Ah nationals! My favourite weekend on the racing calendar and I was also super keen to make amends for my performance last year. Did it happen? Read on to find out..

Early on in the week the forecast was looking quite ominous for a lot of rain so I made the call to swap from FMB Slalom SSC to the aptly named FMB Super Mud. I had heard so many raving reviews and was pretty excited to try the tyres out.



The infamous FMB Super Mud tread.

We arrived into Adelaide late Friday night (our flight got delayed, again). Despite it getting late, I have a thing where I have to build my bike the night that I arrive somewhere, I hate the stress of rushing to do it on race morning. I was staying with my friends Jay and Bindy for the weekend.



Race ready!

The day started pretty similarly to my usual, up and to the coffee shop for a brew and bagel. We went to Tell Henry (a favourite place of mine from TDU). Caffeinated and fed I went back home to rest up whilst Jay went to coach his regular Saturday morning soccer game.

It was pretty cold in Adelaide (but not wet) so we were keen to stay at home in the warmth for as long as possible.We zipped into town taking bike paths and trails to avoid the traffic and arrived 20 minutes before the practice session was due to begin. I hit the practice laps warm as it was about a 20 minute ride to the race venue from Jay’s house.

The course was relatively similar to last year and had a few defining features:

A long uphill head wind straight on gravel;

Sections that were really only one line; and

The infamous swing tree and run.

I had time for two laps which is was enough to see the tricky bits of the course. The section that I found most challenging was the swing tree which required a drive side dismount. I hadn’t practiced remounting from the drive side so made the conscious decision to push my bike up ahead and run around to the standard side.

Warm up time

After practice I had an hour before my race so it was time for the last bit of food and water before starting my warm up about 30 mins beforehand. During the week I lashed out and bought a Feedback Sports Omnium trainer, I have wanted one for ages and knowing how average the weather was going to be I made the plunge.



To be the part you first must look the part. Photo: Harry Dennis

It was cold in Adelaide but I got to the start line a little nervous but warm and ready to go! The seeding for the National Champs was based on our National Series current standings which granted me a 2nd row start.

Before the race a friend who raced masters gave me a very handy piece of advice to do as much work as possible on the long gravel straight because after that section it was going to be very hard to overtake for a while. I got a really good start and slotted into somewhere into the top 15 with my aim of top 10 in sight.

Zombie park. Photo: Harry Dennis

From lap 3 (1/3 into the race) everything started to go really bad, really quickly.

In previous years I have suffered from cramps a lot but they tend to come late in races and this year haven’t actually been a factor at all. I made a mistake and crashed and as I went to jump back on both legs, calves + hamstrings + quads fully cramped. I was really struggling to put in effort and every time I got off the bike my legs would seize up and make it almost impossible to clip back in.



Trying to dig deep but struggling. Photo: Riley Wolff

I wanted to pull in and call it quits but I just couldn’t do it to myself, I knew that quitting would make me even more disappointed.

The cramps finally started to disappear towards the end of the race and I was able to put in a really fast final lap (4th fastest of everyone on course) and was only 3 seconds off my first lap time.

I ended the race in 18th and bitterly disappointed with how I had ridden but I had nobody to blame but myself. My equipment performed perfectly and the tyres were the best I have ever used! After speaking to Chris (my coach) post the race weekend , we put the cramps down to my nutrition. Race day nutrition was consistent but my nutrition the night before the race was lacking. A lot of valuable lessons were learnt.

Until you find me again,

Scott

Check out my friends photo journals from the day:

Riley Wolff

Harry Dennis