I’m Jenson Young, a professional cyclist, living in Hemingfield.
Dirty Reiver, Northumberland
After some bad luck and disappointment in the first three races of the season I was determined to change this at the Dirty Reiver 200k and get some confidence back before going into a more important racing block of the season starting with The Trakka in Girona, Spain on Saturday.
After returning home from Monterey, California, racing the Sea Otter Classic, I took a forced week off the bike as I got ill as soon as I arrived home and I desperately needed to physically and mentally recover from all the racing and travelling from the first part of the season.
I took positives from my first time racing gravel in the states, however it was mainly another learning experience and racing against some of the top pros in the world.
It was three laps of a 30-mile circuit starting and finishing at the Laguna Raceway Motor Circuit, I started well and managed to be in the front group the end first lap until I started to feel unwell and could no longer hold on.
There was as a small mechanical that I had to get fixed when I reached the team mechanic at the assistance zone.
I dropped from the leaders all the way to 72nd, for the next lap I tried to recover the best I could after being certain there was no way I could finish the race, but in the end I fought back to finish 39th.
It was not the result and performance I was hoping for, but there were plenty of positives to take away for the next races and work on during my training.
Dirty Reiver is a fun event catering for all abilities with the option of a 65k, 130k or 200k race around Kielder Forest, Northumberland.
It was my first race with the team in the UK, and a relatively small event for the team compared to what we have already done, however that meant as a team we had to deliver a good result and show what we are capable of.
A fast start split the race leaving only seven riders left at the front after about 15km, including myself and my team mate (Metheven).
The next 100km were all about fuelling correctly, looking after our bikes on the rough terrain to avoid any mechanicals or the likelihood of bonking (a state of severe fatigue and weakness caused by depleted glycogen stores) later on in the race.
This event didn’t allow for outside assistance from the team, meaning we carried everything with us including enough water to last for the 200k.
It was a six and a half hour event, which was four litres to be exact for myself.
One by one the group got smaller with the distance, at around 100km we were left with only one other rider, at 120km me and Metheven were alone.
This was a dream scenario, we were going quicker than anyone else on the course, all we had to do was work together, keep eating and drinking and keep moving forward.
However, at about 150km that becomes easier said than done, with us both going through some pretty rough patches mentally and physically, having each other was ideal as we could take it in turns to pace and give the other some time in the draft to recover.
Eventually we crossed the line together which was really cool and made the last 200k, six hours 22 minutes (I believe that is a course record) with 3,600m of elevation gain, all worth it.
Third place was over 15 minutes behind us and to top it off, Sophie (our teammate) won the women’s 200k so a dream day overall for the team.
