2017 Season Review

Countries raced in: Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, France, Canada.

Total recorded distance cycled so far in 2017: 2550 km (+ a lot of unrecorded riding)

Elevation gain so far in 2017: 74,302 m

Recorded calorie expenditure so far in 2017: 1,006,196 kcal (+ a lot of unrecorded exercise)

Shocks broken: 2

Longest race stage: 24:15 minutes

Podiums: 10

Rims broken and rebuilt: 3

Distance travelled to races: 17378 miles

Races not finished: 0

Trips to A&E: 1

Races not raced due to injury/ illness: 3

Bike parts that haven’t broken: Banshee frame, Hope tech hubs, and brakes

Other achievements: Level 2 MTB leader award passed

                                  Firsts in all University modules

Process goals achieved: Doing the step down at Ae Forest, Doing the motorway jumps at Fort William, Winning an Enduro World Series stage, Racing a Womens Road Criterium

Hardest race: EWS Ireland

Races less than a second off the win: Ae Forest SDA, Aberfeldy SDA, Scottish Downhill Championships

Trying to Stay Positive

I ended my 2015 season on a high. Firstly winning the Pitfichie SDA on a sunny dry weekend. I then started the BASE course at the beginning of September and began to love it immediately. The gym work was hard and we were getting out riding most days- it was awesome! And to finish it off I put some of the coaching points we had been given to practice at the Fort William Enduro and won U21 girls.

One warm Wednesday evening late September, about a month after I had started the course, I was riding downhill bikes up the downhill trails with my some friends. 

Long story short I way over estimated the size of a jump and landed basically into the next one. I must have landed on my head as I smashed my helmet and then came down with a lot of force on my front and wrist. For a minute, I couldn't breath. Finally I got a gasp of air, and I began to realise that I couldn't move my wrist. 

I ended up in hospital for a night as they were worried about internal bleeding or something like that, but luckily that was all ok. However a fractured scaphoid, some fractured ribs, a partially collapsed lung, pulled muscles in my abdomen, and lots of bruises and cuts put me completely out of action for a week or two.   

When I came back to college I was determined to still do as much as I could on the course. In the gym Kenny was really supportive, and helped me with variations of exercises so I would keep up a bit of strength, and he gave me lots of things to do to work on my balance and core. And I would try and get out on as many ride days as I could, just riding my XC bike one handed up all the hills and then watching them session areas and listening in on all the coaching points. 

After being in a cast for 9 weeks, when I finally got it off I thought things would get better immediately. But what I didn't realise was that was only the start of the recovery process. And a very long process at that. 

My hand and wrist could hardly move, all the muscles and tendons were very tight and weak, and my wrist was still very sore. I kept worrying that it was still broken. I could still hardly do any of the stuff the others were doing in the gym with weightlifting bars, and I couldn't ride any of the trails they were doing on ride days.

During the next few weeks the movement and strength got gradually better. But it felt like anytime I took step forward and it looked like it was improving, I would take 2 steps backwards and it would get worse again. I wrote down some of the little milestones I reached to keep myself positive.

Day of getting cast off:

Back riding jumps and smooth trails (with Loic Bruni!!) 

Few days after getting cast off: 

Back deadlifting with bar

Starting to put light weight on wrist with small dumbbells 

A week after getting cast off: 

One legged squats holding 10kg weight in front of me

Holding just over 300W for over 3 minutes on the rollers

A week and a half after getting cast off: 

Back to deadlifting 40kg

First time running over 20km

Back doing press ups on my fists

Wrist visibly moving more and more flexible each day 

2 weeks after getting cast off:

Deadlifting 60kg for the first time

4 weeks after getting cast off:

1 rep max on front squat- 50kg

1 rep max on deadlift- 75kg

As it was coming up to the Christmas holidays the frustration was beginning to build up. Even though I had made some progress it felt like I may as well still be in a cast. Any time I tried to ride any trails my wrist and thumb were so painful and stiff and I knew riding on it, and jolting it about like that wasn't helping it to heal at all. My physio and college tutor Kenny told me that I should take a complete break from off road riding over the Christmas holidays. So for two weeks I just did road cycling, running, skiing, and some bodyweight strength exercises. When I came back to riding after the new year it was amazing how much better my wrist felt. 

  

6 weeks after getting cast off: 

Can put some pressure and weight on my wrist
Can do press ups on hands without fully straightening arm 

7 weeks after getting cast off:

First time riding Enduro bike again with no wrist pain

First time riding Downhill bike since I crashed, over 3 months ago

Back doing push press with 25kg

Back doing clean lifts with light weight

When I knew that I could ride without a lot of pain I thought that things would go back to how they used to be again. But I very quickly realised this was far from the truth. Going back to riding properly with Base after the Christmas holidays was really tough. They were onto riding the downhill bikes on the Innerleithen downhill trails. But they had already spent weeks dialling their techniques and getting their confidence up, building up to the technical, steep trails we were now riding. They were all riding fast and confidently and weren't afraid to try things and get loose or crash sometimes. Although my wrist was now feeling a lot better, I had missed out on all of this. I wasn't feeling confident on the bike at all, and constantly in the back of my mind was the fear of crashing again and hurting my wrist again which was still quite vulnerable. 

I had to make a big effort to think about my technique and line choice on all the bits we were sessioning. I felt a lot of pressure to very quickly relearn techniques and get fast.  

But after the first few days, I began to relax into the fun atmosphere of ride days again. And I began to see improvements each day I rode. I was still pretty scared, but I was loving riding again and was beginning to get the feel of the bike and a good body position again. Andy, Ruaridh, and Rab, and even all the others on the course were really encouraging. I couldn't have asked for a better environment to come back from injury into.  

After New Year my wrist had improved a lot, my riding was getting better and I felt like I was getting stronger and fitter again. However despite trying to eat all the right foods, drinking lots of water, taking vitamins everyday, trying to get lots of rest, trying to train super hard and monitor it all, I kept getting ill. 

Even though I tried to monitor everything I was struggling trying to work out why I wasn't feeling very fit at all and whether I needed to go out and train hard or whether I needed to rest. 

And suddenly the season was nearly upon me. 

As I’m going to be focussing on enduro this year- the Scottish Enduro Series, the British Enduro Series, and the Irish, and Italian Enduro World Series Rounds- fitness is a big worry for me.

Even though I've had a pretty tough off season with it also being the first time I've lived away from home, and I'm not feeling how I would want to feel right now, I'm trying to remain positive going into the first race of the season: the Dunkeld Enduro. I’m going to set myself some process goals, try enjoy it, and just see how it goes. 

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