It's been a while since I have felt like this . . . . . . it is now Tuesday, my body is officially broken, if it doesn't hurt or is not bruised it has just decided that right now it doesn't really want to work properly! I went to the limit this weekend at the Champs - holy smokes it was fun!
Innerleithen what a place! For ages now I have always wondered why the Scottish Borders lacks mountain biking events especially since in a relatively short radius you are absolutely spoilt for choice! This weekend the small usually quaint (except on Saturday nights) town of Innerliethen played host to both the Downhill and XC 2009 British Championships! It was super exciting and the whole place looked awesome!
The XC course was not for the faint hearted, the climb was mega with enough steep little kickers in there to keep pain levels above threshold . . . the descent was mental and the field . . . . god that was just horrible! It was proper mountain biking and it was so refreshing! My race was hard, probably the hardest race that I have competed in yet. There wasn't much space for a breather out there and I had my fair share of problems but at the end of the day that's just what racing is all about! An eventful third lap resulted in me ripping my cleat out of my shoe - seriously I still have no idea how that happened. Anyway it left me trying to descent by putting the carbon sole of my shoe onto the pedal, yip it wasn't that much fun and pretty scary to be honest! I was just chuffed to get to the bottom, kind of in one piece, where Graeme kindly lent me his shoe for the final lap, it may have been a few sizes too big and my heel kept popping out on the climb but it was so good to actually be able to ride like I know I can on my last descent. Hats off to Sue Clarke (SIS) who took the win in the women's field on a proper hardcore track! Followed by Jenny Copnall (Look RT) in 2nd and Sharon Laws (Halfords Bikehut) in 3rd. I finished 8th and am mega chuffed with the result, first top 10 in the British yee ha!
The rest of the Glentress riders were on form too with Katy Winton taking the win and becoming youth Champion, Hannah Ferguson returned to racing after a pretty horrible accident mid week and finished 4th - good riding girls! Lucy Grant was 2nd in the Juvenile catgegory. Lewis Kirkwood also made the podium finishing 3rd in the Male youths and Sam Waterston finished 12th. Jake Law and Graeme Short claimed to take this one easy but they seemed to be motoring when I saw them! And Last but by no means least Neil Wilson won the Vet's Downhill category - sweet riding guys!
I'm still buzzing from the whole weekend, it was so cool to race at home and have so much support out there so thanks to everyone who came along to watch! The marshals were awesome too thanks for all the chat along the way! The course was awesome and everything ran really smooth on the day. I think it was really cool that both events came together for the weekend as it something that never happens and it was really nice to catch up and watch friends and team mates riding in the Downhill, for the future I reckon it would be good if both events could run together but possibly on separate days for example like they use to do at Fort William for the World Cup. After all its the British Champs, its a really big deal to all the riders involved and each and everyone one of them deserves the limelight for a day!
G man you are cool, I never would have managed those hills without your wisdom! Kerry respect as always! Sarah thanks for the last bottle!!
Special thanks to The Hub, Bloc, Luvians, Baillie Gifford and Tunnocks.
Time for some more sleep I think
Yee ha
Les
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