Cleaned in order to get muddy

I was supposed to be up in Ellon today, seeing my mum, then taking her to the Scottish Cyclocross champs a little south of Aberdeen; but with my sister's literal back-breaking activity she's gone down to her place to nursemaid for the weekend. So instead I'm leaving early-ish tomorrow to pick up my father-in-law and head up with him.

Probably just as well, as a slight issue developed with the bike a couple of days ago, and sorting that lead me to upgrading a couple of parts and then I figured I might as well give the bike a thorough clean (it got cleaned after the last muddy outing in Lochore, but then I commuted for a couple of weeks on it).

It might seem a bit of effort to go to considering this time tomorrow I'll be driving back south with a newly mucky bike on the roof, but I'm going for the psychological advantage on the start line, given I don't have any physical advantage. It's still slightly odd to think I'm riding in a national championships, even if again I'll be scrabbling around at the back of the field (and being the champs I'm suspecting the quality will be higher than usual towards the end of the field, so we'll see if I can match my previous 6th last).