Windham World Cup

It all started with a rainy day in Glasgow. We got to the airport nice and early and went to check in. Although when trying to check the bike box in we found out it was 43kg and so they were a bit hesitant about letting it on the plane. Thankfully they did though.

The flight was much longer than any flight I'd been on before but the plane was pretty comfy and we had a TV so it wasn't too bad. Finally 7 and a half hours later I had my first real glimpse of New York. It looked so big from the sky, I couldn't even imagine what it was like to be in it. 

When we landed into Newark airport I wasn't expecting the crazy heat that greeted us. And everything seemed huge. It was all on a scale much larger than anything I'd ever seen before.





After we'd stood in an immigration queue for what felt like hours, spent ages lugging the bike box and suitcases around trying to find the car rental place, and then faced the nightmare of trying to drive out of Newark, we were finally off. Driving up the New York State thruway was like one extreme to the other as when I looked around there was just forest for miles around, as far as the eye could see.

The day after we arrived was Wednesday: track walk day. And it looked fun! So loose, and fast with some big jumps and drops. But I also knew it was going to be pretty tough. 

It took me a while to figure out the track in practice. It was so different to most tracks I've ridden before. But I was pleased that I managed to get all the jumps apart from the 12 metre road gap and the double in the woods that had like no run in to it. I could feel the track tiring me out already and I realised just how much strength you actually need to be able to properly tackle these World Cup courses, a lot more than I currently have.


On Friday morning during practice I had a pretty big crash in the rock garden and injured my wrist and tore a ligament in my thumb. So I put ice and bandages on them, had some painkillers and just took qualifying really steady because the junior girls don't need to qualify. 

I was super nervous but excited for the race. I wanted to try and push it as much as my injuries would let me. During Saturday morning practice I managed to find a bit of speed on the track which I was happy about. And the weather was so good: so sunny and dry. But that also meant the track was so loose and dusty, and I was struggling a bit in the heat. I was also still feeling a little tired from the travelling and time difference.

Before the race Rachel Atherton very kindly got her physio Laura to tape up my hands which was very helpful. 

The race run was hard but at the same time so exciting and fun. The American crowds were so crazy cheering us all the way down the course. I had a small crash in the rock garden and towards the bottom of the track my wrists and thumb were really starting to hurt griping on to the bars, but I was pretty happy with how it went. I ended up 18th women and 1st and only junior girl racing. And then got to watch the British girls get top 3 and Aaron Gwin win in front of a home crowd. 

Two years ago I had my first shot on a downhill bike at Fort William. A few months later I bought my first downhill bike. Now I've got my first top 20 at a World Cup. I've still got so much more to learn but I definitely learnt a lot from my time in America, and feel now that I know a bit more what I need to work on to compete at World Cup level.

Big thank you to Natural Retreats for helping fund the trip and for getting me some awesome jerseys and hats. 

British Downhill Championships 2015

After winning the BDS at Moelfre I felt the pressure for the British Champs at Llangollen the weekend after. I knew I was capable of winning, but I also knew that every single one of the Junior girls competing was capable of winning. Last year I was gutted not to be able to compete in the British Champs because I had crashed and gave myself concussion and stitches in my face the week before. Ever since then it's been a big goal of mine to win that striped jersey. 

It was a pretty stressful weekend because I really wanted the win and I knew at the end of it I only had one run to make it count. In practice on Saturday I wasn't feeling very comfortable in the dusty conditions and having my bike sliding all over the place. I managed to get the three drops at the end though after Hope let me follow her into then. However after testing both lines we figured that the B line was actually faster. 

Photo by Phil Bulkeley

I had had a few crashes in practice including an over the handlebars off a drop into a steep corner which hurt a bit. And at the end of Saturday I still wasn't sure of some of my lines on the ever changing track so I wasn't feeling very confident going into race day. 

I managed to just qualify first by 0.4 seconds with a pretty messy run. This gave me a bit of confidence as I knew I was roughly in the right place but the times were super tight and all the girls were riding well this year. I would have to up my game in the race run.

At the top waiting for the race I was the most nervous I've ever been for a downhill race. It didn't help that they were running half an hour behind so there was even more waiting than there should have been and I had the pressure of being last Junior girl down. 

But once I got on the track it was so much easier to stay calm and focused. Everything finally came together and I managed to get the lines I had been stressing about. It was over in a blur. I crossed the line 2 seconds up. I was so relieved that I had managed to pull it together when it really counted. 

The sun was out as I crossed the line

The podium ceremony was pretty fun as we got to have fake champagne wars and completely soak each other. It was also awesome to see a full podium of girls in the Juvenile, Youth and Junior categories. Well done to Aston, Rona, Hope and Gemma, it was super tight racing with only 10 seconds between us all! Big thanks to my sponsors and my parents for all the support.

It was hard to open!

The woman who inspires all us girls

Lucy and I in our awesome Female Riders kit

Tweedlove EWS

The Tweedlove EWS was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done and one of my unluckiest weekends on a bike, so really happy to have just finished it.

