Shipley Hall

The first race of my first full season of Cross didn't go quite as I had planned. I'd agreed to travel down to the race with a couple of club mates who hadn't raced before. Due to logistical problems (one of their other halves) they ended up being 40 minutes late to pick me up and so eventually we pulled up into the car park twenty minutes before the race was due to start. After rapid registration my warm up consisted of just about managing to get into the starting box with only a couple of minutes to spare. Apparently 143 riders started the race which was a fantastic turnout.

Before too loo long the whistle blew and we were off. Having seen very little of the course before hand the first lap was a learning experience. The course was one of two halves. The first half being mainly uphill with a gravel section and then a longer drag upto the singletrack section. Once through the singletrack it was then back onto the grass for a snaking flat and downhill route back to the finishing line.

Unfortunately the lack of warmup meant that it took a couple of laps to get going by which time I was towards the back of the field and I pretty much stayed there. Towards the end I closed up on a group of riders but my attempts to get past them were foiled when I had to pull over to let some of the leaders past in the singletrack!

Although I was a little disappoined it was at least an improvement on last season where I failed to finish my first race. The next race is in a fortnights time and this time I shall be travelling down by myself and with better preparation hopefully I can pull myself further up the field.