SOUTH WEST SERIES ROUND 4

BY CARLA HAINES

The final round of the South West series was now here. I was looking forward to it as there has been quite a gap since the last mountain bike race I did (Bontrager twenty four/12).
I pre rode the course and really enjoyed it. As it had rained it was quite muddy in places but still dry in other sections. I kept the tyres I was racing on (Kenda tubeless small block eights). They seemed to grip quite well even in the wetter parts.
My bottles were already made up and I was ready to race. Us females went off last, which was a bit of a shame but also good as well so I could pick people off one by one.
The whistle was blown and off we went. My start wasn’t the greatest; Jane Cummings (vet winner) was off like a rocket so stayed with her as much as possible.
We caught up the slower riders of the vet men so did get held up quite a bit on the single track. There was a technical section near the beginning of the course where riders were coming off in all directions; it was quite hilarious but a bit frustrating as I just wanted to get on and race!
By lap two, every one had spread out a bit, which was good, so then I could use people as targets to pass. I dropped my bottle a quarter of the way in to the 3rd lap. I got really thirsty that I slowed down a bit.
On my last lap I grabbed a bottle from the feed zone and drank it like anything!! I felt hydrated again and went as hard as I could for my final lap. With about 800m to go to the finish I could see a fellow training partner up ahead. I rode up and sat on his rear wheel and hung on as much as possible all the way to the finish.
I was quite exhausted and pleased I put in the extra effort to the end.
A great course and have enjoyed the whole series.

British Cross Triathlon Championships; Nicola Duggan

I had been looking forward to this race for a long time, I won it last year and the announcement that it was to be the British Cross Tri Championship this year made it a big target race for me this year.
Athletes from all over the UK attended, including several other pro Xterra racers. The race was covered by the BBC’s Adventure show so there were plenty of film cameras around the race site at St Mary’s Loch. I had a pre race interview with a presenter of the show asking about the course and conditions and potential rivals!
swim Conditions were wet, with rain showers during the morning. The race started at 2.30pm in the 16 °C loch. I swam hard at the start to gain a good position in the field and before long forgot about the cold. I exited the water in a good position.
bike My transition was unfortunately quite slow, and the cameras were there again, but I set out on the mountain bike course 3rd female, about 30 seconds behind the two leaders. The rain was quite heavy, but that suited me as I don’t mind a muddy MTB course! I caught and passed the other two females fairly easily on the first climb, and continued to push hard for the whole bike course in order to gain as much time advantage as possible before the run. I ended up in the river on the first lap in the river crossing, and at some point lost my water bottle so became slightly dehydrated as the race progressed. The downhills were fast and varied between rocky tracks and boggy slopes, but I kept focussed and enjoyed the course too.
I came into T2 with around a 9 minute lead over 2nd place (although I didn’t know at the time), and set off for the 10k run course. This was flat beside the loch for the first half (with a few stiles to climb over) then up a fire track through the forest for a long climb to the top of the hill. I kept running as fast as I could (difficult up the hill!) and was relieved when I reached the top without being caught!
run I enjoyed the final descent back to the finish, down a track across the moor with the transition field in sight, and was very happy to finish in first place and take the British Champion title!
After another interview, I could relax and enjoy the evening with the presentations and the hog roast and a good chance to catch up with Xterra friends!

Bontrager tentyfour 12; Rickie Cotter

What a coarse! This is my new favourite coarse lots of singletrack, wet roots and sum really good descents-what more could you ask for!
We had a lovely downpour of rain on Friday night just to soften things up and make those roots a little bit slippier.
I was really pleased to have a bike start I had my best start and then my saddle slipped on the rails, slightly annoying but no biggy. My heart wasn’t in the race and I struggled to get my mind in the right zone, which is surprising because I like riding in the rain and can handle mud /wet roots and I was only doing a 12hr.It wouldn’t effect my performance too much, in these situations I just let my legs and lungs do the work and they never let me downit's a good test of character when you still have to race but your heads not focused.
I went steady and just concentrated on my riding, in the rain you couldn’t afford to make a mistake, choosing the right lines into the mud and committing to the roots by hitting them with enough speed was essential.
When it got dark the mist made seeing really difficult and the rain didn’t help visability, it was still warm so it wasn’t bad.
I managed to win the race but my mental performance was rough luckily my physical performance did the work and was acceptable.

Note to myself: remember to bring my mojo for the next race.

British National Championships; Jessie Roberts

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.

