First place on a fun course

A first for me at the latest round of the Midlands cross country series – a couple of weekends ago now! Ryan and I made the sunny trip up to Sheffield last Saturday. With the start list looking relatively small for my race, I had my mind set on the fastest lap prize and first place. The venue was a little hard to find because the postcode didn’t take us directly to it, nevertheless we arrived with plenty of time to spare.

The race was located in the beautiful Rother Valley country park, such a sunny day had drawn hoards of people out to enjoy the water sports activity centre which was situated directly next to the race track.

After signing on it was time to pre-ride the course, I also used this as a warm up (to conserve some energy). The course started with a long grassy climb to the top of a field, back down it and then straight back up again. I loved this and could tell at once I was going to enjoy the rest of the course. The descents were just as enjoyable – dusty, fast and not overly technical. Feeling excited to race on such a fun course, I headed back to the car to strap up my shoulder and collect my water bottles.

Due to the limited numbers in my race we were set off with the junior men, I managed to stay on one of their wheels until the top of the first climb when they disappeared in a cloud of dust down a descent – but that wasn’t the last time I was to see them.

By pushing hard on the climbs (even overtaking some of the males) but taking it easier on the descents to protect my shoulder I soon found myself leading with a substantial gap on the other female competitors. I soon began to fatigue as a result of the heat and finding it hard to drink, due to the nature of the course – this made the climb on the last lap something of a slog, I’ve never been so grateful for a descent! After five exhausting laps in the heat I crossed the line in first place.

Feeling satisfied with my performance and how I raced I headed over to the podium to wait for the presentations. I was happy to be called up for the fastest female lap time – exactly what I’d had my eye on coming here! Next up was the Scott Mountain bike Marathon in Minehead… blog to follow shortly!