Round 2 : Brandon FR6 : 7th December
After
a few days of being knocked out by a lurgy from hell I was feeling well
enough to race, but still had sinuses full of gunge... It had rained
lightly off and on all the way to Brandon but was forecast to be nothing
worse than a few spots during the race.
The
pre-ride made it clear that my body was lacking power; I was reasonably
quick on the flat, but had no oomph up the climbs. Chatted to Ady
before the race and he suggested riding to heart rate rather than speed,
so decided to give that a try.
I
was gridded, but was soon passed by plenty of riders as I struggled to
keep the pace up and found a queue at the first section of single-track.
Around 2/3rds of the way around lap one a 15min sleety downpour soaked
me through and froze me to the bone. The ground churned up and I
plodded on for 4 laps, occasionally finding bursts of power but mostly
just trying to keep a HR of approx 160-165.
I
ended up 21st of 86. I'd usually be very pleased with that when well,
so to be comfortably within the top 30 (gridding place) when poorly was
great.
