Gorrick Brass Monkeys Series Round 1 4hr XC race was only my second ride in 8 weeks on the MTB following collarbone plate saga finally concluding with the removal of the metal plate, what could possibly go wrong?! Apparently my collarbone might still have some holes to seal from the screws making it a bit fragile should I stack it, hold on tight! That said I was really looking forward to some racing again as I haven’t done anything since September.

It’s been a bit of a slog of late with the as usual over stretching myself doing various extracurricular activities alongside the (currently stressful as hell) 9-5. Despite this, working with Lee Eaton at Advance Cycle Coaching we’ve kept plugging away and nudged the bar up as we head towards the Strathpuffer 24 in January.

I’ve done a fair amount on the turbo of late which had enabled some efficient use of time though it’s more of a struggle to do the pre work ones these days.

Anyway all this resulted in turning up at the Gorrick event ready to see where I’m at. The forecast was a bit grim with rain and cold, pretty good Puffer training I thought. The course was awesome, a real good mix of classic British fun in the woods stuff with a couple of cheeky technical descents to keep it interesting. Despite all the wet weather the ground was really firm and normal XC tyres were fine, apart from on the slick roots, of course, but then nothing works on those anyway.

I went hard-ish at the start but tried to hold back and most importantly stay upright. There was a fair bit of traffic but I used this to just chill and lower the heart rate. I found a grove and kept pretty consistent. Even managing a strong couple of last laps to regain two places overall. As ever there was a strong field but 7th in Cat, in around people I’d normally benchmark myself against, so it was a decent result.

A good confidence booster and bonus that I stayed upright. A few more weeks of focus now, and avoiding too much Xmas excess, and we should be good to give the Puffer a good crack, oh and it’s now the UK 24hr Champs so a decent incentive. I’ve sort of avoided this one for many a year, partly as it takes as long to get to as Finale 24 in Italy and partly because, well it looks pretty grim! However with the timing of my collarbone recovery I felt like the summer miles didn’t have anything to be used up on and waiting until spring 2024 might be hard in terms of keeping the motivation going. So in the absence of anything else I got an entry to Puffer to keep the focus and have a target to aim for.