Race 25: World Championships MTBO Relay, Hungary, 24/08/2012

The relay was another open area race, which meant it was cycling in a desert. It was ultra hot and there was a lot of waiting around too as I was the third leg. I like watching the start of the relay because on the whistle rider number 1 picks up the map and sprints to their bike. They hop on and race off, without any time to look at the map.
Emily was first and she came in 15th, she tagged Pippa and that meant I only had another 45 mins or so to wait. There were two spectator controls, one about half way round and the other just near the end. When we spotted Pippa at the second one I poured a bottle of water over myself and waited for her to get in. She'd done really well and we were 12th I think when she got back.
I had to sprint up a hill and around the corner to get my map. Most controls were off paths and I was really not in my comfort zone at all. The heat was horrendous and my route resembled a spiders web! I was looking around all over the place for just about every one. I just wanted it to be over. The last part after the spectator control was great! If only the rest had been that way. We ended up 17th. I put this one down as character building!

Race 26: World Championships MTBO long, Hungary, 25/08/2012

This was my best race ever! I was in the A final so it was the top 60 women competing. The start was a bit strange because you had to go up 5 mins before to cycle around the corner for 2 mins before reaching the actual start. They said we would get two A3 maps and pick up a 3rd near the end. I only got given 1 map so I was a bit concerned I was missing one! The people didn't speak English. So off I went, hoping that the 2nd & 3rd maps were out there somewhere!

I'd poured 2.5 litres water over me at the start, that seemed to keep me cool enough as it was windy today, and only 32 degrees! It started off in the forest too so that was nice. All the forest controls went OK. I fought my way through some undergrowth to get to the railway tunnel, a branch ripped my shorts and cut my leg.

I met Sue, an American, at the butterfly control. We all had the same control three times with two different loops coming from it (to prevent following). I met her on my 2nd loop, she was on hers too, she'd been struggling to find the control we visited three times so I managed to make up 6 mins on her. It meant we were going the same way though. We did the rest of the course together. Well not together really because we'd go different ways to some controls and we always seemed to arrive at the same time!

We got to the map exchange together and had a larger urban map to get us to the finish in the town square. Thank goodness there were only two maps! I enjoyed the run in, it was a nice route by the river. Just near the end Sue got a puncture! I gave her my gas as she only had a pump and she was only 2 mins behind at the finish.

Today was forest, then open ground, then urban. The open was some sort of military place and it was fine. Not like the races we've been having! It was a big climb to the last control, my lungs were screaming. I rounded the corner and sprinted for all I was worth to the finish. And it worked, today I was the fastest girl in the world again for the final sprint! I got beaten by just 4 boys too!! I did 16 secs, the world champion bloke did 14 and three other blokes did 15. I came 53rd in the race. 53 / 74 at world championship level is my best result so far!!

I am most proud of my sprinting, I cannot believe that I can sprint to the line faster than any other girl in the world championships!!!

Last control of my world championships:


Me and Sue:



Today Charlie got gold in the W50 world championships:


and Andy Conn got bronze in the M40 world championships:


Team GB in our banquet outfits:

Race 24: World Championships MTBO Middle, Hungary, 22/08/2012

I was confident at the start of this race because all the controls were on paths, it was like a normal race. I got a decent start too, up until number 8 I was going well. I was cycling along a track with 2 other girls, they turned left, I got very confused and all of a sudden didn't know where I was and I ended up mis punching.

I am not sure what happened because it was an easy course and I should have been fine! I couldn't think at all, probably due to too much sun, not enough food, and brain ache from all the other races! I'm very glad that we have a rest day tomorrow, can relax and recompose ready for the relay on Friday.

Didn't even compete for the green jersey run in today. It was all a bit much to be honest.

At the start:


Charlie came 2nd and Angela 4th in W50:


Richard did his 1st ever MTBO race today, he did well!

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:

Start of the sprint - slightly off putting helper!!

Fastest in the world sprint to the line!:

GB team:

Going to the opening ceremony:

Inside the opening ceremony:

Race 22: World Championships MTBO Long Qualifier, Hungary, 20/08/2012

I was so stressed before this race it was unbelievable. I was doing childbirth breathing with Richard in the car to calm down! But when I got to the start I was fine, as it wasn't actually that scary, the same as the world cups really, but with toilets in the start area so that was a plus!

