From Fort William we brought both George and Vero with us.
Bringing Vero with us has made things a lot easier for us all once we got to
Germany as she can speak German pretty fluently. Because of this we were able
to get some pretty sick and decent accommodation for not too much. It also made
our washing our clothes experience a hell of a lot easier as the lady was not
happy to see us at first with all our washing. But once Vero got talking she
came around and was happy to do it for us. Once we picked it up once we were
done riding we found that she had not only washed it, but also dried and folded
it for us. This was choice and more than we were expecting especially at 5-6
Euros each (especially considering last year I paid 2 Euros just to go a self
service Laundromat to wash them only).
Thursday was registration day with some practice in the afternoon. For me this was just a day spent on getting used to the track and checking out lines and not going fast. Friday rolled around and Vero and I did some runs with Tracey discussing lines and following one another. By the end of the day I was feeling pretty comfortable on the track and hitting all the jumps that I wanted to do; now I just needed to go faster. Overnight it must have rained quite a bit and continued to rain on and off throughout Saturday, our qualifying day. The track rode well in the wet apart from a corner on the off camber grass at the bottom which was a bit hit and miss if you got off line. Qualifying came up and I was feeling good and confident. My aim was at least a top 5. The run didn’t start off too good. Went through a puddle at the very top of the run which seriously limited my vision causing me to around the gap jump. By half way down the track all I could see was mud (wish I had taken a photo of my goggles at the bottom of the track). By this point I was wishing that I had some tear offs. Once I got out of the trees I whipped my goggles off but it made no difference as I ended up with so much mud and water in my eyes that they were pretty much shut and remained shut till I got to the finish line and found some clean clothes under my jacket to get the worst of the mud out of my eyes. I qualified 4th which I was happy about since I didn’t hit any jumps and the other girls ahead of me did.
Race day the next day was the complete opposite. It hadn’t rained over night and was windy which dried the track considerably. Going up for 1st practice run I thought the track would still be wet and muddy but it wasn’t. There was about one puddle on the track and I came down pretty much spotless. Did another few runs trying to get the run into one of the jumps I hadn’t done but called it quits after nearly crashing twice as it wasn’t worth it for me. Race run came around and for the first time in my life I did a warm up. I spent around 20-30 minutes warming up with Tracey and Vero before it was time to head to the start gate for my run. Between my last practice run and my race run the track had dried out heaps which I was not expecting. Between that and the warm up I came into things a lot faster that I had prepared for. Ended up overshooting to flat two of the top jumps which was pretty scary and clip a rock while pedalling but somehow managed to hold it all together and had a good run. Came down into 1st place with 3 riders after me. Not sure what happened to the rider right behind (think she might have flatted?), but the lady behind her came down and bet me by around 0.2 of a second which looking back now I’m pretty guttered about as I know where I lost this time (over shooting the jumps and also clipping a rock while pedalling). But at the time I didn’t realise that I was this close to her and was stoked to get third, (Still am, but 2nd would have been even cooler). Tracey came down into 1st by about 7 or 8 seconds, and Vero ended up 5th. Being up on the podium was pretty cool, got to do the whole Champagne shower thing which was pretty choice and fun. Ended up leaving the race with a box of chocolates and a 250 Euro check. Now I just have to work out how to turn the check into cash without losing any of it in the transaction...
Thursday was registration day with some practice in the afternoon. For me this was just a day spent on getting used to the track and checking out lines and not going fast. Friday rolled around and Vero and I did some runs with Tracey discussing lines and following one another. By the end of the day I was feeling pretty comfortable on the track and hitting all the jumps that I wanted to do; now I just needed to go faster. Overnight it must have rained quite a bit and continued to rain on and off throughout Saturday, our qualifying day. The track rode well in the wet apart from a corner on the off camber grass at the bottom which was a bit hit and miss if you got off line. Qualifying came up and I was feeling good and confident. My aim was at least a top 5. The run didn’t start off too good. Went through a puddle at the very top of the run which seriously limited my vision causing me to around the gap jump. By half way down the track all I could see was mud (wish I had taken a photo of my goggles at the bottom of the track). By this point I was wishing that I had some tear offs. Once I got out of the trees I whipped my goggles off but it made no difference as I ended up with so much mud and water in my eyes that they were pretty much shut and remained shut till I got to the finish line and found some clean clothes under my jacket to get the worst of the mud out of my eyes. I qualified 4th which I was happy about since I didn’t hit any jumps and the other girls ahead of me did.
Race day the next day was the complete opposite. It hadn’t rained over night and was windy which dried the track considerably. Going up for 1st practice run I thought the track would still be wet and muddy but it wasn’t. There was about one puddle on the track and I came down pretty much spotless. Did another few runs trying to get the run into one of the jumps I hadn’t done but called it quits after nearly crashing twice as it wasn’t worth it for me. Race run came around and for the first time in my life I did a warm up. I spent around 20-30 minutes warming up with Tracey and Vero before it was time to head to the start gate for my run. Between my last practice run and my race run the track had dried out heaps which I was not expecting. Between that and the warm up I came into things a lot faster that I had prepared for. Ended up overshooting to flat two of the top jumps which was pretty scary and clip a rock while pedalling but somehow managed to hold it all together and had a good run. Came down into 1st place with 3 riders after me. Not sure what happened to the rider right behind (think she might have flatted?), but the lady behind her came down and bet me by around 0.2 of a second which looking back now I’m pretty guttered about as I know where I lost this time (over shooting the jumps and also clipping a rock while pedalling). But at the time I didn’t realise that I was this close to her and was stoked to get third, (Still am, but 2nd would have been even cooler). Tracey came down into 1st by about 7 or 8 seconds, and Vero ended up 5th. Being up on the podium was pretty cool, got to do the whole Champagne shower thing which was pretty choice and fun. Ended up leaving the race with a box of chocolates and a 250 Euro check. Now I just have to work out how to turn the check into cash without losing any of it in the transaction...
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