After 2 good days of practice I was looking forward to the racing. The sun had come out and it looked like Saturday was going to be a nice day. I started just after Lucy Grant, one of the 3 other under 21 girls, and so we rode together for most of the weekend. 

Going along the cycle path to Innerleithen we caught up with a guy who was playing music out of his rucksack so right up to the top of stage 1 we formed a little chain and listened to his music. It was pretty cool. I was working hard up to the first stage as we didn't know what the transition times were like but then we got up to the top with like half an hour to spare. So a bit of sun bathing and refuelling was in order. 

Stage 1 was fun, although my chain came off on the uphill rock garden which was a bit annoying. Then on the bottom section I  went into the tape at one point as I couldn't remember that the course went left and didn't follow the trail right. 

Stage 2 was from the top of the downhill tracks down to the Innerleithen car park. It was going quite well and I managed to roughly remember where the course was going. It was so cool how many cheering spectators there were lining track, I wasn't used to that at all so it was quite hard to stay fully focussed. I got to the bottom corners which were super loose and I can't really remember what happened but the front wheel must have washed because next thing I knew I had hit the ground hard. I couldn't move for a minute because I was too sore. I think somebody picked up my bike and someone else picked me up and dragged me to side of the track. But all I could think about was I need to finish the stage, so I jumped back on my bike and got down to the bottom. It was then I realised that I had really quite hurt my right leg and elbow and my left hand. 

Going down stage 3 I was a bit shaken up and sore, so I crashed a few times on the steep stuff but I got down to the bottom in one piece. The last stage of the day was super fun but so long and physical on the whole body. 

The amazing hospitality of the Wilcox's, Christine's cooking, and an Osmo recovery drink helped me recover that evening but I still wasn't sure if I was going to race the next day as I couldn't really walk on my leg. 

In the morning I decided I was going to race as I couldn't just give up as easily as that, and it was only 2 stages due to the weather. 

                                    

At the top of the first stage I saw some old friends I used race xc with who had come to watch which gave me some motivation. I was feeling quite good on the steep muddy stuff at the top of stage 5. But then when I got down onto the flat section my wheels completely clogged up and the bike just stopped throwing me onto the ground landing on my elbow and leg that I had injured the day before. It was so slippy just getting up off the ground was a mission. I tried to push my bike to get the wheels moving but they weren't having any of it. Even after getting my gloves completely covered as I tried to remove the thick mud between my wheels and the frame it still wouldn't move. So I tried to carry my bike that was now a few kilo's heavier with all the mud stuck on it but my arms and my elbow were so sore this took a lot of effort. I tried to run with my bike for a few metres until I slipped and ended up on the ground. After a lot of swearing at my bike and ending up on my bum a lot I eventually made it to a bit of downhill steep enough to give me momentum to get the bike going. 

Because I'd taken so long getting down stage 5 all the other under 21 girls had gone when I got to the bottom. I had to quickly take my mud guard and jacket off and then start heading up to stage 8. I realised I was actually quite tight for time by this point and didn't have enough time to get anything to eat. Running low on energy, feeling pretty sore, and having no-one to ride with made the climb up to the last stage really tough.  

When I got to the top I literally had about 30 seconds til I had to go which was a bit of a panic and gave me no time to recover. 

I tried to take it pretty easy down the top of stage 8 to give me a bit of a chance to recover. But when it got rough I could hardly hold on the bike because my elbow was so sore. I felt genuinely embarrassed passing all the people because I was riding so slow and rubbishly.  Especially on the uphills I felt like I was going backwards as I had no energy and couldn't put pressure through my injured leg. The last descent to the bottom was a really fun one and so many people were watching and cheering, but I would have really liked to have ridden it faster and better than I did. 

I did feel a big sense of achievement when I got to the finish though, and on the plus side I had some snazzy new kit to race in thanks to Nicola from Female Riders. A big well done to the other under 21 women, especially Lucy coming 3rd in her second ever enduro. Now time to rest and recover for the World Cup next weekend, then onto learning how to actually ride my bike. 

My first BDS- Ae Forest

After coming 4th at the Innerleithen SDA I was feeling a bit disappointed and that I really wasn't on form this year-I hadn't felt fast or confident in my riding at all. 

On the Tuesday before the BDS I went out for a ride with Jamie who had won the SDA at the weekend and was riding well this year. The snow had come back and we went over to ride some of the steepest trails in Grantown which was pretty sketchy but I was feeling a bit better and found following Jamie good for pushing my riding. I was also feeling a bit fitter than I had a week before.

Then on the Wednesday night it was back down south again to Abbington services ready for a coaching day with Ben Cathro at Ae on the Thursday. As there was no uplift on the coaching day we were just sessioning a few of the lower trails below the fireroad. At the start of the day I didn't feel great but as the day went on Ben got me to be more aggressive and confident with my riding and helped me learn how I would spot and choose lines. I felt like I was pushing myself more and going faster.

