Sunday 28 December 2008

Last race of the Year !

So that's me done for 2008
13 cyclo cross races
13 circuit races
13 track races
3 open road races
2 cyclosportives
2 multi-stage cyclosportives
2 mountain bike races
1 time trial

So I've raced once week all year, with a couple of weeks' holiday. Pretty fun packed. Well, in fact I didn't race for the first few months of the year so I ended up racing more than once a week so things were even more fun packed and pretty energetic !

So I am glad to have made it through what seems to have been quite a busy schedule. It'll be interesting to see how the 2009 schedule looks. I plan to see out the cyclo cross season right to the end, so I will be racing in early 2009. I am not sure how many road races I will do, as I might err on the cyclo sportive side things - it seems that's the new trend when you get older. (Well, it's better than ploughing up and down a dual carriageway in a time trial I suppose !)

Anyway, I did my last race of the year yesterday. It was at Footscray Meadows, near Sidcup and I was happy with the way things went. Still not good enough to get on the podium these days, but I feel I rode ok considering I had travelled down from Yorkshire at stupid o'clock in the morning to make it for the lunchtime start. A few coffees later and I was as right as rain with a zing in my pedalling !


Note the pictures of the lads racing in the bunch, and notice my rather frugal attire. That was the main problem I had with the race. Despite racing as hard as I could, apart from my (big) hands, no other part of me could keep warm. It was the first time I did a race without breaking a sweat! By the time I'd finished racing my teeth were chattering uncontrollably and my legs were twice as thick with goosebumps. It seems that contrary to what I'd believed, I'm not a real Northerner.

Anyway, looking forward to more fun (and warmer) races in 2009!

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