Awesome race which always deliveres exciting racing, around 1h 15min of racing over the three legs of 5k run, 20k bike, 3k run.
Always some gd athletes attending but this year it was down to the three of us from our whats app, "Felinfach pro tour team" everything it's says but not professional or close to being a team.
Had a gd winter of training, not 100% but consistent, not missing the basic sessions and increasing the edge with the weekend racing.
The trusted cube hadn't left the house in 6 months but had enjoyed a weekly dose of zwift, getting an hour or 45 min effort in when not running.
Turning up to the race I was excited to see how the turbo work would transfer to real life road. Technique would be much improved hopefully helping to hold some power down.
I walked out of the leisure centre with 5min to go and the start gun went off, my watch was wrong!!! Very lucky everything was ready to go with the bike. Headed off with the group through town before the big climb up to pencefn, pulled away in front and felt strong reaching the top. Continued towards the turn before a downhill Sprint to the village finishing with a comfortable gap of 90 sec ready for the bike. 30sec transition I was off. That's a rare one for me, switching between disciplines not my strongest talent.
The route from Tregaron to bont was relatively flat and with the TT bikes behind I knew I needed to hold the lead before the backwards leg through the lanes where I could gain time. But having put the Cube through a once over on the bike stand the night before things were not good. Every effort out of the saddle the gears would jump and the chain would catch on the derailler. I just thought of it as a one off but everyhill was a crawl, something rubbing. I moved by brake adjusters out just in case and carried on the return lanes back to Tregaron. The leader Steff passed me going up one hill then Pooley.
On climbing the next hill the bike came to a stop, no pedaling chain stuck I couldn't move. Luckily i was next to the hedge and fell into it. I unclipped and my rear wheel had jumped out of the frame. The sqeewer had worked loose. I got the wheel back in and sorted the chain and I had a new bike, gutted at such a stupid thing to go wrong.
I put an effort down to gain time and came in probably 2min down on the leader. Thought I could at least make a race of it but to be fair both were running well. 3rd place not the worst but frustrated looking back. Steffen taking a surprising win on his local event, fast running followed by a stunning bike he was definetly the man to beat.
Next year we shall be back. New bike and maybe some tri bars, looks like I've outgrown the CUBE.
