SXC Round 3 – Cathkin Braes
After a winter of suffering on the turbo complimented by some big road runs when the weather was favorable I knew my leg speed would be put to the test at the 3rd round of the SXC at Cathkin Braes, Glasgow. This course had been purposely built for the commonwealth games in 2014.. Coming into this my training has been focused on the Snow Roads 300km audax on the 25th May, so I knew that it would be hard for me to up the speed!
The race started off just as I remember SXC’s did, flat out! As I was not used to this I found myself near the back into the first corner. I then had to pick myself through the field until I was in the thick of the racing. Legs were feeling good so I pushed on and ended the first lap in 7th place. I then had a battle with the rider in front of me, where I caught him on the uphill sections but he was getting away on the downhills. This then changed and I managed to pass him and stay in front. I passed another rider on lap 4 and held the advantage till the end coming home 5th with a time of 1 hour 33 minutes and 15 seconds.
Considering my lack of short distance training I was pleased with the result as legs were still strong right till the end!
Good man Mark, quite fancy trying one of these not sure if I’ll fit it in this year though
Hows the course by the way, looks very open and man made from the vids?
Course was good, suited me quite well. Nice tecky downs and some good passing bits as well. Quite a short course but I guess thats so the spectators see more of the racers. All of it is man made and it seemed to hold up well to the weather. Part of it is fairly open but there is a nice section going through the trees.
Depending how many of the top racers there are there could be a bit of a procession though as there isn’t a big climb till nearer the end (start/finish may be different at commonwealth though). Good course all in all and would go back to ride it again as well.
Thought about heading down to give it a try but the short loop put me off, would be a lot of laps! Seems quite a different course to the one in the Olympics.