One down, four to go...

So, believe it or not, the first NPS has come and gone already! The easiest way to tell, for me at least, is the fact that all i've had to do since this weekend's racing is lightly dust down the old frame - you never get weather like that later in the season. In fact, since i started doing the NPS races with my first one at Thetford a couple of years ago, there's been a definite trend of unseasonably warm weather for the first round. That, and a flat-out, fast offroad road-race style course. Well, 2009 was no exception!

Rachel and I headed up to check out the course on Saturday before the big day on Sunday, arriving mid-afternoon from my parent's house in Nottingham. After a quick chat and "check out how little my new bike weighs" session with Jenny (all three of me, Rachel and her had new steeds to show off!) , we headed off to spin around the course and see what awaited us. It was a pretty typical sherwood course, with the occasional energy-sapping little roller rising up to spoil your speed around the rest of the course. For my taste, there was a bit too much freshly cut trail, and not quite enough of the best of sherwood; there are some great fast, twitchy sections of trail that would really have added to it. However, i suspect they were sacrificed for the arena-return leg of the course, which made it a whole lot more spectator friendly, and were great when you were actually racing.

The only real noticeable technical interest in the whole course was a log-hop, not really my cup of tea, since i've been too lazy/useless to ever learn to bunny-hop properly since i started riding offroad (it's no fun when you have noone to learn with, and everyone i've ridden with is able to demonstrate perfect hops at will, which makes me even less likely to bring up the fact that i can't execute a single hop worth talking about). Having tried to hop it, and given myself a saddle in the kidneys to show for it, i decided i'd go for the "try and get over the low bit" approach when the time came in the race. It wasn't pretty, but it worked (more on that later!). There were some tight sections in the trees that i knew would be hard to ride fast, but being a little person these things always bother me less than most other guys (i seem to be developing some sort of inferiority complex here - everyone on the start line seems to be taller than me these days!). The only other bit of the course that stuck out in my head was the last 1.5km, which all seemed to be awful lumpy singletrack that was hard to ride smoothly, and unrewarding if you did, but maybe that's because i remember the same trails in the opposite direction (riding with gravity rather than against her!) being a lot more fun! Having been around once slowly with Rach, i then went around a second time with a bit more pace. Then it was home time, for a stir-fry dinner, an episode of the Wire (the most addictive series ever made) and an early night.

Race day dawned, there was no sign of any of the overnight rain that metcheck swore there would be and so the super-slick tyres stayed on. We got to sherwood just before 9am, perfect timing for Rachel to hit the course again, and get warmed up for her race at 10. I headed over to the pits with a bag of bottles, some tape, gels, a chair and a copy of "The Death of Marco Pantani". Having dutifully taped gels to bottles so that Rachel was the guinea-pig for the auto-opening gel technique and not me, i got down to a bit of reading, and just as i was getting to the stuff about hematocrits of 60%, i heard the call-up for the elite women. I headed over to get Rachel's warm kit, and give her her race bottle before the start, and got back to the feed just ahead of the field sprint of the elite women. Rachel's cat, expert women, went off next, with her sitting pretty in third wheel, and looking pretty comfortable (well, as much as could be expected). Third wheel was also where she finished, although Dan J. caused a bit of confusion by announcing her as fourth as she crossed the line!

By this time, i was out of the pits and getting kitted up - i felt a bit over-keen leaving before Rachel's race had finished, but i was ultimately glad i did, as i discovered from Simon we kicked off at 12:30, and not 1300 as i had thought. That could have been bad! I rode the course again with Andrew at midday, although unfortunately he ripped his shorts 3km from the end of the lap, and had to dash off to change asap (if i had a pound for every time Andrew has had a wardrobe malfunction at a race, i'd have at least four pounds! Probably the most memorable was at a thetford winter series race shortly after i started riding offroad, where he finished with one hand on the bars, and one hand holding what remained of his shorts together...the man's an exhibitionist i tell you!). I carried on, and headed to the pens to be gridded to be met by Rachel's proxy, Phil Buick who kindly took my leg-warmers and gave me a fresh bottle. Before i had time to think too much about what was coming, i was on the third row of the grid watching the elites start. Unfortunately, there was a touch of wheels and an almighty crash somewhere mid-pack, which brought down John, my mate from Bath - he's not had the best of luck lately, but hopefully that's the last of it for him. Once the carnage was out of the way, we were off!

The pace was pretty hot from the start, but i felt like (for once!) i didn't totally embarass myself with my start, and got into a decent position to cope with the dust clouds of the fireroads. The air was so thick at times, you felt like chewing your mouthfuls, but as the pack lined out as the pace at the front got hotter, it was less of a problem. I focussed on trying to keep with Eric, another friend in my category, figuring he'd be a good marker of pace. It was all going pretty well, and i was keeping pace with my little group including eric quite well until i overcooked it on a gravelly corner and ditched the bike (which kept going sideways) and ended up standing in the middle of the trail sans-bike. Damn, i'd lost the wheel. However, as fortune would have it, help arrived in the form of junior Kenta Gallagher, and i got rather a second-wind being towed along behind him, passing a couple of the experts i'd lost with my slip-slide. It seemed that selection had already been made on the little hill in my group, however, and Eric was gone. I kept up chase, but it's so much more mentally tough when you're chasing people that are out of sight.

Coming through the feed the third time, i grabbed a bottle from Rachel (i wanted to tell her to switch to the other, uphill feed, but with all the confusion over where she finished, i never got the chance) and whilst trying to get it into my bottle cage, hit a dip and went over the bars - bummer. What's worse is, i saw Mel Spath do exactly the same thing in the elite women, and made a mental note not to make the same mistake. More places lost, i set off with a throbbing right elbow, and a bit more adrenaline in my system. Sadly, it didn't make much difference, i picked up a couple of places in the last couple of laps, but then was gutted to be pipped right on the line by a guy from Pedalon who'd done much the same thing to me and Nick Evans the week before. I might have fared better had i been able to get into big ring, but still, he got me fair and square. Damn. So, all told, 28th place - not a flying start, but a good place to improve from on a course that doesn't really suite little 61kg whippets like me. I did get a front row seat for the amazing sprint finish in the elite men though; the speed Jody C came through at was incredible, and it was cool that the local lad came in 2nd in what looks like it could be the start of a good season for him. Andrew did as Andrew does best, and wheel-sucked his was to 15th place, which is a pretty superb start to the season for someone who was worried about being lapped before the start.

Talking of crashes, there at least a couple on the first lap in my race, as you can see from this excellent youtube video; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XISobBbAxgs . As far as i know, Henry pulled after two laps as a result of his tumble, and poor Alex is nursing a broken collarbone - fingers crossed they'll both be ok in the long run. It might have been a good place to have a first-aider all things considered, especially given the lack of skill of the experts (myself included!). Here's hoping for some less contrived tech sections next round!

Now it's time to focus on moving - i spoke to the movers today, i'm all set to move out on Easter tuesday, so it's time to get packing the 30 or so boxes i have been given. It's pretty miserable seeing your worldly possessions all packed up in boxes, it can easily lead you to thinking "is this it?" but i'm sure i'll feel differently once i'm out in the countryside. It's also damned expensive this moving malarkey - hopefully this'll be the last time for a little while at least. Anyway, back to the parcel tape...