These races aren't like any I've done before, they have controls off paths so you get a control description sheet like in foot-o. Pippa kindly lent me a description holder for my wrist as I didn't have one. The map fitted in my map holder without having to change it around and I was pleased to see that the start triangle was out of sight so nobody could see you at the beginning.

I was the 2nd girl to start, which wasn't great. I went the safe way to number 1, as I do tend to mess the 1st one up quite often. Today it was good, so I settled down and tried to concentrate fully. It was so hot it was unbelievable, way over 30 degrees. I took a route across the open ground and nearly keeled over with the heat. I just wanted to get off and curl up and sleep. It was like a desert.

I messed up number 4 a bit, got a bit distracted by the bloke at the drinks station and looked across to see my control, but when I went there it wasn't mine, I spotted another so I was a bit annoyed with myself and went to it instead, but that was the wrong one too! So I finally looked at the map and saw mine was about 100m away actually and went straight to it. Oops! Luckily all that didn't take much time, I blame the heat! It was in the open desert area...

The rest was fine, it was just a hard slog, I'm rubbish in the heat. I had all 3 gels to try and get some energy and was sipping at the water all the way. Glad I had the camelbak on! I didn't see that many people really, lots of blokes coming towards me but not many going my way. I was with a Danish girl for a while, we kept taking different routes and popping out just near each other.

I did a big sprint to the line. I followed 4 or 5 blokes to the last control and actually passed a few in the sprint too! I'm glad I did that because the results were really tight, there were seconds in it for the A final.

I was absolutely shocked when I found I'd got into the A final! 60 out of the 73 girls got in, we were split into two groups, so I had to come 30th or better out of the 37 in my group. My goal for the world championships was to come 60-something in each race, and to qualify meant I effectively had to come 50-something. I though it would have been nice but was more than I could do. But I did it! Amazing!!!

Also I just found out that I was the fastest girl in the world today for that sprint to the line!! Unbelievable :-)

The finish area:



Being stressed out before the race:



The finishing straight - fastest girl in the world here!!!!!:


The finish:


Edwyn has an injury from going over the bars!


Andy was pretty tired too:


The map:

Race 21: MTBO Sprint, France, 09/07/2012

This was my favourite race ever! Usually a sprint in a forest means paths everywhere and brain ache, today it did mean paths everywhere, but it was fun!

I almost missed my start, I didn't realise that the clock wasn't set 3 mins fast like usual (and like the past two races) so I turned up a few moments before my time, only to be ushered straight through all the boxes right to the front! I was only there a few moments and the bleeper went and I was off. That's one way to avoid all the waiting around in the boxes before a race!

I rounded the corner and chuckled at the start kite, they have super sized start kites, about a metre tall or something. Even I could not miss it..

The scale of the sprint map was 1:7500, twice the scale of yesterday's map, so I was expecting everything to come at me really quickly. I was getting worried when I'd been going a while and not reached number 1 yet. But it was fine, the scale wasn't as big as I'd imagined.

There was a super junction which had 12 paths going from it. The first time through (2-3) I was fine. The second time through (4-5) I had to take the fifth exit. I must of missed a small track when I counted because I went down the wrong one. I could tell straight away because the compass was slightly off. So I spun around and went back to the middle and had to chuckle when I looked at all the paths and had no idea which one I'd originally come from. I guessed that I must only be one out so I tried the next one round, luckily it was correct.

Most of the controls I think I did well, apart from I overshot one junction to number 6 because the path was hidden from my direction of travel. I realised I was climbing and I shouldn't be so I spun around and it was easy to spot on the way back. Also I went around two sides of a triangle to get to number 8, but I thought that on such a short distance by the time I'd turned around it would probably be quicker to just press on.

I could see a whole crowd of people at control number 13. I thought something must have happened! But when I got closer I realised it must be a spectator control. I must have looked slightly confused as I punched that one and spun back round into the forest.

I was also a little confused at the end, there were two controls right next to the finish on my map. One was number 13, but the writing wasn't right next to it so I was wondering if I'd missed one. I was looking at the map a lot instead of racing to the line. I finally realised it was a different one and sped to the finish. Not very cool though!

