The stuff dreams are made of!

At the end of last year I was super excited when I realised that I had acquired enough UCI points in order to compete in World Cup events. I still remember waiting for what felt like weeks for the race dates and venues. Sadly Fort William lost the XC World Cup event but I was stoked that Dalby (North Yorkshire) had been successful in their bid. Resulting in the first round of the World Cup travelling there for 2010, which meant that my first ever experience of a world cup would be on home soil - that was pretty exciting!

I didn't really know what to expect from the event to be honest but I knew that it was going to be pretty massive when I started to get butterflies in my stomach the Monday before the race . . . . . in fact I am getting those butterflies once more now just thinking about the whole event!

It had been a bit of a manic week for me at work but Kerry and I eventually set off at 8am on Friday morning. The journey down was relatively simple - partly because we had been down that way before, but we did take a slightly different route this year. Co-pilot Kerry was on top of her game though! It took around 4 hours to get down which gave me plenty of time to register and get a practice lap in. I raced at Dalby last year as part of the British XC series so I knew that it was a good course, the best bit was that they had continued to develop the course cutting in even more technical lines and creating proper chicken routes that added on time! Thank you course designers! It's one of the toughest courses out there to race on, the hills are not massive, instead steep and mostly in quick succession of each other - that certainly starts to wear you down as you get through the laps. Furthermore there is little recovery to be enjoyed on the descents since they are technical - yee ha so concentration levels have to be up there! Its just fab!

After practice it was a quick scoot to the B&B to drop off all my stuff then back into Pickering for the pre-eliminator sprint race. A short 2 minute circuit had been created around the town that encompassed short climbs, a grave-yard, steps and a rather sketchy gravelly section. The format for the race was individual time trials and if you were quick enough you progressed onto a 4cross-esk race in which 4 people raced around the circuit together with the top 2 of each race getting through. The locals got right behind the event, loads of folk came along to watch and cheer all the riders on, bands were on the street playing music. I progressed into the first 4v4 race but didn't get any further - it was amazing! Home to bed to try and sleep :)

Saturday was another early start - up, breakfast and then back down to the course to get some more practice. After 2 laps I was pretty happy with my lines and decided enough was enough. It was pretty cool as Kerry and I then managed to spend a little time wandering around the race village before watching the junior race. Katy Winton cycled to a very impressive 5th place in the junior females, with Kenta Gallagher taking 13th in the junior males and Grant Ferguson 23rd after fixing a broken chain! Saturday night was much more relaxed - a quick bit to eat and then feet up for the rest of the night.

Sunday morning arrived and to be honest I just couldn't wait to get to the race. Everything seemed to go past pretty fast and before I knew it I was away warming up. We got penned 20 minutes before the race before every individual rider was called to the start line . . . . . there were 95 riders in total. I was gridded 2nd last row and was actually struggling to see the start of the riders - ha ha it was wicked. Positioned right in the center of the row I knew the start was going to be a fun one! It wasn't long before 1 minute to go was called out and everyone began to creep forward, by 30s I couldn't actually move anymore as I was surrounded by people. And we were off, it was fast and I mean fast, bikes and riders were flying around the place and the game had well and truly commenced! For an hour and a half after that all I can tell you was that I was beasting myself big style! I ended up finishing 81st - sweet! The crowds out there were amazing, everyone was cheering you on trying to keep you going!

I'm sitting smiling just now writing this piece because it was just so amazing. The podium read as follows: Irina KALENTIEVA, Willow KOERBER, Katerina NASH, Georgia GOULD & Julie BRESSET.

What an event to be a part of!

Yee ha

Les