Surrey Hills Gravel Cross CX Sportive

This weekend had a medal in it. The Wiggle Surrey Hills Gravel Cross CX Sportive. I’ve enjoyed a few Sportives in the past and a cross sportive was a chance for me to try out my AWOL on some mixed terrain, which the bike handled prodigiously. I think the main weakness in the rider/bike relationship this weekend was actually the rider who kept chickening out on some of the really technical terrain. And when I say chickening out, and this is probably a bit pathetic, there were some really muddy sections that I walked around because I didn’t want to fall into the mud.

The event was okay as these things go, it was well organized, and the Wiggle staff were really great but it wasn’t the most subscribed event I’ve been to so there wasn’t much of a buzz out on the course, they also had to abandon the cyclo-cross section as it was waterlogged which was a bit disappointing having made a big thing of this being a timed special stage. But most importantly and I am sorry to say, the medal is a bit rubbish. I think I am being more than fair when I say that this is a generic medal with a sticker on it. In short, nice event that took me and my bike out onto terrain I would never have found by myself, shame about the medal.

Other news. My bad knee is starting to play up again and I think I have worked out what the problem might be. It went from being introduced as Right-knee, to Bad-knee two years ago on the second or third day of a charity ride from London to Paris. I gave up cycling big distances for a long time after that, my knee recovered and I didn’t think about the problem again. Then last year after a fairly intensive year or running and riding, with bad-knee always grumbling about being asked to do complex stuff, like bending which I am sure is in it's job desription, it finally blew up spectacularly in an off-road race. It was something to do with my lateral Collateral Ligament and it put me out of action for a few miserable months.

This week is the first time I have put some real miles on my bike(s) since the injury and like an old but unwelcome friend, Bad-knee turned up again. It dawned on me that I haven’t adjusted my cleats in my cycling shoes since… well ever, and on a bit of a whim I gave the right cleat a bit of a tweak before setting off on the Sportive. I wasn’t sure it was a good idea to adjust it ad-hoc before an event but my knee hurt the moment I got on the bike so the way I saw it, it couldn’t get any worse. And in the end it didn’t. I think I need to have a serious look at my bike set up to see if I can improve my body position even more but I might have increased my chances (if only slightly) of an injury free year. Touch wood.