I enjoyed this race a lot, my orienteering has come on a lot since last year. I would have hated this race back then. I think sprints are my new favourite! My next MTBO race will be at the world championships! Blimey...



My route - green = fast, red = stationary!



The new Giant Anthem 29er

Race 20: MTBO Middle WRE, France, 08/07/2012

Today was great, I had a good race until I got brain fry towards the end. I went exactly where I wanted to go all the way through but some of my route choices towards the end might have been slightly sub-optimum..

It was a world ranking event so they had quarantine. I was in there for 45 mins at the start and it was raining. There was a storm in the night and it rained ever since. We had a strip of fire road about 50m long which we all went up and down a lot, trying to keep warm. I had my cap on to protect my glasses from the rain but luckily it stopped raining just as I went into the first start box, so I had sun throughout my whole race and got pretty hot!

I got off to a good start, it was very muddy in places from all the rain. I was doing well I think, then on control 14 I went down to the road and didn't spot the track off again so ended up going around the block. 15 was good, 16 I went around the long way for some strange reason. 17 was good and 18 I was 50/50 on route choice and I plumped for the wrong one. It went down quite a cool descent then up loads and there was no way I could cycle it so had to push all the way up.

The rest was fine, so I was quite pleased with my ride. Should get a few more world ranking points anyway :-)


 

My route - green = fast, red = stationary!

 

The last control

Race 19, MTBO Middle, France, 07/07/2012

I wasn't the best in this race, it's been ages since my last MTBO and I found everything was coming at me too quickly and I was making daft mistakes.

I went down a wrong track to number 1, not an ideal start! I was wondering around in the woods with a French girl for a while before we had a chat and decided we were wrong.

There were moments when I was overtaking whole groups of people and then I'd go wrong and end up wasting a whole load of time again.

Everyone complained about the quarry but those ones were my best controls! I must of got lucky in finding the tracks..

I was happy towards the end, got my head back in it so all set for tomorrows world ranking event :-)

 

My route - green = fast, red = stationary!

Opening Ceremony

Race 18: Bearded Man XC, 01/06/2012

Today was a 40 mile trek across the hills in Wales. I rode it with my team mate Gill Crane and also Graeme Berry. Again the theme seemed to be a whole load of mud.

We got an escorted start from the local police and then it was up and into a muddy chute, which lasted for ages and ages! We climbed and we descended, climbed some more and descended some more. I remembered parts of the route from last year, but this time it took way more energy due to the high volumes of mud everywhere. Some sections we were just slipping and sliding for what seemed like hours!

There was only one food stop, if I'd realised I'd of taken some sarnies as I was absolutely starving for the whole ride. The food stop didn't do much for me either, I had 3 kit Kats, a handful of Jaffa cakes and some jelly babies. I could of done with something a little more substantial!

We plodded on and I thought we must be back at any moment so I looked at the garmin and we had another 11 miles left rather than the 1 mile I thought we had!! I was not pleased because I was on my knees with hunger by this point. We reached a road and the bearded man himself was there. I asked if he had any sweets and he told us to wait a sec and ran off. A min later he came running back with a 4 finger Kit Kat each. That was very nice of him!

It was easy from there too, not much climbing and not too much mud. I learnt something from this ride, always check how many food stops there are before you set off! It was a nice day out though and it was well organised too, there were marshalls everywhere.

The Anthem 29er seemed good but I was weak, from lack of food, so it was hard to tell if it's faster than the 26" version or not. I did feel very tall all day!

Gill Crane

Race 17: Bearded Man XC time trial, 31/06/2012

The Bearded Man is a 3 day MTB race that Saddle Skedaddle sponsor. We did the event last year too but this year it's double the size so it's doing well.

It was a 4.5 hour drive to South Wales with traffic and when we (Gill Crane and I) arrived we were about last out of everyone to do the time trial. So after a very quick cup of tea we whipped the bikes out and went over to the start.

It was pretty much the same course as last year, 2 laps of a long climb then through the trees and a descent back. It was a whole lot muddier this year though, so much so that we opted to run a couple of bits.

I was on my brand new 29er Anthem. We only built it yesterday, so now it's all muddy, which is a nuisance! It seemed pretty fast. I wondered if I'd have trouble in the woods section with the length of it but it was fine. I can't wait until tomorrow to give it a proper testing!

