This weekend was the National XC Championships, a race that is normally the biggest and most anticipated race of the year. I had heard a lot of good things about the course from my team mates as they had raced on the same course at the Southern XC a few weeks prior to the nationals. Pippingford was a really testing course, fast bermy descents, quarry section and lots and lots of climbing. I spent a few hours on the Saturday pre-riding the course and practicing the sections I was struggling with until they were mastered. We spent quite a bit of time at a small sharp climb in the quarry section. However after watching a few of the elite men’s lines, I discovered that it was actually quite easy.
Hollie and Gretel raced on the Sunday morning, whilst Rachel, Carla and I had to wait till 2.30pm to race. I normally like racing in the morning, so that I don’t have much time to get nervous. The U23’s race set off two minutes behind the senior women’s with the men just a few minutes ahead of them. There were only 6 of us in my race so even though I had a shocking start not being able to get my foot into the pedal I was still able to make up the places and go into the first descent following Lily’s wheel. I seemed to take all the bad lines on the first few descents which I had perfected the day before, which was really frustrating. Also normally my climbing is where I make up time, but my legs felt heavy and unresponsive. Even now I’m not sure what happened on Sunday, all my preparation to the race had gone great, my legs felt good pre-riding the course. Looking through my lap times, it was clear that something had gone wrong, usually my lap times are very consistent but this time I had got slower and slower and slower! I just had one of those days. I kept plugging away throughout the race and was really pleased with second. results.
I just want to say that Carla was unfortunate to puncture on her second lap as she was flying and I think we would have had a good battle for the podium positions.
Hollie and Gretel raced on the Sunday morning, whilst Rachel, Carla and I had to wait till 2.30pm to race. I normally like racing in the morning, so that I don’t have much time to get nervous. The U23’s race set off two minutes behind the senior women’s with the men just a few minutes ahead of them. There were only 6 of us in my race so even though I had a shocking start not being able to get my foot into the pedal I was still able to make up the places and go into the first descent following Lily’s wheel. I seemed to take all the bad lines on the first few descents which I had perfected the day before, which was really frustrating. Also normally my climbing is where I make up time, but my legs felt heavy and unresponsive. Even now I’m not sure what happened on Sunday, all my preparation to the race had gone great, my legs felt good pre-riding the course. Looking through my lap times, it was clear that something had gone wrong, usually my lap times are very consistent but this time I had got slower and slower and slower! I just had one of those days. I kept plugging away throughout the race and was really pleased with second. results.
I just want to say that Carla was unfortunate to puncture on her second lap as she was flying and I think we would have had a good battle for the podium positions.
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