Straight out from the camp this race had an uphill start - why is that always the case I wonder? Anne was flying!! It was a fireroad climb that went on almost as far as the food stop. She was steaming along and I was chasing, we dropped all the boys and they all asked about the cause of Annes power spurt! I'd like to think it was the Genius but I think it was more frustration over her missing bike. Or maybe she is just really really fast! It was great because we were up and over the mountain in a blink of an eye.
The descent was single track which was a stream of red clay water. Ruined my nice white Skedaddle kit as it didn't wash out! Then it was food. The 1st half was easy :-) we didn't spend long at the food station as we were fine. A bloke I know from Evans cycles in York got taken away in an ambulance as he'd gone all weird from a crash that happened yesterday!
The 2nd half had some great tracks in. Some open moorland lovely single track. Then there was a big climb up to 'The Gap' which was my kind of climb, enough rocks and things to make it interesting but not enough to make it too hard. On the way down from the Gap Anne was gone. A loose rocky descent that went on forever. It seemed like one you'd be more likely to find in the Alps! After that it continued down a really skinny snicket way of brambles, bracken and holly. The ground was loose rocks but you couldn't pick a line as it was only just wide enough to get down. So it was a case of just ploughing over all the rocks whilst getting torn to shreds by the undergrowth. That lasted forever too. I was not happy by the end. My arms and legs were stinging like crazy. Anne seemed to enjoy it, she was waiting at the bottom with 2 blokes she'd overtaken :-)
Then it was a bit of road and over some nice fields home. The ride was 40 miles with some serious climbs but it seemed fine and we were pretty fast. In fact we jumped from 6th to 3rd overall girls! Very happy with that, it was a proper long race and I've finally found my legs this season, hooray :-)