AnthemX29

Race 16: Mountain Mayhem 24 hour XC Race, Eastnor Castle, 23-24/06/2012

Mountain Mayhem is a treat for me as we get the whole Saddle Skedaddle experience! They cater for their teams and wash our bikes after every lap and fix them when they break and everything. It's also a great opportunity to catch up with all things Skedaddle.

This year Mayhem was an absolute mudfest. The weather was actually very reasonable for the most part, however it did pour down in the night, but that was actually a good thing because it watered down the very sticky mud into something a bit more manageable.

The start of the 24 hours! Lucy was our runner and she was the 1st girl to get back!!

There were two halves to the course, the classic kenda climb up to a very muddy wooded section, then back down through the campsite and up the other side for a very hard slog of a climb up wet muddy grass all the way to the monument at the top. Then there was the off camber muddy section that seems to feature each year, and a muddy but firm descent back to the campsite. It would have been lovely to descend to the finish but it looped around the bottom of the campsite and then a gradual very muddy grassy motorway to the finishing loop. The eagle eyed of you may notice that mud featured in every section of the course. it was an absolute nightmare!

Mud

I wore my wellies to walk over for my 1st lap as the ground everywhere was covered in a wet gloopy mud mess. I was 2nd up and Lucy came around the finish loop looking strong but rather dirty. She passed me the baton and I ran through the crowd in the changeover area and jumped on my bike. I had skinny mud tyres on (finally got to use them, I've had them years!) but the gradual slope down the motorway of gloop right out of the start threw me slightly as I was slip sliding all over the place through the channels of mud! I made the corner and waded through some pretty deep wet cement like puddles to the bridge, then it was along the muddy grass to the kenda climb, which was pretty tough as the ground was sticky, but I made it over and into the trees (well not literally into the trees..).

That track started off as grass!

Now this part was ridiculous! I think a hub geared hardtail would of been ideal because my Anthem gathered mud like crazy and the wheels stopped turning altogether. I jumped off and found a handy short stick to try and poke it all out. Managed to free the wheels and decided to try running with it instead of struggling to ride. It was very effective, I passed about 15 people in the rest of that section, all struggling to pedal and falling around all over the place. I had to stop at least 6 times on the lap to use my stick (which I kept in a handy pocket on my rucksack strap). The mud was just like glue. The chain started sucking and the gears were jumping so I had to clear out the derailleur too on one of my stick poking stops.

The descent down to the campsite was great, very fast, up over the (pretty steep actually) Lezyne bridge and past Skedaddle, where I got a massive cheer each time. We were set up by an uphill particularly gloopy bit so it was quite hard work to pedal past trying to look speedy!

Skedaddle corner

The second half was just as bad, lots of climbing on grass covered in glue mud. I found myself walking up the steeper bit along with everyone else. I was very glad when I finally came down into the camp for the final grass motorway slog.

It took me 1 hour 43 mins to do the 10 miles! I think 5 mins of that must have been stick time and about 35% was running!

The start of my race!

My 2nd lap was much better. It was the sunset lap, I set off in the light and I was still in the first half of the course when it got dark. I tried not to use my lights for as long as possible because I didn't know if I had enough juice for 2 long night laps. But it got to the point where I was almost crashing into trees all the time so I had to put them on.

So it got dark and it also started to rain like crazy. It was good because I was warm from all the effort and the rain made the mud less sticky. I didn't stop to use the stick once and I rode everything apart from the steepest bit of muddy hill and some of the off camber mud section. I did use the stick on the tyre edges whilst I was climbing, my bike halved in weight each time so it was essential really :-)

I was enjoying the lap now I could cycle, I even liked slipping around on the roots because it was actually fun! The darkness made it interesting but it was misty up the 2nd side so vision was a little sketchy. I was on the rocky descent near the end when my light came loose and swivelled 180 degrees to point back in my face and blind me! I screeched to a halt and tried to fix it. The triangle bit that attaches to the mount was loose so I tightened it as much as I could without an Allen key and luckily it didn't happen again. Panic over and I finished the lap in one piece. I was absolutely freezing when I got back, wearing shorts and t-shirt, completely soaked through to the skin in the dark and mud.

