Pearce Cycles Championship - Round 3, Bala
Having raced this track 3 times previously I pretty much thought I knew what to expect, but knowing the weekend was going to be a wet one, a track walk was a priority.
Even though the sun was shining there was still a stream running down the top section of the track, with alot of the water ending up in the new 'Fort William' section, it was freshly cut, not very long, but soft and boggy and would undoubtedly be full of roots. Track walk this week was not so much about planning the fastest lines, but more about looking for a safe passage through to get down as cleanly as possible.
Saturday Practice
It had rained heavily all night and was still raining at 9.30 when practice started. I won't lie I was in no rush to get on the uplift, by 10am the rain showed no sign of letting up and Tredz team mate Dan was heading up, so I thought I had better get ready and head up for a run anyway. Despite how wet and muddy the track was I was surprised how well it rode, by run 3 I was having fun and embracing the sloppy conditions.
However I had struggled to get round one particular corner with a well placed tree towards the end of the woods, as each run got faster the slide/crash into the tree got bigger but at least I wasn't the only one struggling with this particular bit, the race organisers opened another line but it didn't really help. By the afternoon the rain had died down but the track was a mess with most of it resembling a lumpy chocolate milkshake, it was a little tricky to ride with both feet on the pedals so plenty of strider bike action going on.
Sunday
It had been dry and windy through the night turning the track from deep wet rideable slurry to deep, sticky, claggy churned up semi dry cement. 1st Practice run down wasn't too bad until I got to the bottom woods where it was difficult to maintain my speed and had to dab and paddle but eventually coming to a halt when my front wheel and mud guard were packed full of mud and jammed solid.
This part of the track was heaving with other riders coming to blows in the same way as I had and very few managing to keep it going through here. I managed to free off my wheel and carry on the the bottom.
Race Run 1
Just as I was moving up to the start line it began to rain, it wouldn't make any difference to the track at this stage though visibility could be an issue. I struggled to keep my feet on the pedals down through the rough rock section normally riding clipped in I swapped to flats thinking it would be easier when I got to the muddy section at the bottom to be able to dab. Well it wasn't pretty and was far from incident free but I got down and surprised to find myself in second position.
Race Run 2
Swapped back to clips for this hoping to make up as much time at the top as possible before hitting the messy stuff lower down, this proved vital as I was 10 seconds faster through the top and this section hadn't changed since last run though going a little faster on mud spikes did cause a big moment going down a rocky gulley which I thought I was going to get spat off but somehow managed to stay on, but did lose time t boning to halt into a berm.
It turned out that the track was drying fairly well, with different lines developing through the racing, but in my head it was still wet and sticky so probably didn't push as hard as I'd have liked, so I was happy to reach the finish and find I was in 3rd place with only a few seconds separating 2nd, 3rd and 4th, normally a few seconds between positions is alot, but in these conditions, and on a track this long, a few seconds is nothing. I was also Really happy to find out that Both Myself and Teammate Dan(who won Elite) had both clocked the fastest speed through the speedtrap, its only take 4 yrs to achieve this.
So with a massive cleanup this week we head back to Rhyd-y-Felin next week for the BDS, thanks to everyone for their help, see you there.