As the mini bus passed the familiar roundabout with the big sculpture of a bike on it, memories began to flood back from last years Interregionals. We were getting very close to Hadleigh now and there was a buzz of excitement in the mini bus with the 16 riders from both Scottish teams and Simon, driving. After a long drive last night, waking up bright and early for a premier inn breakfast and then a few more hours of driving with a lot of traffic jams at the start, we were all quite tired and looking forward to finally getting there.
The sun was shining and after about an hour of practicing the different skills stations the competition was about to start. I was the 10th rider off and as I stood in the line nervously waiting so many 'what if' thoughts were spinning round in my head. I knew the skills score would decide the gridding for the handicap race and I wanted to start near the front but I wasn't very confident about my skills after practice.
I got off to a good start clearing all 3 of the progressively smaller circles that you had to ride around with your front wheel inside and your back wheel outside. But then it went downhill as my front wheel slipped off the second skinny and I only got 1 point. I stood at the start of the bottle pick up for a second trying to compose myself and telling myself to stay calm. As I picked up the first bottle my hand was shaking because I was so nervous but I managed to put it down on the target without dropping it. Then the second bottle. Then... the third bottle. Amazingly I managed to pick up the tiny bottle, about half the size of my hand and put it down on the square of wood only just big enough to fit the bottle: something I'd never done in practice. After that things went well as I cleared the step overs and the hill climb and got 2 points on the tight twisty slalom course. I had only dropped 3 points which I was quite pleased with but I was sure this would put me well down in the placings and I was quite annoyed at myself for not getting that second skinny. It only was when Tim Buckle announced the results of the girls skills -Ffion 3rd with 14 points, me 2nd with 15, and Martha 1st with 17 points- that I realised I'd done really well and a big smile spread across my face.
The next morning I was nervous but raring to go. There was a 10 second penalty for every point dropped and so the next morning in the handicap XC race, I started 20 seconds behind Martha and 10 seconds ahead of Ffion. I sprinted off the start line cheered on by the Scottish boys watching the race, before they started getting ready for their race. The race was a blur but I remember the first part of the race was like a time trial as I was just by myself trying to say ahead of Ffion just behind me. My legs were burning as I pushed up the short hills and then tried to recover on the technical rocky descents. I don't remember exactly where or when but Ffion caught me and passed me and I sprinted to stay with her and stuck to her back wheel. We were closing the gap on Martha and on the last lap we made it up to her. Martha blew and it was just me and Ffion left. In the end Ffion got away and I crossed the line in 2nd only to then collapse at the side of the track gasping for air and feeling like I was going to throw up. Being me I would've liked to win but I was still really happy with 2nd as Ffion is so strong and I had pulled back a 20 second gap on Martha and beaten her.
I wasn't really looking forward to the sprints in the afternoon as I knew I wasn't strong at sprinting. But after the handicap races Scotland North was leading the overall Interregional championship which fired me up a bit. My first sprint heat didn't go too well as I didn't get a good start and had to resort to trying to pass on the steep twisty hill. I took the inside on the one of the tight corners trying to pass people but skidded out on the loose gravel and fell to the ground. When I got up everyone was already up the hill and so I saved myself and took it easy to finish in 6th. After the four rounds of sprints each with 8 heats in them with 6 or 7 riders in each heat, all your positions from the sprints were added up and the field was split into semifinals with the riders with the lowest points in the A/B semifinal and the riders with the most points in the G/H semifinal.
After the first round I managed to do a bit better and get a 3rd, 2nd, and 3rd in the next rounds. I felt ok and got quite a good start staying ahead of most of the riders but my legs were starting to hurt. With 14 points I just missed out on the C/D final which I knew I could've gotten into if I hadn't crashed in the first round but I couldn't do anything now. I focused on finishing top 3 in the E/F semifinal putting me into the E final. The held start meant we didn't have to worry about clipping in but I was shaking from nerves and could feel myself tipping to the side. I didn't have time to do anything about it though as before I knew it, the whistle blew and my eyes , previously fixed on the hill ahead, slipped down to my front wheel as I sprinted like mad trying to get a good position for the climb. Not wanting to take any risks and crash again I took the corner wide and stayed in third as we climbed the steep hill. The short snaking grassy descent left no room for passing so as we raced along the straight to the finish line I looked behind me to make sure I was clear of 4th place and could ease up a bit across the line.
As the sun was beginning to set over Hadleigh farm I just wanted the sprints to be over so we could go back to the hotel and get dinner. In the final I had nothing left in my legs and ended up 4th which put me in 28th place overall. As it was out of 51 riders and sprinting was never my strong point I was satisfied with that result and the team competition only went on the 3 highest placed girls and boys in that race so my result from the sprints didn't count. After the second day Scotland North lead the Interregional championship by 82 points ahead of North West England in 2nd which meant bar any major incidents in the XC race we had won.
It had all gone by so quickly and we were already on our last night staying at the premier inn, which was sad, but we made the most of it and did get told off by another resident for making too much noise in the corridors.
The next morning I woke up feeling very sick which I put down to nerves as I knew that the cross country was always the main event of the competition. I forced myself to eat a bowl of weetabix and a bit of toast as I knew how hard this race would be- I'd need all the energy I could get. I couldn't sit still in the bus on the way there and just wanted to get into the race already.
After a practice lap of the full xc course, I was confident with all the technical sections except one near a vertical rock shute. I knew I could ride it perfectly fine but it felt sketchy and I didn't feel in control as I let off the brakes and flew down to hit the ground at the bottom with a bit more force than felt comfortable. But I was looking forward to the race as I really liked the course and there were lots of fast sections and a fun drops you could fly off.
I got on the rollers, plugged in my headphones cycling to the rhythm of the music and started my warmup. My legs were feeling stiff though and I felt the pressure building up as the race got nearer. The gridding was based on the team placings with 1st riders from each team on the first 2 rows, 2nd riders from each team on rows 3 and 4 and so on. As we were winning and we had decided I would go first, I was the first rider on the start line which felt awesome.
I didn't get a great start and found myself quite a few riders back going round the start loop then up the hill there was no room to pass so I just sat tight sticking to the rider in fronts wheel. The riders in front weren't as confident on the technical rock descents and a bit of a gap opened between us and the leaders. As soon as I could find a chance, I sprinted by just before the next descent and tried to make it back up to the first group. I got onto the back of the lead group of around 8 or so riders. The race was again a complete blur but somehow I got into a group of 3 with Ella and Erika. This meant Scotland had 3 riders in the top 10 as Tim Buckle shouted out over the microphone; which spurred us on even more. Erika made it back up to the lead group and Ella and I spent the rest of the race gritting our teeth trying to catch riders in front but mainly just staying in the top 10. As the laps went on my legs were burning more and more and the hills were becoming hell but on the last lap I dug deeper and rode away from Ella and the quickly-closing-in rider in 10th place to finish 8th. I was dead and had given everything I could so I was happy. We had also secured our overall win with a 4th, an 8th and a 9th. It was time to relax and cheer on the boys.
Standing as a team behind the 1st place marker on the podium, being presented with our gold medals for the second year in a row was a really great feeling and I was sad this was my last year at the Interregionals. It was such a hard few days but I would do it all over again if I could.
