A good start

Having just logged on to write about our racing this weekend I see that Chris has, helpfully, beaten me to it and so I don't need to write anything in particular about the course. I will however add that it wasn't really my cup of tea either, with the fire-road climbs a little to short for my liking and the twitchy bits through the trees were for some reason a real challenge. That said I have done well on flat courses in general so I definitely went into the race not knowing what to expect.

The unknowns continued as I lined up on the front row of the grid with 10 other girls, a somewhat unprecedented number in my experience (congratulations Martin!). There were a good few faces I knew and it felt great to be lining up at the start of the race with so many familiar faces from the last couple of years. But equally there were a few faces I didn't recognise!

After the elite women, junior and youth boys headed off we were brought to the front of the grid. One start missed, then bang we were off. My start wasn't too bad and I went past Chris in 3rd wheel apparently. Once we hit the fire-road however I decided I wanted to be in the lead so I put the hammer down and got myself there. As we went up the first climb Jess came alongside me but I dug deep and went into the singletrack still in the lead. This was perhaps my first mistake since then as soon as we hit the next fire-road Jess came past me and I had little to respond with. Soon Emma Smith, the eventual winner, came past me as well but I was able to stay with her for a little while. I was a muppet through the trees however, stalling all over the place and not feeling very at home on my bike at all and she got a little bit of a gap.

For the rest of the first lap and the second I could see both Jess and Emma ahead of me and I seemed to gain on them on the hills but loose them through the trees. On lap 3 I lost sight of them and that was that for the rest of the race. It was at this point I starting making mistakes. I swept wide on a fire-road and hit the deck grazing my arm and a bit later caught my arm on a tree. Another nice bruise to come there! Like Chris I was also going for the hop and hope option with the log and by the third lap this was looking very messy and I stalled here too, damn! As I came through the start finish for the last time I spotted Lydia Gould behind me. I know she has a strong finish from previous experience so had to put the hammer down again to try and hold her off. Thankfully I did, although perhaps more due to her bad luck than my skill and I finished in a strong third.

There was some confusion over where I did finish but Phil Buick managed to convince me to hang around for the podiums and I sent him off to Chris with a bottle (would be great to have a little more time between races I think!). The podium was a bit of a damp squip as Emma didn't show. However, I got a voucher for a photo from Joolze (thanks!) and a nice trophy, so all in all not a bad day. The next two races were really exciting and it was great to catch up with so many friends.