 My 3rd lap was the dawn lap! At 4am I set off in the pitch black and finished in bright daylight! It would have been lovely as it even stopped raining. But there was so much soupy mud over the whole course that it was such hard work to pedal. On this lap I didn't make the top of the kenda climb because the ground was like glue and I didn't have the strength to power up there. I've never failed that climb before!

This pretty much sums it up

 The 1st half of the course was worse than the last lap, the 2nd half was probably better. I even rode the off camber mud section as it was quicker now than running it. The part past the Skedadle camp and up the hill was very hard work indeed, I wondered if I might have to get off and push but luckily it didn't come to that. The lap took me 2 hours 3 mins! I didn't have the strength. A combination of it being the middle of the night, no sleep and not enough food. My body wondered what on earth was going on and was very unhappy about the whole situation! I made the decision not to go to bed as I thought being rudely awoken 3 hours later and having to do that lap would be a whole lot worse than just staying awake.

So those were my laps! All very hard work. We did 3 laps each then there was enough time for two more if we sent our secret weapon out for the 13th lap. That is Iwona, she is a machine! She did the lap in 1 hour 43 and we had 3 mins spare to start another.

Iwona - our secret weapon

Throughout it all Skedaddle washed off our bikes and made us food. The jet wash wouldn't work on the mud so they had to scrape it all off first! We even had a gas fire in the tent to warm up near :-)

The team was Lucy Harris, Iwona Szmyd, Emila Zielinska and me. We ended up 3rd in the Open Women's team category. We were very pleased that all our efforts were rewarded and very pleased that skedaddle got on the podium after all their hard work for us!

Did I mention the mud?!

Podium!

Our team - Emila, Me, Lucy, Iwona

Race 15: 10 Mile Roadie Time Trial, Sheriff Hutton, 31/05/2012

This was my first attempt at a roadie time trial. It was a hilly 10 mile circuit from Sheriff Hutton, near York, up Bulmer Bank, to Terrington Bank and back. When I arrived I found it quite funny that there were people with pointy hats and others warming up on turbo trainers on the grass verge. I wasn't expecting the local cycling clubs race to be so serious!

I was starter number 25 of 28 as I arrived at the time on the sheet and it turns out other people arrived 40 mins early to get a good spot! Everyone was cycling around warming up so I did too. I did the climb up to Sheriff Hutton and then wandered off down the back road to nip to the loo in a field. Big mistake! I forgot about the roadie cleats. I tried to get back on the bike and the cleats were completely full of mud (the field had been ploughed). I had a couple of mins to my start time and I couldn't get clipped in! I zoomed back to the start area and one of the other later starters kindly fixed one shoe whilst I did the other and we cleared out all the mud with keys. Oops.



Similar!

 So I made it to the line all clipped in and was amused that at 30 secs to go I had to get clipped in whilst someone held me upright, then I got a push off when it was time to go. Probably a bit of overkill for me I thought!

The first descent was fine, I got to 38mph so happy with that, the 30% climb up Bulmer Bank was fine too until the man behind overtook me! I thought that was a little early to be overtaken, after about 5 mins! But it was a fast bloke (Jamie Sharp) who apparently wins every time trial, including this one, so that was fine. I have to say, he climbed the hill like it wasn't there, I was puffing and panting and heaving my way up and he danced past me like it was flat! I thought I was done with the climbing but it turns out that it's a climb all the way to Terrington, that was only the start of it. I wasn't happy about that but settled down and wasn't too shabby. I could see my man in front and I was gaining on him. The big descent down Terrington bank was pretty fast, max speed was 45mph, the flat until the hilltop finish was OK for me too. The hilltop finish was uncomfortable but I made it up there and was glad that it was over!

Summary

Distance:	10.76 mi
Time:	34:00 mins
Elevation Gain:	797 ft
Avg Speed: Max Speed:	18.99 mph 45 mph
Avg Cadence:	76 rpm
Max Cadence:	130 rpm
Avg HR: Max HR:	178 bpm 210 bpm

Race 14: Brownbacks XC, Round 1, 26/05/2012

I hadn't forgotten how tough these races are but I did remember all over again! It was a blisteringly hot 24 degrees in Lee Quarry. Very nice for a sunbathe, not so good for a cross country race.. We are now the proud owners of a camper van! So we stayed around the corner at a cricket club of all places, and that meant no early start, it was so much nicer than getting up at the crack of dawn. That always throws me out before I've even started - not good at early mornings!