Irish National Championships; Cait Elliot

The Irish National Championships held in Djouce woods in Wicklow promised to be one of the best courses and events of the year – and didn’t disappoint. Although I’d comfortably beaten my competitors in several races this year, I was feeling the pressure on the start line with my heart pumping as if the race had already started. I had a jersey to defend and after messing things up a bit last year I knew not to get complacent, there’s always a risk of a bad day, a mechanical or crash ruining things.We set off up the hill of the start loop and I got squeezed into the inside line and forced out the back. It took a sprint out of the last corner to overtake 3 people and get ahead as we hit the singletrack climbing. From there I just put my head down and pedalled, trying to catch and overtake the juniors who set off just ahead of us.The course was brilliant, real mountain biking at its best. It was a long lap with lots of climbing, mostly on technical singletrack, and each time followed by the reward of a brilliant descent. There was plenty of variety, some fast flowing trails, others rooty and steep, all made slightly more difficult with overnight rain greasing things up a bit.Into lap 2 and the others were out of sight. I was really enjoying myself, feeling good and cruising around. I dropped my bottle on the first descent which could have been disastrous but luckily I screamed for water at the 2nd feed zone and some kind person handed me a bottle – I was parched by that stage and the last climb would have been nasty without it.Towards the end racing against the men in masters and vets kept me entertained. I was doing ok but not quite the same as racing girls, it was a very physical course and I struggled to keep up on the faster technical descents that required a lot of upper body strength (back to the gym in the winter!).
The cheering crowds and clanging cowbells up the last climb and round the singletrack to the finish made a great atmosphere and took away any feelings of pain that were setting in. So I finished first with a decent gap and pretty pleased with my performance. It was a funny race, more about being composed and riding cleanly than close fighting and pushing myself as is usually the case. The only downside was getting whisked off to the drugs test caravan the second I finished, a bit of an anticlimax since I missed watching the men’s finish and catching up with people.I think the prize giving and podiums were my favourite part of the day – a new jersey, a huge trophy, a bouquet of flowers and best of all champagne to spray all over everyone. Great fun! A massive thanks to everyone from Epic involved in organising the race, there was a serious amount of work there. The atmosphere, the trails, the onsite entertainment, the cheering spectators made the biggest and best xc race I’ve been to in Ireland.

Hmmm remembering the pain from the last 24hr solo I questioned for a moment why I was doing another one but then it came to me...I liked the pain. There is no logical reason to ride this sort of thing other than to try and beat other silly people who also think it's a good idea and too really push the boundaries to try and find your limits, the ultimate test of endurance-why else?
If your really short like me then a running start is never good especially in spd's. I started on the front of the line and managed to stay in the top quarter as we mounted our bikes. First lap craziness followed and I really had to reign myself in and remember this is a long game. After a few laps I found my pace and started to focus on getting the fluids and fuel in.
This course seemed to have a fair amount of climbing some of it quite steep, it was really dry for the majority of it even some dust. Braking bumps were giving my arms a beating but I guess with this amount of traffic braking bumps are inevitable
I was looking forward to the night it brings an air of dread to most but I really like the complete feeling of solitude and you have to get your skills perfect, no room for errors in the darkness. Not forgetting the amazing sunset it reminds me why I love to ride.
As dawn broke early, around 4am, realising you have 10hrs left is quite grim but I got my head down and rode through it and it hurt, a lot!The last few laps required some stern words to myself and just to keep moving was becoming quite an effort.
Carla and I finished together and for once I was happy to stop pedalling. Would I do it again? Hell yeah!!

Having been chosen as part of the team relay Mountain mayhem was finally here and I was really excited.
The morning of mayhem arrived. Off I went to sign on then pre rode the course. It had rained a bit at night so changing my tyres may have been a possibility. The course was great; good climbs, fast single track, open fire track and a few techy sections. After completing one lap I decided to change my front tyre to Kenda Nevegal and leave the rear one Small block eight.
A quick stroll around the arena, we met a few of our sponsors, Kenda tyres and Osprey hydraulics and had a quick chat before the race started.
Before starting we had a team meeting to discuss the break down of laps and how many we were doing etc. Once this was finalised it was time to race! I was chosen to start, which included a half-mile run!!
I was on the start line 30mins early with teammate Ricky who was competing in the 24hour solo!! I was getting more and more excited and had a huge adrenaline rush. Thousands of competitors were at the start ready to race.
The horn went and off we ran. The route was pretty basic but quite difficult running in mountain bike shoes! In to the transition area, I grabbed my bike, ran to the mount line and off I rode. He first lap was really fun-there were ques entering parts of the single track in the woods because there were so many riders! It was quite amusing in a way as well.
It took me just over an hour to complete an 8.8mile lap including the run. My teammate Rachel was ready in the transition area as I was riding into the arena. I passed the baton to her, and then off she went to complete her lap.
I had a couple hours break before I was next to go so went back to the team tent to relax. The atmosphere was great and we were already leading the Open Women’s team category, which was great. But we had another 23hours of racing yet to be done!!
It was very close the first few laps into the race, but we were slowly, gradually increasing the time between 2nd place and us.

Preparation for events like these is a priority. Taking on as much fuel as possible through out the day and night was essential to keep energy levels up. Spare kit in case the weather/temp changes especially at nighttime is key.
Riding at night time/early morning was great fun. Some marshals had music playing in their tents and were so encouraging through the tough parts of the race. Riders had Christmas lights wrapped around their bikes, others had bells and even some were on Uni cycles!!!
Three quarters into the race I was up and ready to rock on and get some laps under my belt and gain some more time on the other team. At this point we were leading by 28 minutes. The sun was shining, music was playing, we were winning what more could you want in a race. I stayed as focussed as possible and tried not to let lack of sleep take over me. That lap was completed in a reasonable time and we were still in the lead by quite a way.
The team were so encouraging I wanted to go out and do more laps, but I did have to wait my turn.
With an hour until 24hours of racing was complete, I was able to get in another lap and finish it for the team. Team mate Rickie was also winning and leading by 2 laps which was amazing! I caught her on the final part of the course so we decided to finish together. As we rode in to the arena everyone was lined up along the barriers cheering and clapping. I was so proud at that moment and pleased that we were in one piece and had two wins.
We collected medals at the finish line a rode back to the team tent and handed them out.
Out of the whole 24hours the team only had 2 mechanicals, which is very good going! We couldn’t have asked for better weather, dry and sunny by day chilly but clear sky at night!
Thank you to Weldtite for their support through out the whole weekend and also to the best team, WXC Mountain Bike Team UK for all their hard work and effort.
Bring on Mayhem 2011!!