Dan Wells rode the National Marathon Championship in the UK last weekend. Below his report of that beautiful day :)
Well after a great week training I turned up to the National Marathon Championships full of confidence of a good ride....turns out I was wrong.
The night before it rained for a very long time and was very cold, this continued into the morning and until the start at 10am. The forecast for was for rain all day. I dressed warm with full longs and gilet.
There was a 5km neutralised start to the forest, I planned to use this as a warm up before the race got going on the first climb. The lead car took off at 40-50kms down the back road and we were strung out all spinning out our 1x11 drive chains!
The temperature lifted along with the road and I began to overheat almost immediately as the lead riders pulled away......
This was the story for the next 60kms of the sun coming out, overheating on the climbs and not being able to recover on the very technical descents. One crash where I used my new helmet as a brake against a tree shook me up a little.
I managed to catch up some earlier riders only to crack a bit later on the long climb to Minch Moor and loose 4 or 5 places in the last 10kms.
I crossed the line 80kms and 4hours 18minutes later with back spasms and serious cramps.....22nd overall and 17th in seniors.
Time to recover and back to training......
Well after a great week training I turned up to the National Marathon Championships full of confidence of a good ride....turns out I was wrong.
The night before it rained for a very long time and was very cold, this continued into the morning and until the start at 10am. The forecast for was for rain all day. I dressed warm with full longs and gilet.
There was a 5km neutralised start to the forest, I planned to use this as a warm up before the race got going on the first climb. The lead car took off at 40-50kms down the back road and we were strung out all spinning out our 1x11 drive chains!
The temperature lifted along with the road and I began to overheat almost immediately as the lead riders pulled away......
This was the story for the next 60kms of the sun coming out, overheating on the climbs and not being able to recover on the very technical descents. One crash where I used my new helmet as a brake against a tree shook me up a little.
I managed to catch up some earlier riders only to crack a bit later on the long climb to Minch Moor and loose 4 or 5 places in the last 10kms.
I crossed the line 80kms and 4hours 18minutes later with back spasms and serious cramps.....22nd overall and 17th in seniors.
Time to recover and back to training......