Well, I think I bit of a little to much with this one. The Gralloch (which means the the entrails of a deer) was hard, a lot harder than I though a race could be, I made a few mistakes, but I'm happy with how I rode Although this is the first UCI gravel event in the UK, and had lots of pro riders in attendance (Tiffany Cromwell, Alex Dowsett, Connor Swift to name but a few) and a F1 driver (the itailian GP was cancelled, so Valtteri Bottas came and did this instead) it wasn't my main race of the yet, that comes in July
Where we Stayed
Being a 7 hour drive to Dumfries from Norfolk, I decided that I would spend week following the Race in Scotland, this was a great move as the riding was just fantastic, we managed to get a Cottage about 20 minutes cycle ride outside Gatehouse of Fleet, our neighbours had pretty much the same idea, but that other way around.
Travelling there
i think this was the first mistake that I made, travelling the day before the race, we left Norfolk at 9:30am, I made sure of eating well, and drinking lots, which left me in good shape for race day, or rather, not so drained, but it definatly tired me a lot. We picked up my race entry before going to the cottage as to remove a obsticle for the following day (anti-mistake number one)
The day before
So i was all numbered up, the day before
Race Day
I woke up early and had a good breakfast, early on Saturday morning but this is when I made the first of my two mistakes (to be fair, this was my first real race for 20 years), my original plan for the race was to run one water bottle and fill up at every food station (there we 3 along the route) but two days prior to the race, I had watched a Juliet Elliot video where she talked about using a camel back, I convinced myself that this was the way to go, for me, it wasn't, I carried a lot of extra weight, lost some cooling, and still stopped at the foodstation 2nd mistake, and really, my final mistake of the day .. because of my anxieties, I didn't want to get into the start pen to early, so I didn't leave the house until the start pens had opening, got lost on the way because I hadn't loaded the route correctly into my Garmin (3rd mistake ?) found myself having to ride the start of the route backwards, and the fight through the crowds to get to the start pen with about 5 mins to spare, so in a desperate attempt to avoid getting anxious, I made things worse Then in the pens, I found that the race route hadn't loaded up on the Garmin either (3rd mistake twice ?) and I couldn't got a phone signal to push the route The Start
And then it all kicked off, the start was all good and friendly, and nobody seemed that nervous, being the last group to start (and being at the back of that group) there was alittle confusion, and once the flag dropped, a little bit of a stumbled start, but once we hit the climb (about 50 yards in) it was obvious that this wasn't going to be an easy day in the saddle
I passed several people on the first climb including the gravel section, but everybody was going so hard, and I was so far back that any chance of getting on a wheel has already gone, I passed several people on the first decent, whilst avoiding the 100's of water bottles that were now laying in the route, but it was to late for me, so I just settled into riding
Man was I hot, for some reason I started
So I got to the first feed zone, although my plan has originally been to keep riding, I needed a break, the marshal was very keen to give me some water, however I still had a load in my camelback, as I'd forgotten to pack caffeine I tried to locate a caffeine gel, but couldn't see any so I simply grabed a gel and a (coconut) bar, and set off
The number of punctures seemed to ne increasing with people walking with broken bikes, I passed a few of the aid boxes with groups of people pearing into them I was fairly happy with my riding at this point, having been ill the couple of weeks before hand, I felt that I was keeping ontop of my pedalling, was steady in my effort level, was content, just to much water, and to far back (I was never going to be at the leading edge, but could have put myself in a better place) Feed zone 2, I just stopped, I filled up one of my water bottles presuming that my camelback back must be starting to empty now, enough food, sorted myself out, checked my levels, and carried on, after asking if there was another feed zone and nobody being to sure, I took a little insulin in order to make sure that I continued to eat, I can't say that I was getting
Theres a great feeling about getting over half way, and although there was a long way to go, the doubts that I could do this were going, and was starting to think about all the food I was going to eat in the evening
Third and final feed zone, I just rode past, I still has the water from the previous feed station, and was still sipping from my camelback, almost got taken out by the person infront of me not thinking that anybody could possibly be riding through, there was a climb straight after this feed zone and my my legs and brain started to gang up on me
About 7 miles from the finish, I turned to tarmac, I was still feeling fairly food and there was a sudden change in mind set that we were nearly home
The Finish
Crossed the finish line, and then my body went into shut down, I was so cold
My bike was filthy, and the organisers had put on bike cleaning, but I was just to cold to hang around
So I immediatly started to ride back, but soon has to stop and put all the clothing I had taken off back on, once I got back to where we were staying, found what riding (fairly) hard does to the body, as sitting down was basically falling down, had a bath and struggles to get out off it
When I got round to to looking in my camel back, it was still about a third full, so not only has I not drunk enough, I'd carried the extra weight all the way round (and even got some extra iun the water bottle at the second feed station)
How I did
Although I made some racing mistakes, I'm happy with how I rode what I got going, I was never going to qualify for the worlds, or be in the front group, but as a head down and get on with it, I'm happy with how I rode
What I learned
Stay to your plan, it might not be the best, but it's your plan (referring to one water bottle and fueling)
Don't avoid anxieties, you'll just make it worse
Check you Garmin has the rite routes on it the night before
I'm sure that I will make the same mistakes again, but it really doesn't matter, I'm just here for the fun of it
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