Pearce Cycles Championship - Round 5, Hopton
Strangely enough the sun was out and rumoured to be around all weekend. First couple of runs down the track was a little greasy in places but for the most part it was dry and already a tad dusty. Practice for once seemed to run smoothly, incident and crash free.
Saturday Practice
Its a pretty flat track, with only a few small technical bits but a lot of pedalling. It was just a question of building up courage to clear the road gap which seemed to be the main topic of conversation amongst the girls.
It was a fairly long gap to clear, with no real take off lip and the run in was straight out a corner. It needed a good strong sprint from the corner to even stand a chance, so priority was getting my lines and speed through the rutted corners in the run up to the take off rather than fixating on having the balls to hit the jump. In reality clearing it would maybe give you 2 seconds over someone not clearing it, imagine choosing not to do it and getting beaten by 1 second! It needed to be done.
Sunday Practise
One of the first at the top my aim was just have an easy run down to warm up and make sure I hit all the right lines. Tootling through the top section in the run up to the "road gap" I spotted another girl in my class standing there looking at it. I had no choice but to go for it as I couldn't be seen not doing it and also to put the pressure back on her.
Anyway I sent it! I cased it a little causing my foot to unclip but nothing major and with the release of adrenalin I carried on down as though it were my race run. Chuffed with my efforts it was straight back up to do it all again....and again.
Race Run 1
Sat on the start line and on the 10 second countdown a message comes over the radio that there was a red flag at marshal point 2. Marshal point 2 was the road gap and the girl who set off in front of me had crashed on it, not what I wanted to hear. Another message soon came through to advise track was clear and I was back on the start line countdown.
The start of my run was good, staying clean and smooth in the middle section. I got a bit messy on some of the loose gravely corners and then stalled out on another but kept calm and pressed on managing to find my flow again. Arriving safely at the bottom finishing in second.
Race Run 2
I always struggle with second race runs, sitting around for 3 hours after my first race run as well as being tired from a weekend of race practice its hard to get amped up again. I take myself off to a quiet spot away from where all the girls are waiting and chatting to go through my warm up routine and try to get ready.
Its really difficult, especially on a sunny day as you can end up chilling out too much which can make you feel lethargic. But you know as soon as you hear the beeps at the start you need to be 100% switched on and within 20 seconds of the start your heart rate can be maxed out and adrenalin spiking as you sprint for the roadgap. So I soon find myself back on the start mound, I got down pretty clean, with only minor bobbles where you feel it could have cost half a second at most. But I felt exhausted and found it hard to push. I managed to take 2 seconds off my time but was bumped down to 3rd place for the overall.
Even though the sun was shining there was still a stream running down the top section of the track, with alot of the water ending up in the new 'Fort William' section. It was freshly cut, not very long, but soft and boggy and would undoubtedly be full of roots. Track walk this week was not so much about planning the fastest lines, but more about looking for a safe passage through to get down as cleanly as possible.