Weaver valley race

After last weeks mechanical disaster I had spent all week trying to get my bike together. The plan was to take the crankset from the road bike and after swapping over chainrings, put that on the cross bike.  With a baby, and limited spare hours in the evening, it was a task which was always going to take several days and it was all going to plan until I discovered that the Bottom bracket in the cross bike was stuck - solid. A big hammer got it shifted, but I've never known one stuck quite so solidly.

So I turned up to the race with a bike which was a bit untested as I didn't have time to try it out before hand. Weaver valley is a place where I traditionally do well and after last week, I was determined just to finish. It's just a small place, but they've made a large course by sending you up and down a field several times. This year they had included a few more switchbacks and it was all the bit tighter, plus there was a lot more mud making it very slippy.

I was about to start my warm up when disaster struck. There is a lot of glass around by the car park and a small piece must penetrated my tyre as I punctured. I quickly swapped the tubes with one Adam lent me (who had also just broken his bike!) but I couldnt' find any glass in the tyre so I was very worried that it would puncture again. All this excitement also meant I hadn't warmed up for the race.

More than 100 riders turned up again and since I wasn't anywhere near the top 10 I wasn't gridded and stuck mid pack. The start was exciting as I worked my way through the crowds and then settled into a pace. I noticed that I missed any sort of feeling of zip that you get from racing, and that I was really slow at running up the hills (I thought I might have been better at this since I now work on the 6th floor). I got lapped on the last lap and I finished around 28th, not contesting a place to a friend.