The only way is up (unfortunately!)

Saturday saw the annual British Universities Hill Climb Championship return to Curbar in the Peak District. This is undoubtedly one of the most painful race days of the year. Nonetheless, with a 4th place finish last year, we were looking to go at least one better in the team competition this year.

After a decent warm up on the turbo I took to the start line. Thirty seconds. Ten seconds. Five seconds. Go! I hit the steep part of the climb and held about 85% effort, knowing the consistent gradient would soon up the perceived exertion. After an all too long 15-20% section the gradient dropped to a "easy" 7%. With 1/3 down I thought I would up the effort and try to hold on until the top.

Head down. Pain Cave

I approached my 2 minute woman on the final hairpin corner before the deceptively long straight to the top. At this point I was sure I could taste a little blood and my throat and lungs were screaming for respite. Just one last effort I told myself; but the lungs and legs had other ideas! The lactic was building, legs screaming and lungs burning. I just kept shutting my eyes praying the finish line would come into sight.

The aftermath with teammate Jenny

My wheels rolled over the line with just enough momentum for a volunteer to catch me and lower me gently on to the grass verge where I lay gasping, eyes shut and still clipped in to the pedals of my bike. It took about 4 minutes before I felt well enough to cycle back down the hill. I was feeling clammy, hot and faint; it was inevitable, the perfect storm some might say, I puked right beside the car. Well at least it showed I tried!

In the end, I finished 11th, Jenny came 9th and fourth overall again :( We did however, both take over 1 minute off our times from last year. If we do that again next year we'll be in with a very good shout of winning individual medals and hopefully (eventually!) getting on that elusive podium. On a side note, the Leeds Uni boys team took silver, so a huge congratulations to them on a really incredible performance.

See you again next year, Curbar!

A super weekend at Rapha Supercross

The weekend was set for a cross fest; Saturday in Skipton and Sunday in Manchester. The event was Rapha Supercross, a 3 part series sponsored by a clothing brand no student cyclist has ever owned a single item of.

Saturday began well, with that stomach churning realisation that I had forgotten my shoes en route to sign up. No practice laps to be had, instead I, as a 20 year old, stood at the end of the under 12's race, eyeing up children who looked just the right size, to ask if I could borrow their shoes. It was successful, fate would have it that a boy (with the same surname as me!) had the same size feet as me. Result! The advantages of being tiny, eh?! As per our agreement, I now owe said 12 year a very large chocolate bar!

So on to the racing; the women were set off 1 minute after the Vets. The chase was on! My foot went in straight away and I found myself leading the race from the gun. Normally I would say GREAT, however my lack of practice laps left me charging through the course on the full gas without a clue of what was coming up! I kept my cool, slowing down plenty on the corners just thinking that I would have to make everyone slow down too, better safe than sorry.

I rode the steep hill on the far side of the course and managed to snap the elastic from the chasers as all the other women dismounted and ran. For the rest of the race, I just tried to ride safely, whilst trying to accelerate on the straights and out of each corner. It was really fun to hear the commentator talk about me all through the race, something I have never experienced before, but it made me dig deeper and go that little bit faster. This pushed me on to coming home 1st woman and 31st out of 60+ male starters - not bad given the staggered start!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ed_rollason/10409105184/

Day 2: Manchester

We arrived with plenty time before the race, (shoes in the car too!) and enough time to ride a practice lap (first time ever!) The course suited me, pretty flat only 2 steep hills, lots of 180 turns and not too muddy. I felt good on the lap and the tyre pressure felt good too.

When they called out the gridded riders, I was shocked to hear my name. An awkward shuffle through the men to the front row left me feeling a little nervous; miss the pedal and I may be killed in a veterans stampede!!

I started well and tried to stay with as many of the men as possible. I found myself 2nd, then I slipped to 3rd towards the back of the first lap. Midway through the second lap, I moved into second place. Jessica Wilkinson was in the lead and I knew she was incredibly strong after her 6th place in Wales the previous Sunday so I settled for taking second behind her.

However, I realised I was gaining on first place quite rapidly and I still felt ok. I caught up and I sat on her wheel for 3/4 of a lap. Eventually on one of the long drags I upped the pace and gained a couple of bike lengths. A technical off camber descent followed by the sticky mud section at bottom added a little more to my lead. With the realisation that I had two, not one, lap to go I made sure I stayed strong and most importantly stayed upright!!

