2nd IXS DOWNHILL
Monday, 17 August 2009 07:03
I am pretty happy with my result this weekend. For the last 10 days I have been with my neighbours nan's house in the South of France and have not even seen a bike let alone ride one!
Dad phoned me Thursday and asked if I wanted to do the IXS European Cup race in Chatel - training was Friday with qualifying on Saturday and I did not get back till Friday night! I was so desperate to ride my bike, I thought it would be fun!!
The cut-off point for Junior Women is 1994 (15-18) so as my birthday is 15.06.1995 (14) Dad had to ask the commisseur if they would let me race. They did, I think there was one other boy there but he was a little older than me. So after getting back late Friday night it was up early Saturday and over to Chatel - it is only 1hr in the van so not too bad.
The course was amazing as they were using parts of the black, red and green runs - really steep, rocky and rooty... Dad video'd Nigel Page on part of it about 3 years ago... although we did not do the wooden bits!! See Nigel here
Training was going really well but I could not get down the whole course without crashing, I even had a big rock slide that when I went down made the inside of my scar bleed - it really hurt!!!! Then I got it... it was just after lunch and I went for a run before qualifying and nailed it - I was so stoked and could not wait till qualifying.
I was a little nervous at the top for qualifying and actually thought I might get caught by these older girls - stupidly, I had a crash on a really easy section, but I dragged my bike back up and really pushed hard to the end - 3mins 40 secs... I had qualified 3rd. In my last race in Scotland, Si Atherton had told me that in a crash you lose 20-30 seconds... I was in 3rd place just 11 seconds behind the girl that qualified 1st - a girl that I have beaten before... I was really confident for Sunday!
Sunday was race day and a big thank you to Dave at Stendec as while I was away he made me some Mavic rims to my Pink Hope Pro II Hubs - they are For Race Only!!
The morning training was great, I didn't crash once! I made a few mistakes but sorted those out in a few of my other runs. I wasn't that nervous at the top for my race run, my goal was to catch up the girl in front!
The actual race went well accept for a couple of stupid, stupid mistakes that I really shouldn't of made. I had so much fun, this is one of the best tracks I've ridden. 3rd place DICKERHOFF Leoni Caroline 03:28.893 (she was 2nd in the European Championships this year!) 2nd place me... Tahnée Seagrave 03:27.591... and 1st place Laura LOHNER 03:22.739. I was a bit gutted as I have beaten Laura before and I think if I had trained, may have just beaten her.
I am glad that I did this race, my bike was working so well, and the track was my kind of style, I tried my best, but she obviously tried harder. Don't worry, i'll have her next time for sure!!
Gallery below but all the pix can be found on my facebook page
