First race of the year goes well - Thetford Winter Series round 4

Expectations were low, I got back from Middle Earth less than a week ago and have been seriously toiling with the jet-lag, which is unusual for me. Wide awake at 2am then up for work at 6am, not good and I have not been my usual cheery self. Dawn and I set off for the long drive to Thetford, staying with her friends Tracy and Russell who made us feel very at home and fed us lots, and arrived in Cambridge early evening.

Didn't help that I tried to fix my rear brake myself (Women - know your limits - don't try to fix your bike, stand around looking pretty until a man does it for you) which meant I had no rear brake as the piston popped out taking with it half the fluid. Didn't think it would matter on a flat course so I decided sleep and food were more important than rushing about trying to get it fixed, and I was right never even missed it.

You can read the report on the BC site but I managed to win this race again, had to work a bit harder for it this time. A girl in yellow was determined to stay at the front, so I let her pace it for the first half of the 1st lap. Then my bag of tubes/canisters/tools which had broken fell off so got dropped as it took me a minute or two to fix it. Went really hard and caught her at the start of lap 2, which hurt quite a lot as I have done nothing except steady base miles for about 6 months, still coughing bit of lung up. We had a few tussles, but I was able to get away using the sneaky trick of drafting off some male riders passing us on a fireroad (hoping thats not against the rules ?) and led to the end of the race. Not by much as it turned out, finished 2.37 ahead. Was pleased to come in over the four hour mark, was no way going to do another lap !! Last year I had to lurk at the finish line in case anybody else went out again... Turns out the girl in yellow needed the win points to take the series so that was one sullen podium, but I would be annoyed at being beaten by somebody as old and fat as me (cringing at the photos) so can't really blame them.

I love the races at Thetford they are so friendly, and the flat course and swoopy BMXy singletrack makes a change, it's a lot harder physically there is just no rest, I was almost looking forward to the short slightly climby bits.

It was a long drive back, totally wired and subsequently more sleep deprivation, so taking a days leave from work today to sort out some stuff for upcoming races and de-stress a bit on the black run at GT, I seem to be awfy busy just now, but I guess it is better than bored !