Here we are the national 110 in my race but gridded 14th so 2nd line as to last years 100th to get 22nd.
On the way it took an hour to dig the car out the snow the main road hill was not gritted and the a38 was not clear till derby end so it was a struggle even getting here, Top job to organisers for putting it on and a good turnout by the men, unfortunatly only 2 or 3 in the ladies races think BC got there work cut out to get more ladies into this sport more girl power needed, the kids races were cancelled and the load of fun riders from the day before cancelled races did not turn up to race with us .
I had a good turbo session inbetween the snow falling off the trees and wind, then onto the warm up arena till we were called up so exciting the atmosphere .
I got gridded well behind Ant White in front of me , it was going to be a fast spint start, Finally we were down to the last 30seconds , we were off, the start section was really slippy I got a good gracefully of muddy water killing my vision but settled into 10th behind last yr national champ Lewis king them moved up to 7th behind friend Adrian Laurance , first lap at 22.06 was unde a minute off to leader ,second lap I was still on Adrian tail , we had already planned to do this pushing each other along but just before fire road decent to arena area I slid with front wheel n hit a stump head on, Game over! After jumping on and pushing down on each corner it pooped straight well ish!! And losing loads time I was off again, start of third lap Ant white passed me another cannondaler as I was off the pass the Heart rate trail after went from 175 max to zone 3 to 2 as I backed off the wheel was buckled big time , I shouted to him can you ride with a buckled wheel but as I've changed sponsor to SRAM he did not recognise me.
So it turned into a go as fast as you can but back off an any roots or bomb hole bit as not to fold wheel , I always thought £800 stans gold 29er weren't v stong as I raced mavic 26" slr before at dalby bomb proof!
So I finished the race about 20th behind Ant White n a few others , due to number boards being muddy and I did try wiping mine, got 79th with 2laps as if I would ever pull out of a race!! So after sending garmin data n emailing got put to 19th I knew that was wrong! then they settled me into 23rd still happy with that considering,
My vision was not the best with contact lens n Oakley jawbones , maybe I should carry a cloth, my left hand was so cold n knumb n feet were frozen as was the bike after sitting in car before cleaning it, what an adventure
On the way it took an hour to dig the car out the snow the main road hill was not gritted and the a38 was not clear till derby end so it was a struggle even getting here, Top job to organisers for putting it on and a good turnout by the men, unfortunatly only 2 or 3 in the ladies races think BC got there work cut out to get more ladies into this sport more girl power needed, the kids races were cancelled and the load of fun riders from the day before cancelled races did not turn up to race with us .
I had a good turbo session inbetween the snow falling off the trees and wind, then onto the warm up arena till we were called up so exciting the atmosphere .
I got gridded well behind Ant White in front of me , it was going to be a fast spint start, Finally we were down to the last 30seconds , we were off, the start section was really slippy I got a good gracefully of muddy water killing my vision but settled into 10th behind last yr national champ Lewis king them moved up to 7th behind friend Adrian Laurance , first lap at 22.06 was unde a minute off to leader ,second lap I was still on Adrian tail , we had already planned to do this pushing each other along but just before fire road decent to arena area I slid with front wheel n hit a stump head on, Game over! After jumping on and pushing down on each corner it pooped straight well ish!! And losing loads time I was off again, start of third lap Ant white passed me another cannondaler as I was off the pass the Heart rate trail after went from 175 max to zone 3 to 2 as I backed off the wheel was buckled big time , I shouted to him can you ride with a buckled wheel but as I've changed sponsor to SRAM he did not recognise me.
So it turned into a go as fast as you can but back off an any roots or bomb hole bit as not to fold wheel , I always thought £800 stans gold 29er weren't v stong as I raced mavic 26" slr before at dalby bomb proof!
So I finished the race about 20th behind Ant White n a few others , due to number boards being muddy and I did try wiping mine, got 79th with 2laps as if I would ever pull out of a race!! So after sending garmin data n emailing got put to 19th I knew that was wrong! then they settled me into 23rd still happy with that considering,
My vision was not the best with contact lens n Oakley jawbones , maybe I should carry a cloth, my left hand was so cold n knumb n feet were frozen as was the bike after sitting in car before cleaning it, what an adventure