Hadn't really intended to do this one but got roped into helping out so made it conditional on being able to ride. I spent most of Saturday flailing around with hydraulic fluid and trying to poke hoses through an internally routed frame. It was harder than it should have been, but the combined factor of that and the new shifters required (11spd - don't judge me) was quite a transformation. It really did bring me up hard against my limit vs the bike; the bike is amazing and I am not. It's lighter, the shifting is super smooth and the brakes are fantastic. Race was really more about fettling it to my liking and remembering how to ride CX again.
Anyway, with zero training and spending too much time trying to kick the league into some sort of shape it was never going to be pretty. It was a bit slippy so I took some more air out before going to the grid. Bike handled like a pig. Did 3 laps like that, just about staying upright on each corner and taking a bit of a pasting. With nothing to lose I made a pit stop to try some more air in the front tyre - it was at 6psi!! that's way too pro for me. Another lap was much improved so stopped again and put some more in the rear too - can't for the life of me explain why I didn't do both at one stop. The nice part about this was that I got to play with the fast guys whilst trying not to get in their way too much. Bike was much better now and headed into the last lap picking up a fair few places. Into the muddy hollow for the last time and up the sharp banking and I managed to over shift into the spokes - argh! That was it for me, it was jammed so I called it a day. Couldn't really see the point in running 3/4 of a lap to score last place. Though it's about where they placed me. Will do wonders for my grid ranking
Max, and particularly Caroline seemed to fare rather better - I will leave it to them to tell their stories.
Not sure when I'll get to race this league next - spending too much time commissairing.