Crossing the line in first place was awesome, but even more special because it was the second win in two days. I was particularly happy finishing 16th, my best ever overall result! I can't wait to check out the Rapha website and see what I can get with my vouchers!

Yours,
The soon to be first student in the history of cycling to own something made by Rapha!

The return of the mud

It began with an obscenely early motorway services pickup (5 am!!!!) before we headed down to Abergavenny for the first round of the 2013 National Trophy Cyclocross. Luckily I slept most of the journey, which allowed me to ignore the awful conditions that were developing.

On arrival, it was wet, cold and did I mention wet? Steve and Ted raced first in the Vets which allowed me to have a few practice laps. The laps went a little like this; brake before corner, turn, land on on the ground, practice remount, corner, crash etc. Hmmmm I thought, the only solution would be to psssst and soften up the tyres just in time for the start of my race.

Looking muddy, plenty of sliding along the floor
Photos courtesy of British Cycling

With my tires 'inflated' to an unknown psi, I took to the freezing start line.YES- Foot went in straight away and I quickly left my last place grid position and moved up towards the top 10. I rode well with the top group, but after 3/4 of a lap, I crashed and lost a few places. A good remount gained me a few back, but then BANG. Hit the deck again. This was a sequence that would repeat itself for the next 4 laps.

Focused. Still in contact with the chasing group

I finished feeling pretty disheartened, cold and wet. 16/18th, but I felt I deserved better, I couldn't even stay upright. On reflection, my lack of mud tyres seem to be the reason for my mud munching. When I looked at the tyres of the other girls, they had angular knobbles and an aggressive tread, mine however looked like a slick with some raised arrows! Ah ha! Maybe we found the problem!!

A good read of 'Choosing the right cross tyre' in Cyclocross Magazine, led to some exciting knobbly purchases, now I just need to learn how to do this whole glue thing :)

Temple Newsam YCCA

I arrived at the Temple Newsam race with low expectations. My body was still nursing the cuts and bruises from 3 Peaks and I had developed a cold to further compound things. Regardless, it was a gorgeous sunny October day, the type you have to have to ride because you know in several weeks time we say goodbye to sunlight for the winter months. 

So with high spirits, I took to the start line excited for the race. A long grass section separated the riders before the singletrack woodland section. I had found some great lines through the roots during warm up and used them to overtake on the first lap. 

By lap 2 Annie Simpson was so far ahead that we were racing for second place. I latched onto Nicola Butler and Rebecca Womersley, and we rode together until I slid out on a tree root that stretched across the course; leaving me with alot of ground to make up on the subsequent laps. 

By lap 4 I had caught Rebecca and began to move up on Nicola using the technical woodland section to gain time. As we rounded the final corner Nicola had one more kick and just managed to stay away, whilst I settled for 3rd place. 

I was happy to achieve another podium position for cxmagazine.com especially because the girls were so strong. It makes for a really exciting race, when there are a couple of riders battling for placing lap by lap. The personal battles in cyclocross, no matter what your position in the race make cross such a great sport and it is one of the reasons I love it so much. 

My next race is a National Trophy in Abergavenny on the 13th October, but until then have fun out there. 

My 3 Peaks Adventure

At the start of the year, the cyclocross bug really started to bite and with it came the urge to enter all races I thought looked fun and interesting. Having seen the epic pictures in Cycling Weekly of last year's 3 peaks race, a small (insane) part of me thought it would be a really good idea to give the event a go.....

I was probably the most naive entrant, having never been to the Dales, never seen the race and not really spoken to anyone who had done it. As time ticked by over the summer, I started to research exactly what I had thrown myself into; thats when the nerves and fear began...

Race weekend rolled around far too quickly, before I knew it we were trying to assemble a tent I had never used before (oh dear). Dusk turned to darkness in the unlit field and frustration turned to anger as we still tried to work out if the damn tent had a porch or not! Finally, with our pride in tatters, we retreated to the car and began contemplating the night ahead in the ford fiesta.

After a less than ideal night's sleep, we awoke to the hustle and bustle of race morning. It was surreal considering we had parked on a very quiet country lane yet by 7am we were surrounded by cars, bikes and people. Pre race nerves started to set in.

On the start line, I was amazed by the sheer volume of people. There was a certain mood in the air, a feeling of stepping into the unknown. I had never felt like that before a race before, I think it was the genuine worry that I might really hurt myself in some way or another.

