“But do you know what you did well?”
“Yeah, I pulled hard and took smart lines”, I replied.
“And how is that different from what you did yesterday?”
The past weekend saw part 2 of the British Wildwater Selection Series. This event would be finalising the team for the Senior Sprint Worlds Championships in Augsburg along with the Junior/U23 teams and contribute towards the selections for the World Cup Series. Oh, and the Sprints were also this year’s British Sprint championships.
Having secured a place on the Senior European Championships team last weekend (YAY!) at least some of the pressure had been lifted and I was relieved that this event was happening at my local spot Nottingham and not another 6 hour drive away. The event followed the same pattern as before, with sprints on Saturday (this time in the evening) and Classic early-ish on the Sunday.
You’d imagine that racing on my home ground (or water) would confer a sizable advantage, however thanks to a small access ‘predicament’ we’d only managed to get on the white water course in wildwater boats a couple of times in the last year. This meant, with additional course configuration changes, everyone found themselves on an equal footing. As such I spent the entire hour of our allotted practice time squeezing in as many practice runs as I could, trying to get to grips with the complex boils and eddy lines that define the Holme Pierrepont course.
Some nice photos from the weekend + my “slightly too close to the groyne face”
Between these practice runs, warm ups and the race runs I manage to rack up an impressive 10km of paddling/walking back up on the Saturday afternoon. Some people would argue that this was maybe not the best sprint preparation. Those people would probably say that you should rest between practice and racing. Those people are probably right, but this was all part of my gamble to get as much time on the course before the Sunday’s Classic (my main target) and because I figured there was a greater danger of haemorrhaging time with a bad line, than there was time to gain from being able to pull slightly harder.
Did this plan pay off? In short, no but also possibly yes? My first sprint run was very clean, however I managed to guff the start which cost me vital seconds. My second run had a much better start but I had to scrub off some speed to avoid piling into a groyne, which screwed up the next bit of the line and also cost me vital seconds. Somehow both runs ended up being roughly the same time. I did manage to slightly improve my position when compared to the previous weekend, and it was a good learning experience, but one that has probably cost the selection for the World Champs this year.
Okay, disappointing. But did the plan pay off for the main target, Sunday’s classic? Well this is where the ‘proverbial’ boat gets lodged across the entrance to the white water course.
Somthing somthing, shit creek
This was somewhat suboptimal. With an entire flock of fire engines descending on the scene and few other options, the decision was made that we would be racing on the flat. While this will probably go down as the worst classic course in wildwater history, after my disappointing sprints and a 2nd place the previous weekend I felt like I had a point to prove.
There is arguably one positive of not having anything substantial at the end of the Classic: there is no need to worry about leaving anything in the tank for trivial tasks like controlling the boat. You just pull as hard as you can, safe in the knowledge that if you can see when you cross the finish line you’ve done a bad job. I’m happy to say that I did a very good job and once my vision returned I was rewarded with a 1st place, an Easter Egg and 25 points towards my World Cup bid. A strong finish to a good weekend, but with lots of lessons to learn. (Thanks to Orange for the debrief.)
A selection of atheletes and Easter eggs
While I haven’t done the maths, I’m reasonably confident I’ve missed the selection for Worlds. On reflection I’m in two minds about this. I have a somewhat complex history with Augsburg, a course which was largely responsible for this blog’s hiatus. It would have been a great story to return after everything and enact my revenge, but I’m not a great sprinter and I prefer classic racing. With limited annual leave and money I’d still probably choose Euros and World cups over a purely sprint event. Still, it’s always nice to have the choice.
It’s a slightly weird world in which you compete against your friends to see who gets to go on a ‘holiday’. What often gets left out of these posts are the pre-race board games, chaotic cooking of saturday night dinners and the pungent ‘naughty kids on a sleepover’ vibes that we exude anytime we go anywhere. I’m very excited for Euros. I have never been to North Macedonia before and it looks like we’re going to have a cracking team for it.
Shortly before that we’ll be having the third and final selection race to decide World Cups. With a 1st and a 2nd, I wouldn’t say my selection for in the bag, but it’s definitely bag adjacent. That said it’s not over till its over and racing on the Tryweren can be spicy! (If by spicy you mean, full of rocks!)
Full results at https://www.wildwater.org.uk/
Photos thanks to the Singletons
River Stench 