National Rounds 1 & 2
Headed off to the Nationals Rounds 1 & 2 this weekend at Cyclopark Gravesend in Kent. It was really fun but I decided to switch the ftb frame for the Curtis and change up my gearing to 35×15 to be similar to the 37×16 I have been running on the ftb. This meant that I had to do a practice session at Bath in the morning so, I took too long to get ready and left really late so I missed the first practice session on the Friday and arrived late for the second session as well. By the time I got to practice the gate had broken so there were no gates so I got about 10 laps in then headed back to the hotel which was conveniently backing onto the Cyclopark carpark which was super convenient.
The gate was still sketchy on the Saturday and only started working properly for the end of practice so I got 1 gate before racing 🙁 Racing went OK although I was super slow out of the gate and had to work really hard to not get left really far behind! I managed to stay on the bike all day and although I finished last in every race I was on near the person in front all the way around and was on the same straight as the guys in the front when they finished! I was also faster than one of the guys in the other motos all day so I finished second to last so 11th place!
On the Sunday I was still really slow out of the gate again and I was pretty sore still but in my first 2 motos I cam last but was near the guys in front again and lapped in similar times to the day before which was good going as my legs were really heavy from the racing the day before! In the 3rd Moto they put the slower half of the standings in the same moto so I was racing to not finish last as whoever finished last out of myself and the other slower rider would finish last for the day! Because of this I had my fastest gate of the weekend and overcooked the first jumps which put me off rhythm and I ended up going up the second jump with the wrong pedal forwards and falling off sideways onto the top of the jump! Luckily I had my Leatt body Armor on and I slid along the top of the jump so I got up pretty much unhurt apart from some grazing and a sore thumb! I got up straight away but was too far behind to catch up so I finished last (10th) for the day 🙁
I decided to drive straight home before the pain kicked in which may not have been the best idea as I was a bit woozie half way home so I guess I hit my head a bit harder than I first thought! I got home OK so it wasn’t too bad but was a bit worrying for a while as it was in a part of the journey with no services so I had no-where to pull over so I just slowed down until my head cleared. Not the best journey ever but far from my worst after a crash racing 😂
When I got home and showered I found that I had landed on my right knee too but it was grazed and battered but not too bad and considering how fast I hit the jump I was super happy with the damage sustained!
On reflection swapping biked the day of the National wasn’t the smartest move and the difficulty of the track highlighted the fact that I need to work on my gates and more than anything my manuals as most National tracks are designed to manual not pump so to get faster I need to learn to manual in the first instance and jump if I want to try and get near the faster guys. I was not happy about my gates as they were all over 3 seconds apart from my last moto which I crashed because of it! The fact that I was struggling with the first jump meant that I wasn’t committed out of the gate at all and hardly pedalled before the first jump! The next round is at Gosport so I think I will be better there as I made the Semi’s the last time we raced and beat a few people as their first straight is slightly less difficult and I could manual the first jump so I committed to getting to the first jump quickly unlike this weekend!
From now until the Gosport National I am going to focus on getting my gates faster by doing sprints and also focusing on first straights when at the track and racing. This year is a good year as it is basically only half a season so it is perfect for me to work on specific areas and not be focussed on the final results too much. Obviously I want to try and do well but it is more important to do well next year that I work on getting as quick as possible out of the gate as quickly as possible. I also need to work on my fitness to be able to start next year spinning a 36×16 so that I can race the Curtis and forget about changing bikes and concentrate on getting better on the bike instead of messing with frames and gearings etc!