I loved the mass start, watching 600 riders snake away on the road was quite a sight, (I certainly had a good view as I managed to start nearly at the back of the field!). Then onto the first hill, well 'hill' is a slightly misleading term. I would use something more like cliff or mountain to describe Simon Fell. Very quickly I began to feel that excruciating cramping sensation in my calves that everybody had told me about. The hill was sooooooooo steep; it felt like a 70% rock climbing overhang! I'm a small rider anyway but when my bike was on my shoulder, the front wheel wasn't even clearing the ground in front of me! After the first very steep rise, it plateaued then rose again. A rider next to me asked 'is that the next hill?' I really wished it was!

The top of Inglebourgh feels like the top of the world, especially with the awful gale force winds which were blowing me over. At one point I had hold of the handlebars and the bike was in the air flying like a kite; its not even carbon! The descent however was manageable, with only one over the handlebars episode when my front wheel stuck in a peat bog.

Two down, one to go....

A lovely road section followed and then onto Wearnside. At this point my calves were shot and were cramping at every mount and dismount on the bike. Regardless of the pain, I quite enjoyed the stepped climb to Wearnside; yes it was long but it was just a case of one foot in front of the other. The desecnt however was a different matter. One walker asked me why we had bikes if we were just running all the time, and honestly she had a point, the bike was an inconvenience! The rocky, steep and technical descent was made harder by the gale, which gusted and blew me off my bike a few times.

Then onto Pen-y-Ghent, which for me was the most enjoyable climb of the day. I rode the first third up the rocky lane until it was time to shoulder the climb and push for the final summit. The feeling that the finish was within touching distance was very comforting and gave me a boost that powered me onto the finish.

The final road section to the finish

I was delighted to cross the line, it was a mix of pure relief and exhaustion. I managed to be the fasted female U23 and lower the course record by 18 minutes too. I can see how experience and preparation play such key roles in the 3 peaks and I would like to congratulate Delia Beddis and Rob Jebb on their fantastic performances, because it takes a special athlete to win a race of this type.

Finally I would like to thank cxmagazine.com for their continual support. It makes such a difference in a race like the 3 peaks to know you have help on hand if anything were to go wrong on the day. If you haven't checked out their magazine and website I would really recommend doing so, as it has offered me invaluable advice which helped tremendously on race day. I have some 20% off discount codes for subscription if you are interested, just contact me through @muddymurray.

The racing has begun!

So here it goes people, my first blog post for the season. I thought I'd start this up by running through the last couple of weeks, because its been really busy and great fun.

My first race of September was the inaugural Velocity Street Race through the Tyne Tunnel in Newcastle. It was a unique night with a special format, set as heats, semis and finals of 400m uphill sprints complete with smoke machines and a lazer finish line. I won my heat, semi and I found myself in the final against GB cycles rider Brit Tate. Unfortunately the strain of repeated sprints and  lack of warm down, goosed my legs and Brit got the better of me.

As I stood on the podium outside the tunnel, the clock was striking 1am and my thoughts were already turning to the Lister Lion cross which lay over 100 miles and only 11 hours away!

Velocity Podium: Tall people must be faster!

Saturday 14th began with a very early start having gone to bed at 3am! I have to admit that the drive from Newcastle to Halifax was filled with regret for entering 2 events so close together. However, once I started to ride the laps around the very picturesque Shibden Hall those feelings of regret faded and I started to get excited to race again.

Pretty cool finish line at Velocity!

The Lister cross was the hardest course I have ever ridden. Long punishing segments of 20%, suicidal drops through the forest and a downhill stair section all proved to be particularly tricky. I led from the gun and although I built a good lead the challenging course didn't allow for even the smallest moment of relaxation and I finished absolutely spent! Thanks to the MyTriClub team for putting on a great event and such a challenging course!

Next up I headed to the first round of the CXNE league held at Yarm. Once again the gods of cyclocross were feeling generous and had liaised with the weather man to provide some amazing sunshine and a beautifully dry course. I loved the course; a 50/50 mix of grass and single track woody sections which suited me well. I raced well finishing 1st woman and 31/74 overall.

So there you have it folks, my first post and hopefully the first of many. I hope you enjoy reading them. Feel free to follow me on twitter @muddymurray and keep in touch!