Month: November 2022

Today was round 4 of SCX series at Irvine Beach. The course is all about elevation changes and sand. I enjoy the climbs and descents, but hadn’t done sand since Irvine in 2018 (the horizontal snow race).

The course is symmetric. On each side, there’s a steep up, fast down, steep up then some twisty offcamber stuff. In the middle there’s flat windswept plains punctuated with sand. Repeat four or five times and you have a race.

The steepest ‘up’ was something I could’ve ridden with clean tyres and fresh legs, but had to run it in the race. I realised this was the case during my sighting lap, and then also realised I had forgot to put studs on my shoes. So I abandoned the lap and sprinted back to the car to install studs, and got back in time for gridding.

The other ups were rideable, and recent Glentress trips were good mental training for keeping on pushing even when legs are tired. The offcamber and twisty bits were all pretty tame – despite the morning rain the course was grippy everywhere.

The long sand section was a lot of fun. The first few laps were sketchy (I fell once or twice) but later in the race a nice initial rut formed, and with great encouragement from a marshall (“keep pushing the pedals, you’ve got this”) I made it through the whole thing on the last two laps.

I totally failed the fast downhill then right on the section after the rollercoaster. I kept target fixating on the outside barrier and drifting wide. After an ‘exciting’ moment on lap 3 where I lost the rear end but manage to hold the slide, I fixed my error on the last lap by simply looking further up the course.

Final result was 30th out of 43 starters in vet40, or 70th percentile – so better than 78pc last time out. I could not have pushed any harder – in the red on the ups and recovering on the owns. I was closing in on the rider ahead of me on the final lap, and even tried a stealth sprint but was still a few seconds adrift at the finish line. Still some way to go to get up to the 50pc I managed pre pandemic.

Tyres today were still the default ones that came with the bike, and ran 35/35psi (with tubes) since it was a smooth course. No punctures, and grip was fine. I’ve punctured at 33/33psi in the Pentlands before (at end of Green Cleugh) so wary of going lower. I have yet to rebuild my tubeless rear wheel, so that’s a job for some dark winter evening, but they’re much better for properly muddy courses.

Not the most auspicious start to my resumption of cyclocross racing – I snapped the chainstay on my race bike less than two weeks ahead of the first race. I initially looked at just replacing the frame like-for-like but the equivalent frame now has through-axles not quick-release, so piling on the cost of new wheels meant that it made more sense to get a new bike. Thankfully PlanetX put it together quickly and I had it a few days ahead of the race. My test ride revealed I hadn’t tightened up the seat clamps enough. That would’ve been exciting to discover during a race!

Lochore Meadows is flat and often muddy. Rain fell on Friday and Saturday but the sun was shining on race day and the surface held up quite well. No real mud, just ‘brown grass’ on the spiral. I decided to stick to the vanilla tyres that came with the bike rather than switch to mud. There was a fair amount of hardpack and tarmac outside of the spiral to clear tyres. And in fact it wasn’t a very grip-limited course.

Everyone was gridded (first time I’ve been in a race where that happened), and the bottleneck going into the woods for the first time was less of a bottleneck than usual. I made up a few places as people slid out or fluffed gear changes, but quickly settled down to my own pace.

I had a few back+forths with people who’d pass me on the spiral but then be slow through the more technical bits – barriers and steps. Taking a few extra running steps after the stairs and barriers was good idea, let the bike stabilise after you’ve put it on the ground.

On the final spiral (although I didn’t know it was final time) I got fed up towing people, so I slowed to encourage one to pass, 2nd person also slowed, then 3rd person sprinted and I then had to chase their wheel. Unfortunately for me, they were just faster than me and I couldn’t stick. I guess that confirms that they were just sitting on my wheel saving energy waiting to race away at the end.

Was flat out all race, pushing on to close up on a wheel in the spiral, or to pass someone before a narrow section.

Finished 43rd out of 55 starters, 78th percentile. But back racing at last! I couldn’t have went any faster in the race – it was a power course and I lack power. What would’ve made a difference? Just stronger legs – the fast guys are x% faster than me on all sections of the course. I’ve mostly been doing zwift races, Arthurs Seat laps and Glentress to regain fitness. Probably doing some structure intervals would be a good idea (but I much prefer doing zwift races in my practise time).

Next race will be SCX#4 at Irvine.