Gourmet Gears: Defending Number 19 – CX Nationals Day 2, June 9th 2013

CLP taking the racing line

Day 2 brought stiffness and soreness in the form of a sore back. I suspect I wasn’t the only one and at least one lady retired after a crash on day one, though she still bought her kids out to have a go. Did I mention that CX is for everyone? In addition to the national races in the afternoon, both days had support races which included little crossers, open (any bikes, but recently taken over by really good mountain bikers), C grade men and women and B grade men. CLP was racing the B grade (which seemed to include a lot of riders I had seen in A grade previously) so I had time to take some happy snaps of CLP looking pro!

Lee-Anne - coming or going?

This set up also meant that if you were really keen you could race a support race then an elite race, which one (very busy) lady did on both days. Lee-Anne also guided the little crossers around (both days) and ran a free bike skills clinic for kids on the Sunday. So it’s probably fair to say that when she lined up for her last race, the elite women, she was just a little worn out.

They did what?

I have to say this was to my advantage as the course for day 2, while having some really nice straights, was incredibly technical. This is not something I’m good at and so I soon found myself at the back of the pack. The one pleasant surprise for the day was that we were going round anti-clockwise, which meant that a particularly nasty corner, which we usually ride the wrong way round, off camber and half way down a hill, was now awesome! We rode it on top of the hill and went the correct way (in my mind), which I had gleefully reported to a mate (who usually sets it up incorrectly) earlier in the day.

Technical difficulties

Anyway, I figured with my back being sore I had little to no hope of being any good, but I soon warmed to the race and when I saw a very tired Lee-Anne not that far in front, I decided to have a crack! Knowing that she is pretty good on the technical side of things, I just tried to keep her in my sights as we twisted back and forward, jumping (or at least attempting to) logs and barriers. I passed her on the back straight going about 30 km/hr on our first lap, but when we came to the twists and turns on the hill, she squeezed back in front of me. I thought she had it in the bag as I lost time over barriers and round corners but in the final twisty section of our second lap I could see she was tiring. I caught her again on the straight, a bit earlier this time and endeavoured to keep in front of her. Lee-Anne almost had me at the hill as I got out of the way of the leader as she lapped me.

The back straight

We were in close contention until the final twisty section where Lee-Anne graciously conceded second to last place to me after putting in a Herculean effort all weekend. I belted down the back straight and into the finishing corners, noticing as I did, that one of the actual elite women was about to lap me. I thought to myself, what the hell and gave it one last sprint to the line, preventing her from lapping me as I collapsed on the sidelines. I was a bit confused, as I wasn’t sure if the chequered flag was for her, me or both, but there was no way I was doing one more lap! Turns out it was for both of us and so thankfully my courageous defence of number 19 had finally finished.

Burgers!

I subsequently collapsed in a chair and didn’t move for a while, not even to bemoan my burgerless fate when I overheard Manu mentioning that he had already sold out of burgers! I settled for a sausage and chips before rallying enough to whack an icepack on my back and catch a few happy snaps of the elite men. Have to say I have never seen bikes bounce over a log quite like that before!

Men with flying bikes

Unfortunately my back was too sore to handle packing up (walking to the car was hard enough) so we offered our appologies and headed home. And did I defend number 19? As it turns out, Lee-Anne and I are currently tied for 17^th place and I couldn’t be happier!