The Lees Valley Mountain Bike Challenge was a first for me. It consisted of 80km of fantastic open gravel roads amongst some spectacular scenery. The course stretched right into the middle of the valley and climbed back out to reach the finish line with a few farm animals to ride around which made for a couple of close calls at times!
Right from when we hit the first hill the legs felt fantastic and a game plan was being put into place. There were a few of us at the front of the race until Brent Miller came off around a corner. I waited for around 30 seconds in anticipation to have someone to work with over the approx 25km of flat and undulating middle section of the race. I looked back and saw nothing so I decided it was time to go and see what I had in the tank.
I dropped Craig up a short climb as I put the pressure on and now it was "go" time. I came down not shortly after to cross the river and saw I already had a big gap after stepping the pace up the previous short climb. It was now time to go solo and get stuck in, head down until I reached the final 20km of hilly terrain to reach the finish. I had a strong ride and once I hit the hills again no one was insight but I kept pushing hard and came across the line with the new course record of 2 hours 47 minutes. (exact time to be confirmed) I was very pleased, to say the least, with my ride!
Thanks to Cycleways, event organisers, marshalls and event sponsors.
