Photo taken at BMBS round 1The past month has been a very busy start to my race season. Having finally decided to make the move up to elite, I thought it was about time I actually started training properly. So instead of just riding my bike when/where I wanted I’ve been following a structured training programme constructed by my coach. My first year in elite is all about getting as much racing experience as possible and getting stuck into racing. There is no pressure on me to perform.
Having completed my first elite race I went into the university championships quietly confident. After two years of disappointing races at BUCS I was desperate to perform. After two nights of sleeping in a freezing cold tent in Scotland I was ready to race and get out of Scotland as quick as possible! I had done two laps of the course previous to my race with all my Uni friends. I am pretty lucky that I have a good group of talented mountain bikers to train with at University and they’re willing to help me when I get stuck on a hard technical section! The course consisted of a fast grassy start followed by some swooping single track, a big fire road climb and then some fun single track sections.
After studying the start list I knew that if I wanted to do well I would have to give it full gas from the start and keep going as hard as I could for as long as I could. I managed to get a good lead on the first lap and steadily increased my lead over the three laps. WXC swept the board with the podium with Meg and Carla in 2nd and 3rd.
The 28th of March was a day that I had been having nightmares about for weeks. It was my first national elite race. Unfortunately after spending several days with students I caught a gland infection and when I went to race I didn’t have any energy in my legs so I had to pull out after only completing one lap.
Feeling disappointed and lacking in confidence I returned home to Yorkshire for my Easter break. I had several days off the bike recovering and then I made a few trips to Dalby to ride the world cup course. The second time I took a friend to help me with some of the sections I was struggling with.
Easter Sunday was the opening round of the nutcracker north east mtb series. I am very happy that mountain bike racing has returned to my home county of Yorkshire. This first round happened to only be 10 miles from my house so, I pre-rode the course on the Saturday. The course would have been really fast had it not been for all the rain we’ve had recently, so instead it was very muddy and a bit of a slog. Despite knowing that that type of course doesn’t really suit me I got stuck in and gave it my all. Kate Potter and my team mate Cait Elliot were also riding. Kate went flying off from the start and I tried to stay with her as long as possible (that wasn’t for very long at all) Cait did a much better job at keeping up with Kate and had a very good ride. I rode most of the race on my own but was pleased with the fact that I actually finished the race which was a big improvement on the weekend before. Cait is looking very strong for the world cup in Dalby, plus she loves the technical stuff so I think she will be flying! It was nice to have my family there to support me; I think my brother liked laughing at me covered in mud. He likes the mud and rain so was in his element. In the Juvenile race Gretel was also racing. She had a very good race by the looks of it, so it was a successful weekend for WXC mountain bike team UK.
I’d like to say a major thanks to the guys from Nutcracker mtb series for putting on such a great event and I’m looking forward to the rest of the series. I’d also like to say thanks to my team WXC and all our sponsors.
Having completed my first elite race I went into the university championships quietly confident. After two years of disappointing races at BUCS I was desperate to perform. After two nights of sleeping in a freezing cold tent in Scotland I was ready to race and get out of Scotland as quick as possible! I had done two laps of the course previous to my race with all my Uni friends. I am pretty lucky that I have a good group of talented mountain bikers to train with at University and they’re willing to help me when I get stuck on a hard technical section! The course consisted of a fast grassy start followed by some swooping single track, a big fire road climb and then some fun single track sections.
After studying the start list I knew that if I wanted to do well I would have to give it full gas from the start and keep going as hard as I could for as long as I could. I managed to get a good lead on the first lap and steadily increased my lead over the three laps. WXC swept the board with the podium with Meg and Carla in 2nd and 3rd.
The 28th of March was a day that I had been having nightmares about for weeks. It was my first national elite race. Unfortunately after spending several days with students I caught a gland infection and when I went to race I didn’t have any energy in my legs so I had to pull out after only completing one lap.
Feeling disappointed and lacking in confidence I returned home to Yorkshire for my Easter break. I had several days off the bike recovering and then I made a few trips to Dalby to ride the world cup course. The second time I took a friend to help me with some of the sections I was struggling with.
Easter Sunday was the opening round of the nutcracker north east mtb series. I am very happy that mountain bike racing has returned to my home county of Yorkshire. This first round happened to only be 10 miles from my house so, I pre-rode the course on the Saturday. The course would have been really fast had it not been for all the rain we’ve had recently, so instead it was very muddy and a bit of a slog. Despite knowing that that type of course doesn’t really suit me I got stuck in and gave it my all. Kate Potter and my team mate Cait Elliot were also riding. Kate went flying off from the start and I tried to stay with her as long as possible (that wasn’t for very long at all) Cait did a much better job at keeping up with Kate and had a very good ride. I rode most of the race on my own but was pleased with the fact that I actually finished the race which was a big improvement on the weekend before. Cait is looking very strong for the world cup in Dalby, plus she loves the technical stuff so I think she will be flying! It was nice to have my family there to support me; I think my brother liked laughing at me covered in mud. He likes the mud and rain so was in his element. In the Juvenile race Gretel was also racing. She had a very good race by the looks of it, so it was a successful weekend for WXC mountain bike team UK.
I’d like to say a major thanks to the guys from Nutcracker mtb series for putting on such a great event and I’m looking forward to the rest of the series. I’d also like to say thanks to my team WXC and all our sponsors.
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