Cycling: My first elite National podium

Despite my shoulder injury and absence from riding off-road, I was able to ride a strong race and finish fourth at round four of the National Cross-country series at Phoenix bike park, Suffolk.

My sister and I along with one of our best friends travelled across to Cambridge on Friday night where we would be camping for two nights.

The first night was freezing and it was hard to sleep, especially when a crow decided to start pecking away at the car at 5am! Nevertheless, we woke excited to pre-ride the course.

But on arriving, we had a slight shock, the course was located between a dual-carriageway and a trainline and at a glance was pan flat!

After walking the course, I was feeling a little disappointed, the course seemed boring and more suited to cyclocross than mountain biking. There were some massive A-lines but having come with the intention of not riding them (shoulder) I wasn’t worried.

Having ridden the course, I felt a little more excited, some table tops and some gnarly bends would make for some fun racing, although much of the course (short punchy climbs and flat sections) were not suited to my mountain goat genes!

Sunday, we arrived at race HQ just as the first race of the day was getting underway. This allowed us plenty of time to chill and spectate some of the technical sections of the course. I must have got carried away watching, because before I knew it, it was time to head over to the TORQ stand for pre-race food. After a yummy breakfast of cinnamon and raisin porridge it was time to strap up the shoulder and warm up the legs.

Nerves

One o’clock saw me lined up at the start feeling rather nervous, but as soon as the gun sounded nerves were long forgotten and it was time to battle for a good position before heading into the first single-track.

After a good start I was sat comfortably in fifth, but when the track opened up I was able to overtake into fourth. Once again, after the first lap I found myself in no man’s land, with the first three riders too far ahead and no one in sight behind.

This soon changed on one of the many short steep climbs where I made a mistake and span out, this caused me to dismount. Luckily, I only dropped back to fifth and was able to stick on the wheel of the girl in front of me for a bit, before overtaking again on a little climb.

This is when the battle for fourth began – a game of cat and mouse, with both of us attempting to drop the other. My rival was technically better than me and was able to gain time on the A-lines which I opted against due to my shoulder injury. Eventually, I was able to make a break, to cross the line in fourth after one and a half hours of solid racing.