The 2013 World Championships were being held in
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. I was happy to get selected to represent Great
Britain in the under 23 men’s cross country race. My preparation had gone well running into the
event having won the final National round at Hadleigh on the 2012 Olympic Games
course and putting together some good training in the weeks prior, I was
looking forward to it.
We headed to South Africa a week before the event to
give us time to get ready to race and have a look at the course. The course was
dusty with some nice technical features such as rock gardens and drop offs, I
had raced the course previously the year before so I knew what to expect and
had an idea of how a race could unfold. We spent the week running in to the
race doing nothing special other than practicing the course.
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Race day was
Friday and it eventually came around and I was excited to race. I had
number 11 so I would be on the second
row for the start which I was happy about compared to the year before where I
was number 86, which is about row ten. This meant I had a much better chance
for the start which is important. As I lined up I was slightly nervous but
ready to go. I started well and did about 5 pedal strokes into the race before I
found myself top tube riding and looked down to see a missing chain! This is
not an ideal situation as I looked up to see the front of the race disappearing
into the distance. The race isn’t over when you snap a chain but the chances of
a good ride go out the window. There was a technical zone just after the start
so my mechanic nick was able to fit a new chain to my bike which takes about
2-3min and then I was able to start the race. It was a 6 lap race and I was now
last man so I tried to settle into a good pace but this is hard as I started to
catch people and trying to overtake is a challenge on narrow single-track. I
also had some gearing issues due to the new chain which provided some challenge’s
but I pressed on the best I could and started to move through the field. I rode
through to finish in 32nd place but obviously quite disappointed as
I knew I could have done a lot better, on the plus side I must have some power
to be snapping chains on the start line ha-ha. After this we competed in the XC
sprint eliminator on the Sunday, I was looking forward to this as I have never
done one before and they consist of a short 2min sprint race. The reason I have
never done one before is usually they are the day before the XC race and for a
skinny man like me a sprint competition is a bit of a challenge. I gave it
everything I had to try and qualify but finished in 44th which was
not good enough as the top 32 go through so that was my World Champs over. I
had a great time in South Africa and learned lots; it was especially fun to
spend some time with GB downhill squad and obviously the fellow XC’ers Kenta
Gee, Mikey T and Alice Barnes. I would also like to say a massive thanks to
everyone in the GB support team for supporting me throughout the year in bike
races and especially away from the bike races, it is much appreciated. Finally
massive thanks to my coach Phil Dixon for all his work! Next up I have the
final World Cup round in Norway with Superior-Brentjens which will be great
fun.
Thanks for reading, Grant.
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