Genevieve Whitson Elite Road Cyclist

I was expecting to have a bit of shocker at the 2nd round of the National Cyclocross Trophy Series as my legs felt rubbish on the Saturday before the race. With my focus on building a strong base/foundation for the 2010 road season I have been spending my weekends in the saddle for anywhere between 3-6 hours doing base miles and the day before the race was no exception, joining the Oxford Uni boys for an easy 3 hour spin. The problem was that the route they decided on was quite hilly and I ended up climbing a lot more than I had planned. We weren’t kicking up a storming pace, but I knew it had been a bit too much with a Nationals race the next day.

Andy and the Swindon crew picked me up on Saturday afternoon and we drove up to Derby to have a sneak preview of the course. It was the usual gang of Crispin, Andy, Luke and myself who have all decided to give this sport a hit over the winter months. Derby is about 2.5 hours North of Oxford and is known as an ‘industrial town’. I didn’t really see a lot because it was getting a bit dark when we arrived – all I can say is that it seemed very flat and kind of reminded me of my home town in NZ – Palmerston North.

We walked around the course and my legs were struggling. Even climbing small hills they felt very average. The course was far more technical than Devon requiring a lot of balance and breaking with various hairpin corners that were often set on a steep descent followed by short crizzly climbs. There was one set of hurdles, but apart from that there was no reason to get off the bike – apart from the mud which eventually sent a lot of people tumbling and made for good spectator viewing.

I got a much better position on the start line making it to the front row this time and managed to slip into 7th place as we hit the dirt. But after that I was literally all over the show. I took a massive skid on the mud in lap one and fell back to 8th and then by the 2nd lap I was sitting in 2nd place chasing down Hannah Barnes. I was thinking ‘what on earth is going on with my legs today?’
They felt so bad the day before the race and now after settling into a rhythm they actually seemed to be firing. By the 3rd lap Joanne McRae and Jessica Roberts had caught me and it became a three way battle for second place. I faded in the last lap and rolled in at 4th place, 10 seconds behind Jess Roberts. Joanne McRae came in 2nd, 30 seconds behind Hannah Barnes. I was a bit disappointed to miss out on the podium but because I am not trying to peak until February/March 2010, all in all it wasn’t too bad. I think that the self massage with Mason’s Dog Oil the night before on my legs must have relieved a lot of the fatigue, along with telling myself to ‘ignore the pain…’.

After the race while doing the supporting job in the pits for the boys I got talking to a veteran of the cyclocross world who told me some alarming stories about ‘back in the day’ when cyclocross racing first started up. It was pretty crazy stuff, such as starting the races at 5am so that everyone could sneak back home on their bikes before the 9am curfew when bikes had to be off the roads – I can not imagine having to structure my riding around a time curfew set at such ridiculous hours, let along trying to tackle off road trails at 5am…times certainly have changed for the better.

Big thanks to Andy, Luke and Crispin for their support on the day, plus arranging accommodation and transport. Andy finished 37th, Crispin 21st and Luke who is one of the youngest guys in his category managed 15th place against a very large of 52 riders- impressive.

Check out the results here: http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/cyclocross/article/cyx20091011-cycle-cr...