It’s been an age since my last blog so I thought it was
about time I gave you all an update of what I've been up to. This year has been
a disappointing year for racing; I began to lose interest half way through the
season and thought the best thing for me to do was to have a few months off the
bike so I could regain the enthusiasm I used to have for riding. I feel this
was the right decision as I’m now buzzing to be back on the bike, I can’t wait
for next season.
Last weekend I traveled down to Plymouth to compete in the
last round of the South West cyclocross series held at Central Park, which is
right outside Plymouth Argyle’s football ground. I wasn't very optimistic of my
chances as I’d only been back on the bike for about two weeks. On arrival I was
greeted by many familiar faces saying “hello stranger” that explains how much
racing I've done this year. It felt great to be back.
After the usual pre-race social it was time for the practice
lap, I immediately thought to myself this is going to be hard! The course was a
mud bath and every pedal stroke was a fight to get traction. Although I was
very negative about my chances of getting a good result I thought the mud would
benefit me as I seem to ride well in bad conditions, must be the fact that most
of my training is done off road.
It was time, after freezing on the start line because of the
BC commissaire wittering on as usual. Finally we were off and I got a surprisingly
good start considering I was at the back of the grid. At the first corner I was
amazed to be in the top 5 so quickly. After the first lap being a bit of a
procession with everyone being so close. Matt Zeitz and Dexter Hurlock quickly
gained a gap and I wisely chose not to try and go with them. I found myself
alone in 3rd place with James Davey fighting to close the gap to me.
Unfortunately for James he suffered a mechanical which meant his day was over,
this left Jay Horton hot on my heels.
Whilst Matt and Dexter had cemented a pretty big gap and
were fighting it out for 1st and 2nd. Jay had caught me and we had also
cemented a good gap on the rest of the field. For most of the race Jay had
about 10 seconds on me and I just couldn't bridge across. Until the final lap
when I was spurred on by the brilliant commentating of Steve Long shouting “come
on Luke show us how good you are” I dug so deep and finally started to believe
I could catch him, With about quarter of a lap to go I had caught Jay and sat
on his wheel for a quick breather until I gave it everything to get round him
before the final decent to the finish line. I crossed the line in 3rd
place and was ecstatic as I never imagined getting 3rd before the
race considering how much training I’d done.
After the race everyone gathered in Plymouth Argyle’s club
house for the presentation, beers and buffet. Thanks to Certini for putting on
a great event as usual, Southfork for their support as always and Carla Haines
for putting my numbers on as I hate doing it. Have a great Christmas and New Years people, chow.
