Monday 10 January 2011

XRT - Elmy Cycles Supercross

Having been feel rather under the weather over Christmas (like most people) it was a last minute decision to go and race the Elmy Cycles cross at Ipswich on 2nd January. This was a bit of a baptism of fire since I'd not ridden a bike for a few weeks but hell there is only 2 weeks until the Rutland National Trophy so I knew it was my last chance for a warm up race.

The course was good, a mix of wooded twisty sections and an open out and back. I was happily able to ride a downhill off camber corner that others were struggling with but for some reason not able to get over what in retrospect was a small log! There was something funny going on with the gridding and I ended up quite far back with one of the best riders I know Corrine Hall ungridded completely. When the gun went we had to content with the varying vet riders. I decided to save my energies for later but Corrine did an amazing job of zipping past all of us and evenually making it into the top 10 overall. I could see Anna Buick just ahead so knew I wasn't in a terrible position! The rest of the race was pretty fun, I definitely lost time on the log and even though I was initially able to ride the nightmare corner it cut up too much and I took a couple of falls on it. In retrospect I should have run it - would have been faster. In the end I finished 4th woman a minute back from Anna. Not amazing, not terrible but has given me a few things to think about before Rutland on the 16th.

Riding the nightmare corner