Morgan Jones’s Trip to Xbourne Cross Triathlon
TrailX organiser and course builder Morgan went off to get on the other side of the tape at Xbourne Cross Triathlon organised by Tribourne Events. Here’s a report of his experience at the event.
Having raced both mountain bikes and triathlon for many years I was excited, and also a little nervous about signing up for Xbourne off-road triathlon, although I knew what I was doing in all the disciplines of a cross tri separately, and also how to combine them having done plenty of road triathlon’s, new things are always nerve wracking, and for me finally getting to compete in an off-road triathlon would be a new thing.
I had enjoyed the off-road duathlons I’ve taken part in previously, and was super keen to have a good day out. I love the vibe at off-road multisport events in the UK, everyone is so relaxed and friendly, even if they are taking their race seriously. I had seen the race advertised much earlier in the year but unfortunately due to a date clash with Emilia Romagna 70.3 in Italy I couldn’t enter, however after looking into travel restrictions to get to Italy I decided to take advantage of the deferral option to move this race out to 2022, giving me the weekend of Xbourne free and the week around it already booked off at work.
So, I decided to get my entry in, there was a few weeks to go to the race, which meant it was time to pull the mountain bike out and get some off-road riding in, with all my training focus recently being aimed at Ironman Emilia Romagna 70.3 in Italy and Ironman Cascais 70.3 in Portugal late in October I’m ashamed to say my MTB had been hung up for a bit too long without an outing…
Life conspired against me and those 2 weeks between deciding to enter Xbourne and the race day disappeared really fast and I actually only got out my XC bike once prior to the race. A quick blast round a local trail centre with some stints at race effort reminded me how to ride it again and I felt much better about my lack of mountain biking recently.
I run on trails a lot anyway, but I did take more of my running off road than I would have normally prior to the race, just to make sure I’d be comfortable with the trail running element of the race.
Then with the little prep I could do to be ready for the race all done, race weekend was here.
Friday night was an evening of checking I had everything I needed and giving the bike a quick check over to make sure it was all running well. Then it was up early Saturday morning to get the van packed and start the long drive down to Eastborne.
We arrived at Friston Forest mid-afternoon and with the course all being in public woodland and the signage having been put out by the organisers already, it seemed like a great idea to get a practice lap of the bike course in. I’ve always been a huge advocate for making the most of any available practice time in mountain bike events, as there is often time to be made up by knowing which way the next corner turns and how much grip is on offer which in turn governs the speed you can hold. So, I left my partner Jaymi to go for a wander around to work out the best places to support the following day whilst I pulled out the bike and met with some friends to go for a sighting lap.
The course was well marked and largely non-technical, this was going to be a race for the strong pedallers. Lots of long gravel road climbs with fast descents and rolling sections in between, although I personally would have liked some more singletrack and technical mountain biking, this race is perfect for athletes new to racing off road.
With a bike lap completed it was time to switch into my trail shoes and run the first couple of Km’s of the run. I like to know what’s coming early in the run out of transition as I find it affects how hard I start out, with the first km or so being fairly easy running leading to some nice singletrack climbing back up the hill. After 2km I’d seen what I needed to and we headed down to the gravel road and jogged back to the car park and set about deciding on a pub for dinner.
After a good meal it was off to find somewhere to sleep in the van for the night and we lucked out with a car park that allowed overnight camping. 6am rolled round quickly and it was time to have some breakfast and head back to Friston Forest to get parked and wander over to the race village.
Registration was quick and easy with friendly volunteers handing out the bag’s containing numbers/swim hat and event t shirt, then collected my timing chip and moved away from the tent to get myself organised. I needed to get my numbers on my race belt/bike and helmet, get my nutrition ready and on my bike, then head over to Transition and find my spot in the racking. Having set up everything I needed there was now 20 mins until the race briefing followed by the walk to the swim start. I got into my Tri suit and the lower half of my wetsuit and popped my warm winter jersey on whilst sipping on a bottle waiting to get going.
A quick and effective briefing was given by the organisers and we all started the 1km walk down the riverbank to the swim start. The start time had been carefully chosen by the organisers to give us an incoming tide to push us down the river, although this had its difficulties this was an amazing experience, having to keep to the riverbanks in order to keep our feet planted and stop us drifting through the line early.
It took a little while to get everyone into the water, then finally we got the 1-minute warning, so I placed myself on the line and had to lay back and kick quite hard in the wrong direction just to stay behind the start line. The call came for 30 seconds to go and I wondered if I’d got to the line a bit early, it was really quite difficult to stay behind it with the tide pushing, then it was time 5,4,3,2,1, GO and we were off.
