Drilling it

Sunday was the XC race at Sutton Road, with a chilly wake up to -5 degrees. Packing of an extra large bag of kit, thick Assos thermal jacket, 3/4 bibs, thermal undervest, light short sleeve and arm warmers, and my virgin long finger assos gloves. I made the decision on the previous Friday to race christen the Ventana, it's now set up with alonger set of legs (120mm Fox RLC forks) rather then the hardtail. The pre-ride of the course confirmed my choice with El Salt eating up all the bumps and not feeling slow up the long drag to the finish. The Suunto said that there was approximately 95m of climbing per lap, not epic but I knew it would snap the legs of all but the top 3 in Sports B over 4 laps. The gears weren't shifting right so a last minute tweak before the call up to the line.
While waiting for Paul to start his normal spiel about playing nice with the other children, I notice a dad and his two kids struggling trying to do some last minute wrench work on the kid's bike. So I rolled over and offered to help, seems the boy had been out and tweaked his rear derailleur dropping the spring. Dad had attempted to fix it but attached the spring incorrectly. It took me about a minute to realise what Dad had done, so there I am half listening to Paul drone on and for once hoping that he keeps going so I have a couple more minutes to get this spring reattached wrestling with the spring and a leatherman tool. After about 4 attempts I get the spring hooked on the correct post and then start tuning the gears....30 seconds later and we're done! Just as Paul is finishing and it's time to roll to the bottom of the hill for the start.
The proceeding grades are let off, my nemisis Luke Chapman has promoted himself up to Sport A so that's one less person to worry about. We get the call up, and I set myself up on the left hand side for a clear run up the hill. Announcer calls "Go" and we are off. The first 10 pedals strokes and no one has gassed it up the hill, so I hit the jets! Knowing that it's crucial to get a good position into the first single track section for the proceeding fire road grind. Leading around the corner and into the single track, I ease slightly to recover as I know someone is going to gas it up the next fire road climb. Now I can say from being here previously this is a huge mistake and if punch it this early you probably won't recover. Sure enough Tim Lawley jumps me, giving it death to create a gap into the next section. Riding like it's the last lap and not the first he soon disappears into the tree's of the next section. At this stage I'm just keeping it steady not panicking, I know this course has a nasty sting in it's tail if you gas it too early. 1/4 of the way through the lap Sean Martin kicks past on a fire road section so I have someone to follow through to the bottom of the loop.
I sit behind Sean as the course turns from rolling/ downhill to uphill climb/ grind. I can see that he is having trouble the leg's aren't spinning but grinding but I am determined to use him for all he's worth. At the top of the climb, I jump Sean and skip across to Tim who we have managed to peg back, he's now well and truly paying for his first laps burst. I get across the gap and recover as we cross the finish line for the first time. I come around Tim to lead through the first section and onto the fireroad...and that's the last time I see anyone. Slowly opening the taps up fire road and I'm gone, applying pressure on the up-hills and relaxing on the flat, the strategy works no ones coming back. Crossing the line at the finish the gap is out to 50 seconds and I have myself my first MTB win in about 14 years.

Post Race Analysis
Looking at the output file from the race powers up by 10w for the same heart rate. Comparing this race to the previous the PE was only about a 7.5 where as the Sparrow race was about a 9.