New camper!

We temporarily misplaced the camper keys so did not get time to do any warm up at all (They turned up in the pocket of my shorts, how odd!). So it was straight to the start line. I thought some of the girls looked quite nippy when I scanned my competition, a couple of them were too. One girl was off and straight away I could see I was battling for 2nd place. The course had its usual long climb on the first lap. It always half kills me and today was no exception! Heart rate zero to max in about 5 seconds. after that it was up and down continuously for 90 mins. Lots of near vertical but short drops and near vertical but short climbs too. The longer quite hairy rocky descent was in it, as was the longer rocky climb. And a rock path that went around a corner, I thought I might fall off that when I got tired but luckily did not. The whole thing took quite a lot of concentration and was tiring because there was hardly anywhere to gather yourself and eat a gel.

I was 2nd for a while but a girl slipped by me. She was faster through the technical parts and I caught her on the climbs each time. I stayed with her for the first two laps but then wondered if I was going to make 90 mins so eased off slightly. I thought maybe she'd get tired towards the end. I lost sight of her for ages and when I got the bell my legs were all nicely warmed up so I decided to go for it. I caught up 44 secs on her in that last lap. It came down to the final climb! I was closing in but was pretty trashed after doing the last lap almost a minute faster than my next fastest lap. I caught her just as the climb steepened and I started to pull alongside for a final sprint past right to the line, but she saw me and pushed harder and I couldn't do it! She beat me by 3 secs. A most excellent race!!!

My step seems very low, or maybe the other two are just tall!

Race 13: Etape Du Dales, Road Sportive, 20/05/2012

This is a big ride at 110 miles with 10,000 ft climbing. I haven't done any big road rides this year so wondered how much this would hurt! I remember last year when it was raining and freezing cold and I got plastic bags from the food stations and wore them as gloves and socks. So this year I came prepared, with hand and feet disposable warmers, arms and knee warmers, gillet, raincoat, full fingered gloves etc. And it was boiling! I had nowhere to put all my clothes. The climb up to Tan Hill was very sunny and warm. I couldn't fit everything in my pockets so wore my knee and arm warmers very stylishly around my ankles and wrists.

The first 50 miles I wondered what was wrong because I had zero get up and go. Miles 50 - 70 and my eyes kept closing like when you are really tired driving along a motorway. So I realised what the problem was, a severe lack of sleep was to blame. Gill gave me a Torq Banoffee guana gel and I drank Emerge (a still isotonic drink with vitamin B in) at the next food stop. 10 mins later I was properly perked up! I'm getting some of that drink in for next time I'm suffering.

The last 40 miles were much more pleasant. It is a charity ride and there are four food stops, which I very much enjoyed. Cakes, sandwiches and a cup of tea at Tan Hill was my highlight. The company was most excellent too. And the nice scenery of the Dales, because we were ambling along I got a lot of time to have a look and it really is beautiful.

News: British MTBO Team for World Championships

Posted: 13/05/12

After the final selection race in Cropton Forest today the following riders have been selected for the British Elite Team (M21/W21/M18)

Men:
Ian Nixon
Andrew Douglas
Chris Brand-Barker

Women:
Pippa Archer
Emily Benham
Steph Fountain

Junior:
Edwyn Oliver-Evans

This is subject to all athletes confirming their wish to ride, prior to entries been submitted through BMBO/BOF.

This year the Championships are in Hungary from 20th August and coincides with the Masters Championships.

The selectors wish all of the riders good luck.

(http://www.bmbo.org.uk/news/article.php?news_id=178)

Race 12: MTBO Sprint, Czech Republic, 07/05/2012

I think John Rawdon has done something really bad because it was always sunny in Czech Republic until the moment he went to the start tapes. For three days running the heavens opened and it rained like crazy the moment he got there. When I was doing the world cup that was fine because I'd finished my race ages ago, but today my start time was unfortunately 2 mins after John. We got to the start tape and the heavens opened. I had my red cap on under my helmet, looking very stylish, to try and keep the rain off my glasses.