In a few seconds we were really moving, it all got a bit congested as mass start swims often do, but I kept calm and just tried to find some clear water to swim in. After a couple of minutes and the first 200m it started to spread out and I settled into a pace that felt quick but comfortable, sighting off both the bank and the large bridge we would swim under in 800m time, I couldn’t really tell where I was in the race apart from being “nearer the front than the back” so it was a pleasant surprise when my partner Jaymi shouted 7th at me as I exited the river and ran down into Transition. I checked my watch as was astounded to see a sub 11min swim for 1km, that tide really was fast!
In transition I stayed calm found my spot, kicked off the rest of my wetsuit, put on and fastened my helmet, dealt with my socks and shoes, grabbed my bike and ran out to the mount line. I’ve never been super quick in transition, but I find this approach of being “calm and deliberate” actually works really well for me and minimises the chances of mistakes.
Off out onto the bike course and we crossed the field from transition to a quiet road, from there we had a couple of minutes of tarmac to get over to the woods where we would then have to dismount and run (fast walk at best) up a flight of 150 steps into the woods. These were really tough going and after trying to run them on our sighting lap the previous day, I already knew that walking them fast meant I could keep the same pace all the way to the top, instead of trying to run and running out of legs halfway up. This worked well, at the top it was time for a flying remount calling on my Cyclocross experience I was back, clipped in and riding off towards the first climb.
The bike leg was a strange experience for me, usually being my strongest of the 3 disciplines, but having focused on my running a lot more this year, my lack of bike fitness really showed itself on the hilly course, I’m a fairly big guy anyway at 87kg and the relentless climbing saw me going backwards through the field, even whilst I was sat right at my threshold pacing my way up the climbs, racers were catching and passing me. Normally on a mountain bike I’d make this time back up on the descents and in the singletrack, however with the layout of the course the descents were all fairly straight and over really fast, they were exciting but you lost all the elevation you worked so hard to gain in a matter of seconds then it was back to climbing again before the next fast chute.
Although I’d lost a few places on lap 1, I was having fun, remembering to eat and drink and feeling pretty good even though I knew where my limit was. I made up some time on the fast flat gravel road back to the bottom of those steps, and then it was time to do it all again! This time up we were met by a whole host of supporters at the top which really helped, there’s nothing quite like being cheered on whilst you’re racing.
Towards the end of the second lap, we crested the final climb and it was flat or downhill all the way back to transition, and this is where I knew I could drop some big power on the flat. I caught and passed a few riders on the way to the road, then another on the road back to transition, now all that was left was to ride back across the field and into transition for the second time. Dismounting at the line and finding my space I re-racked my bike and made quick work of switching to my trail running shoes and we were off again.
Out of transition I settled into a pace I was happy with and got comfortable running, I’ve always found it hard to resist starting too fast in the run but it’s something I’ve got much better at in recent years. Most of the racers I caught at the end of the bike passed me again, but I stuck to my plan hoping I’d see them again later.
After some easy running on wide gravel tracks, we got into the steep ramps that feature heavily in the run course. After the first couple of these I realised that if I wanted to run well for the remainder of the race, the best tactic for me was to power hike these steep ramps, the speed up them was only marginally slower than if I was to run them, but I came out the top with less damage to my calves and I was able to run better everywhere else.
This turned out to be a great move and with 3km to go I crested the last big climb feeling pretty good. I was able to get into my stride and up the pace on the long wide slightly downhill tracks towards the finish, where we then descended a steep technical descent before popping out at the bottom of the finish field.
If only the field wasn’t a steep ramp up to the line, but it was and there was nothing left to do but grin and bear it as I powered up the final climb in what felt like the slowest sprint to a finish line ever!
Across the line and it was time for a lay down. I was presented with my finishers medal and I was able to get a bottle of water and some snacks whilst chatting with fellow competitors, it was at this point I noticed how much it was actually raining, I’d noticed it a little towards the end of the bike leg, but in the trees during the run it was barely noticeable, now stood in the open field at the finish I realised it was actually pretty wet and cold, so huge thanks to all the Marshalls and supporters standing out in it and making it a great race.
After a few minutes standing it the rain, I was getting cold quickly so we walked back down to the car park so I could get out of my wet sweaty trisuit and into warm dry clothes before we headed back to transition to collect my bike. I made sure to thank any marshals on the way, then picked up my bike and wetsuit and chatted with some other competitors before wandering back to the van, giving my bike a quick clean and then it was time to drive home again.
I really enjoyed my weekend at Xbourne, it was a super inclusive race for anyone with a good level of fitness, although it was a pretty hilly bike and run, it was as hard as you wanted to make it.
I finished 18th Overall, 16th Male, 6th Senior Male and 3rd 30-34 Male, but more importantly I came away for the weekend wanting to find more off-road multisport events to race, so hopefully I’ll get on some more start lines next year.
