Getting ready for pre race briefing, it was evident there was going to be some changes to some of the standard XC course for the race. All the rain in recent weeks had left some of the course a little boggy, plus a few new sections had been recently cut, in readiness for the National XC round in early March.

Never having raced one of these club rounds before I didn’t know what to expect – but some things just don’t change – and the start was fast and furious as always. Given the course changes I think no one really knew exactly where they were headed. I started a little bit back from the lead riders, and with A,B & C grade all starting together things got pretty tight as we entered the first bit of single track.

Pace was fast at the start, but I soon got into a decent rhythm. Then came the first of the NEW climbs. It is probably the same elevation as the other major climb (Camelback), but steeper. This had people quickly dropping through the cassette to find the right gearing to get over this beast. Once at the top it was straight back down, a loose rocky descent of same gradient . This made for some space for overtaking up the climb and I moved a few positions up the field.

Next was camelback climb, and after the last climb this seemed relatively easy. As I knew the gearing and held good pace up this climb. By this stage I had moved up into around 9 / 10th in the B grade field and was feeling pretty good. The rest of the course was pretty much the same - fast flowy single track, and if you knew the course could really put on the pace.

For the next 2 laps we were constantly jockeying between 8/9 / 10 place, and I was feeling good. I got a front puncture halfway through the last lap. The stans managed to seal the hole, but I had to nurse it back the last 2- 3km on around 15 psi.

Got to the finish and felt pretty good still, even after all the climbing. I think I recorded around 500m climbing in 18km which certainly had the heart pumping and legs burning.

Looking at the results I came in 10th in B grade, which I was pretty happy with for my first club race, leaving some room for improvement.

Thanks again to the club for putting together a great day and course. For all those coming to the Nationals in a couple of weeks – bring those euro climbing legs !