CORC Sparrow Hill

Almost there!
Today turned out to be a good result despite a somewhat ordinary start. The family came out to the race today turning it into a bit of an outing. After getting everyone organised we only left 10 mintes behind schedule. As we we were leaving I chucked the keys to the wife and asked her to drive...no idea why, but I did. Halfway out the race, we we're pulled over for an RBT (Random Breath Test). Now I knew if I was driving I shouldn't have blown positive, I had 1/2 a bottle of white with dinner the night before and had eaten breakfast...but these things always make me nervous. But today my luck was in, I wasn't driving!
Out at the course I threw in a quick blat round the loop to make sure there were no surprises lurking anywhere. The weather was a bit average with a very cool wind blowing before the start so I kept rolling aorund till we got the call up.
When the go went I positioned myself so that I ended up about 5th into the single track without having to be too explosive off the line. Through the first section and I jumped Rob Cooper to move into 4th on the fire trail. Next couple of sections and I worked my way up into second place without having to hit the wind too much... I need to be very explosive to get around people and close a couple of gaps but I still wasn't red lining like the last race. And this was the way it stayed for the next 3 laps I would trade places between 2nd-3rd place but never drift off the lead by much but also never having to expend too mch energy. On the last lap I opened the taps to gap one of the Vet riders who had gotten mixed up in our "race train" and get back onto the wheel of first place. The look on his face when I closed the 100m gap up the fire road climb was priceless! I don't think he thought he could be caught again and not in the space of 300m.
Unfortunately my biggest problem for the day was my descending, I was riding even more like a girl than normal. I'm putting this down to the forks I threw onto the bike, they had way too much rebound and I got bounced in a number of corners I and it just shook my confidence a bit.
I ended up holding on for second place by about 20 seconds, my best result for a XC race this season. I put the result down to better tactics, because it sure wasn't better form. I felt very ordinary before the race, and never really lifted during it. I think the course at Sparrow with more climbing suits my skills alot better. In fact I could have gone for another couple of laps as I wasn't feeling that taxed at the end.



The normalised power is the same as the previous XC race at 278w, but the lack of alot of surges mean't I felt alot better. Just need to build a bit more base now for the Angry Doctor and the Fling.