Steph Fountain: Race 23: World Championships MTBO Sprint, Hungary, 21/08/2012

I was dreading today's race, the description was 'an open area with a dense network of paths'. I felt physically sick this morning because I wasn't actually sure if I'd be able to find them all. I was OK in the start box, but scared to find number 1 was off the tracks. I didn't look at any other legs in my minute, just planned out number 1 carefully. And it worked! I went straight to it. Very happy.

It went a bit downhill from there though. I found that the tracks were of no use whatsoever, I navigated by hills and shrubbery. Not my strong point! There were a few where I was all over the place. I stopped a lot and stayed calm and gradually got better as the race went on and I got used to it. I never planned ahead, full focus on the current leg each time. That was all I could do.

It took me over double the time of the winner but I finished OK and I came 65th, beat 9 people, which for this race was amazing. Also it turned out that I got joint fastest time to the finish with 3 other girls so I've got the green jersey again! Amazing :-)

Emily finished 2nd!!! Now that is brilliant: