That’s it done, no more training, no more racing – well for a few weeks at least. The final round of K Capital Challenge in Kippure on Sunday was the last xc race of the year. I had given up serious training after Plymouth the weekend before and switched into off-season mode of fun night rides and taking UCD beginner spins at a leisurely pace. So I thought I’d be interesting to see how much difference proper race preparation makes – seems it does have an effect, i felt like I was struggling all day!
Over 100 people lined up for a mass start from Kippure House, neutralised for the first km or so as we made our way up the road in a big pack –don’t think I’d like road racing, scary! As we hit a fireroad climb the race started and the pace jumped up. I was in a good position towards the front, and kept it up as we hit a cool new singletrack descent through some forest. We bombed down a rutted grass track with was a sharp corner at the bottom, I tried to take a sneaky inside line not realising it was a huge hole covered in grass. My front wheel plunged in, bike catapulted and I went over the bars. Managed not to hurt myself too much and jumped back on with blood dribbling down my knee!
There were several nice long climbs that normally I’d enjoy, but my legs weren’t really feeling it for some reason, so I was surprised to find myself fairly well up in the group. The trails made up for it though, really enjoyed loads of great, technical stuff with a slightly wintery feel to the day and a return to the usual mud after a few dry weeks. There was a nice mixture of natural trails across open moorland and tight singletrack through the woods.
I was doing my best to stick to a couple of the Rocky Mountain guys all the way through, and coming to the top of the last nasty long fireroad climb I still had one of t their jerseys in sight. By this stage we’d caught up with a load of riders doing the short course and a guy fell off right in front of me as we went down one of the last descents. I had to wait to get past, loosing a place, and then in my haste to catch up I followed someone else in the wrong direction and lost another spot. Doh! So a couple more ridably muddy, rooty descents later and I rolled into the finish in 13th (1st female) – not too bad all things considered. Full results are here.
A big thanks to Robin, Luke and Team Worc for all the effort that went into building the course – another fun place to head back to for a spin some day.
Yeah, you know Cait, you really should be looking out for those holes at this stage
Go steady Cait but was great reading up on all your races and well done! I had a trip to casualty last week after a big spill but I don’t bounce as well as you!!
A relation xx