Weigh-in
I woke up late this morning after a hard weekend of racing and driving to and from Cumbernauld (about 7 hours each way) at just before 9am and I got up and did my weekly weight in and I am down to 107.6kgs this morning which is a drop of 1kg (108.6kgs to 107.6kgs) from last week’s weigh in so pretty happy with that. I can also see in my legs and body that I have build a fair bit of muscle over the weekend as my legs and arm are looking way more muscular than before and my torso is looking ab it leaner too. I am not hurting as much as I thought that I would have been so I am going to start training for the Worlds this afternoon. This morning is all abut washing and drying all of my minging race kit as it was a tad damp at the weekend. I also found out that I have got a place for Matt’s training on Tuesday so that is an added bonus.
Cumbernauld race reflection:
Race went better than expected on Saturday which was nice and I finished 14th after the moto’s and 16th over all which was my goal for the weekend anyway! Sunday was way worse and I rode really badly to finish 18th but getting moto’ed meant that I got home at 9pm not 1-2 am so it wasn’t all bad.
Saturday
Moto Results:
M1 = Gate = 2.738, Lap = 43.841 (5th)
M2 = Gate = 2.737, Lap = 2.725 (5th)
M3 = Gate = 2.725, Lap = 41.392 (4th)
2F = Gate = 2.771 , Lap = 45.421 (8th)
BF = Gate = 2.762, Lap = 44.565 (8th)
My motos went pretty well to be honest! My first lap was terrible and I was super tight and bonking everything after the first straight and almost crashed on every jump on the 2nd straight which was annoying as it was my favourite straight!!!
My Second moto went really well I was in 4th position going into the first berm but as I put all of my weight on my outside pedal and inside grip my back wheel started to was out and the rear tyre started feeling softer. I managed to keep going but had to grab a handful of brake which caused me to lose the back wheel of the rider in 3rd and drop back! I managed to nurse the bike around the track and keep 4th place until the last berm where I had to take it wide to not wash the back wheel out and the guy in 5th cut under me and I was unable to get the position back before the line!! Gutted but it could have been a lot worse and I managed to still beat 2 people so not so bad!
After the moto I had to swap out the Tubolito out for a normal tube ready for the last moto so once again I had been let down by my Tubolitos!! Once the bike was sorted I took a look at the standings and I was in 14th place and most of the guys that could knock me down in the rankings were in my 3rd moto! This was actually a good thing as I treated it as a final and Had my best gate and moto of the day! My gate was 0.012 better and my lap time was 2.449 seconds faster than my next fastest lap which I am super happy with as I got 4th place which is my highest ever moto position in a National that I can remember which is especially good as. Iwas in gate 7 and all the guys that I had to place higher than were inside of me in the gate! The 4th place finish meant that I qualified for the Semi final in 14th place so I wouldn’t have gate 8 in the semi!
Unfortunately after this race my legs started to ache and seize up which and when I snapped in the Semi I had nothing left to give so I finished 8th! My legs were the same in the final so I placed last again which is disappointing but I reached my goal so its not all bad! Looking at the finishing times of the top finishers I was still 3 seconds off the pace and even doing my fastest lap of the day I would only have finished 1 place higher than I did so a lot of work is needed to get in the mix in the later rounds! I was also about 6 seconds off of the winning time from the A final (Winning Rider is W6) so I have a lot of work to do to be able to look like I belong in the Worlds in 2 months! But looking at the times the guy who won my B final was good enough to finish 4th in the A final!
Sunday
Racing on Sunday I was sore from the day before’s racing and also riding really badly I was stopping pedalling way before the first jump and also taking stupid lines and my times showed how badly I was riding!
M1 = Gate = 2.838, Lap = 43.316 (6th)
M2 = Gate 2.788, Lap = 42.199 (5th)
M3 = Gate 2.869, Lap = 43.866 (6th)
I am most annoyed about M2 as I got myself into 4th place on the second straight then went wide in the berm and let the guy who finished through and then couldn’t get the place back again due to having nothing left in my legs!
More annoying than where I finished is that my team were all telling me that my snap I had the fastest snap and first few pedals on every gate over the weekend and then I dropped back after the start hill dropped off as I stopped pedalling and everyone else started really pedalling!! So I basically did so badly as I wimped out and backed off!!!
Sunday’s riding highlighted exactly what I need to work on before rounds 7&8 next month in order to be more consistent and place higher:
1 – Sprints to work on my speed from the 4/5th pedal to the first jump.
2 – Gym – Improve leg strength/ endurance
3 – Full laps/ Pumping to build full lap endurance.
4 – Manuals as lack on a consistent manual is holding me back from getting faster lap times!