Glad that's all over!

Final round of the BMBS at Coed-y-Brenin and the race season is (almost) over, hurray! And what an eventful weekend it was. Four unknown sport riders turned up on the start line and soon disappeared up the hill. Knowing my training hadn't been ideal and my series standing unchangeable I just wanted to finish. Minutes later I came across Fran, a fellow Climb On bikes rider, in need of an inner tube adaptor. I stopped to see if I could help but to no avail and was now dead last.

I caught up and passed the next two sport riders only to come across a guy who had rammed his face into the stoney singletrack! Again, I stopped to help. His position of 'face planted firmly into rocks spilling blood, bike on top of him, still clipped in' didn't look very comfortably and his weak flailing and groaning told me I could helpfully remove his bike from his feet without causing further injury. After establishing he couldn't remember his name, Ruth and Rachel caught me up and I told them to ride on to the next marshall. The junior Team Chance rider who'd also stopped then said she'd punctured so I may as well continue with my race. I did so. Only to find Ruth a little further down the singeltrack with a puncture. This scenario became very common as I completed the lap.

The next singletrack and more unhelpful bodies had decided to throw themselves in my path. One more good samaritan session helping to straighten handlebars and a brake lever and I set off once more! Any chance of podium had now gone so I decided just to enjoy myself and was whooping and jumping down the rocks once more, casually rolling down the 4x track with a view to putting all my effort into the second lap, just for fun really.

With all the breaks I'd had on the first lap, the second lap flew by and was most enjoyable, finishing 5th only a minute or so back from 4th. Being my worst position of the year, this round was dropped from the overall series and I happily collected my Series 2nd trophy. Woohoo! Not bad for a year where every spare minute has been spent with a paint brush in my hand, rather than riding a bike.