MAXIN & RELAXIN

My time has come to ride the final timed section of the day at Grinduro Wales. I’m waiting alongside 30 fellow gravel riders in hushed silence. There have been rumours running rife all day about how technical and difficult this part is going to be. “If you don’t find me at the bottom, maybe check the hospital,” I jokingly tell my friend, who is also riding. At last, I’m at the front of the queue. The marshal gives me a reassuring smile and then I’m off, bracing myself for what’s to come.

This final race stage, it turns out, is glorious fun. I crash down some flinty doubletrack, enter a few sharp berms and zoom towards the finish arena. A group of spectators cheers me on as a giant boulder slab sends me down the last stretch in a blur and then under the finish line. Someone