Thetford Winter MTB Series Rd 3, 12 Jan 2020

This would be my 2nd XC race and it was planned to be an hour and a half. I wasn't gridded so ended up in the mass of people at the back. I got moving off the line as there were a hundred or so people to overtake. I paced the race so that I'd be cooked at 1 hr 15 and then I'd be able to empty myself for the last 15 minutes but as I learned this was not the case. It ended up being an hour and a half and then finish a 7 mile lap so my race was actually 2 hours long. And 45 mins when you're very dead is not the best place to be. I really should have stuffed my pockets full of gels and this might have perked me up a bit. I drank a 750ml bottle of carb drink but extra energy would have been appreciated. The course was very hard on the hands and lower back from the position on the MTB and also the constant up/down of all the bumps making constant pedalling challenging. I would have liked some big descents to have some rests on but they didn't feature. Next time I will bring food with me and burn my matches slower to not have such a big drop in performance near the end.

Ollie Maynard