Friday was a pretty chilled out day. The guys at the Hope tech tent very kindly bled my brakes and in the evening I did a track walk with Rona and Rachel. The track walk was a completely new thing for me as I had never done one before, but I found it quite helpful. The track looked hard though! It was wet and muddy and rooty and had quite a few jumps and gaps in it including a very awkward looking stream gap. 

On practice day the weather was getting better and the sun had come out but the track was still very slippy. I was pleased that I managed to do the stream gap and this rooty drop off a tree. However as I started going a bit faster I then crashed on that drop which kind of knocked my confidence on it a bit. I also felt I was getting the hang of the muddy rooty sections and corners a bit more as well. 


I had decided that I was going to go round the big coffin jump and so there was only one more thing left for me to ride: the step-down. I really wanted to do it and I knew that I was probably capable of riding it but I just stood looking at it for ages and couldn't bring myself to just go off it. I left practice day feeling pretty disappointed in myself for not doing the step-down and really worried for the race the next day. 

Race day came and the track was still quite wet but was definitely drying out a bit. Before my seeding run I was feeling really scared. As I was pushing myself a bit more in seeding my run felt messy and I felt like I was making mistakes all over the place. I was really surprised to hear that I had seeded first. I did know that a few of the other girls had had crashes but it still felt quite good and definitely boosted my confidence for the race. Although in the first ever Junior womens category at a BDS there were 8 riders and some very strong competition so I knew I would have to up my game to win the race.

My new Banshee Darkside was handling well and I was getting more used to it. And I made sure to do a proper warmup at the top. I felt ready to race. As I had seeded first I was going off last for my race run. This both felt like a lot of pressure but also felt pretty cool. I really wanted to win after having such a bad first two races of the year. 

It felt like my best run yet. I felt fast. And then I took off over the stream gap squint and as I landed on the grassy banking my wheels just slipped out from beneath me. After that there was a section of flat with a berm and then a step up so I had to run and jump on my bike and then peddle up the step up. I made sure not to give up but was thinking in my head that I had messed up my chances of winning. 

After jumping down the elevator I sprinted as hard as I could to the finish, trying to get back any time I could. I could not at all believe it when the commentator announced that I had gone quickest. 

And one of the best parts was as the Junior Womens Category was sponsored by Rachel Atherton this year I won a sweet GoPro Hero 4 as my prize! 

Photos: Peter Smith and Sarah Barrett

Innerleithen SES Round 1 2015

The first round of Scottish Enduro Series at Innerleithen didn't exactly go to plan. But at least the bike was working well and felt good.

For the few weeks before the race I'd had an illness that had gotten progressively worse. It had really affected my chest and given me a horrible cough, and I'd ended up on antibiotics. It had also meant I hadn't been able to get any good training in so I was feeling way less than fit enough for an enduro race. I had decided that I wasn't going to go to the race but a few days before I began to change my mind. I felt I would be expected to go to it, and I would be annoyed at myself if I didn't at least give it a go. Anyway I might feel ok when I got down there, and the forecast was for warmer weather than up north. 

I set off in a group with 2 of the other girls who were racing. But after a bit I got distanced from them as I had decided I was just going to take it super easy to try and save myself for the stages. 

Although even after taking my inhaler a lot I was still finding I was still finding I could hardly breath going up the hill and my coughing was coming back. I had made sure to get plenty of sleep and really fuel up beforehand but still as I was going up I could feel the energy being drained from me. It was on the last climb to the top of stage 1 that I knew I probably wouldn't be able to finish this race, so I was going to give stage 1 everything I had. 

The first half of stage 1 was super fun and muddy, and I was really enjoying sliding about on all the roots. Then there was about a 30 second fire road uphill sprint, which wasn't so fun. I tried to sprint but was just breathing so hard I felt quite close to fainting. And one after the other people would fly past me, which was rather demoralising. I was pretty glad to finally get to the top of it and zoom down the steep little chute off the fire road. But just as I was descending into the second half of stage 1 my goggles suddenly steamed up and I could hardly see a thing. Not wanting to stop and take them off I continued on swerving my way down the muddy track, narrowly missing quite a few trees. I knew I was in some sort of muddy rut but I really couldn't see it very well. My front wheel must have hit the side of the rut and washed out because next thing I knew I had face planted in to the mud. At least this gave me a chance to take off my goggles. I scrambled up, untangled my bike and put the power down on the pedals now I could see again. But only a few corners later I was out of the trees and down the little chute to the bottom of the stage. To add to all that I had a bit of a nightmare getting my dibber to register at the bottom, and had to frantically wipe the mud off it before it finally beeped.

I felt annoyed that I hadn't been able to finish the race, and that I'd wasted an opportunity to get some good training in and practice on the Innerliethen trails. But I also knew what I had felt like at the enduro races last year when I had been fit and well and this wasn't it. I knew I would probably make myself more ill if I carried on. Now I'm going to focus on getting better and getting fitness back for the next races.