Woodhall Cyclocross

My third race of the season and a welcome return to one of my fave courses from last year. Woodhall cyclocross is held at Ostlers Plantation and can be best described as a good mix of everything : there's long straights, tight turns, range of surfaces, and the mounds !!

One of the longest laps on the circuit and never boring although driving down the muddy roads to the parking raised the heart rate somewhat I can tell you !!

Our race was 12.00 and the sun was out albeit it had rained all day the day before so there were puddles in places and plenty of mud too. I had decided that I wasn't going to get left in a procession like last week and decided to have a good go at the start - making sure I got gridded was a good start as it moved me up a few places.

Off the line in the big ring, my start still wasn't great, but much better than last week all the same. HR through the roof pretty quickly and that it generally where it would stay.  Tyre pressures seemed spot on, but I was aware of movement and a bit of sliding here and then.

First couple of laps went by without incident and I felt I was doing reasonably well. On the third lap, I had a mishap, when I missed the line following a hump and had a food down at the top of the second which caused a crash !  It was what it was and I got over it very quickly and from that moment on seemed to hold my own place in the field. No more mistakes and held off a late challenge for position. Felt it went really well to be honest and a bit better than last year.

No cross next week as I've a club run to lead, next race up is two weeks time at Winterton - the paddy fields !!