The cap was great at stopping the rain, but brushing past trees was a bit of an issue and if I got up any speed the muddy water from the ground absolutely covered them. So vision was a little sketchy. I had to wipe the map board every time I needed to look at it and peer through the rain to see what was there, but it was just about OK.

I kept seeing John, thought I was gaining on him but then he disappeared and I thought he had given me the slip. But unfortunately he'd gone wrong, probably through not being able to see.

The route was good, it went through the forest a bit and into the village. There wasn't much urban, which was probably a good thing because the roads were the worst for rain. As soon as we'd finished the sun came back out!

Race 11: MTBO World Cup, Middle Race, Czech Republic, 06/05/2012

Today's world cup race could well of been my hardest from a navigation point of view. The 1st half was an absolute nightmare! I spent it feeling a little bit confused. I never got any flow, there were lots of dotty tracks that I could only see as a blur of dots when I was cycling along. I was glad to see that it wasn't just me, there were plenty of elite girls carrying their bikes to the correct tracks.

A weird thing happened at the start, I couldn't see the track in front of the start triangle on the map. I aligned the map to north but it wasn't there, I checked a few more times and then it was time to go so I went left as I'd seen the other girls all go that way. I was all confused though and it took me a couple of minutes to work out what was going on. It turned out that my compass was almost 90 degrees out on the start! We later worked out it's because of my big watch right next to it. Never wearing that watch again! What a nightmare..
The riding was pretty good, we went down a downhill track for part of it! I did one of the smaller jumps by accident but took the chicken run around the other obstacles!

This race tested my navigation skills and with all the elite riders around me for extra pressure it made it quite hard! I did OK though apart from the strange thing at the start and one other control where I couldn't see the way so I changed and went around a different way. A bit more foot-o (as we don't have many MTBO races around York) and I'll be climbing the leader board a bit more I think :-)





Race 10, MTBO World Cup Long, Czech Republic, 05/05/2012

I was surprised at how unstressful the world cup was. It was just like every other race really. I got an earlyish start so I didn't even have to go in quarantine. There was a practice course by the start so I did a bit of that whilst I was waiting. I did get nervous when I walked up at my start time, then there are the 3 mins in the tapes to wait before you can go. I struggled to get my map on the board because it was an A4 stapled to an A3. I had to fold the A 3 to get the right part I needed and the other map was flapping around. Anyway, it took me the whole minute to get it on so when the beeper went I hadn't looked at my route to number 1 yet! Luckily the start flag was around the corner so by the time I'd got there I'd quickly worked it out.

John in the start tapes

I usually mess up number 1 when I'm nervous, but today was OK. It was number 2 instead! I was calming myself down but must have still been a bit frantic because I missed the turning, realised when I could see an open field, and tried to turn around, but my chain fell off at the back and the front! I got that back on then missed a turn on the tracks so had to go back to the road to sort out what I'd done wrong. That was my mistake. After that I was relaxed and the rest of it went without any errors to speak of.

Map 1

The course seemed relatively easy in that there were no really tricky bits and the bulk of the distance could be done on fire roads before nipping in to the dotty tracks to get the controls. Yesterday in the model event we found that you can't navigate by saying next left or 3rd right, because the smaller tracks can be completely not there. Sometimes if you looked hard enough you could kind of tell that the grass was a bit flatter than the rest so that was a track, but if you didn't know exactly where to look you'd never see it. So we had to use everything else to know where the tracks were; shape of the land, tree thickness, fences etc. luckily there was always something to give it away today.

Map 2

I found it pretty hard going and my chain was making a noise. It fell off twice more! I didn't seem to be able to back pedal at all. I thought my legs must be still tired from last weekends adventure race so I had 2 gels and pedalled as hard as I could. When I got back the boys looked at my bike and someone noticed my chain wasn't on the bottom jockey wheel! When we looked it wasn't on either jockey wheel, it was running on the plastic at the side. The jockey wheels were pushed right over against the edge. The carbon wheel part had come away from the ceramic housing. So much for ultimate bearings! I couldn't believe that I'd done my first proper world cup race without jockey wheels and I also couldn't believe I didn't notice what was wrong!

Oops!