First weekend of the race season

So Monday morning after the lows and highs of the first races of the year. Saturday at the super6 was a rollercoaster. New bike, new kit, lots of expectation, major let down. I felt pretty good at the start. We had a warm up rather than standing about getting cold and I felt pretty good. On the first lap I was really keen to get in the break and dug deep first time up the climb to go away with a few others. Unfortunately when we looked back at the top the bunch had obviously been chasing hard and our gap was tiny. After that I felt I was on the back foot a bit. I made another couple of attempts to break on the following laps but nothing was getting away. By the end of lap 4 I was struggling a bit and lap 5 my legs gave up completely. Out the back, dropped for probably the first time in a race!

I felt really low after and despite telling myself all the sensible reasons why it had happen I was pissed off about it. The idea of going to Knockhill for the MTT on Sunday was not appealing. But on Sunday morning I felt a lot better and Laura kind of encouraged me to go which was nice. The weather was pretty good. Bone dry and a bit of wind from the west. The first few miles are all up hill which was good as I almost immediately could see riders in front and start checking them off. Jamie Kennedy provided a good pacer as he was a minute ahead so p was able to gradually reel him in.

Surprisingly my legs felt pretty good and using the new garmin computer helped keep an eye on the clock, distance, heart rate etc. I'll maybe write a bit more about the garmin once I've used it a bit more.

Anyway I got round the 25mile course in a little over an hour which was good enough for 3rd place. After Saturday I was pretty relieved with that!

Pic at the top is another shot of my new bike which now has new wheels too! I rode it for both races and its an awesome but of kit!
Robin Wilkins
my blog: http://thewheelabout.blogspot.com