Hannah Report: Lourdes World Cup 1

I turned the corner and swapped from right to left, but my arms were weakened from the intensity of the run and I couldn’t save myself from the crash that was upon me, a small mistake that turned into a devastating smackdown, taking away any chances of winning the first World Cup of the year.

All off-season I had told myself “Don’t worry about the first World Cup in Lourdes, it's not going to be the one for you, it's going to be wet and cold and not what you like." I set myself a realistic goal for this race because of the weather forecast and the type of track that it was supposed to be. After walking the track everything changed. I loved it; it was open and fast, there wasn’t a moment down the track that you slowed down. Every jump, every section and every turn you hit flat out - nothing on the track was hit slow. It was dry and dusty with hidden rocks and roots everywhere.

I didn’t put any pressure on myself and I didn’t hold any expectations for what result I should get. I was completely calm and confident knowing that I'd had a solid off-season and was ready to race. We spend the off-season doing the best we can for ourselves not knowing if someone has done something more, something better. We don’t know where we're at or what our true potential is until the first race.


To qualify first with a gap of over 5 seconds was so surprising - I’ve spent the last couple of seasons trying to get closer and closer to the top ladies, pushing it to be on the podium, and all of a sudden everything finally worked in my favour and I had a run that came together.

Qualifying first brings with it stress and excitement, and there is always a constant herd of butterflies in your stomach that can’t be helped, but to hold yourself together mentally and not have a breakdown depends on perspective. I looked at it as though I wasn’t racing anyone else; my goal for the weekend was to be as fast as I could be, if that was fast enough then that's good. If I wasn’t fast enough in the finals then I would have something to work on.


Practice on race day was hard because there was dew on the ground that made the track super slippery. There was only a short amount of time for practice so feeling confident on my lines and getting up to speed was of the utmost importance. So important that I hit a stump at high speed near the end of the track and landed sliding upside down on my back in just my first practice run. The track would be completely different by the time the race began.

With that out of the way it was time to return to the pits and wait around for my race run. I couldn’t really relax, I was too excited and nervous, and it wasn't until I finally headed up to the top of the mountain for my race fun that I finally felt calm. As soon as I arrived at the start to warm up I felt calm and excited to have another run.

There's not much that can beat the excitement of being the last rider in your class to head down the hill. You don’t have to wait at the bottom, there's no one to ride down behind you - this is it, you're the one everyone is waiting to see, this run could change everything. I raced at the start gate as the timer counted down to zero, the crowd was screaming as I hit the first rock garden. It was thrilling to pass through, the next section was upon me and my mind was going 100 miles an hour. I made a mistake that put me off line, but in your race run when all you want to do is go fast you will miss a few lines, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.


I made it through the jumps and the tight woods and entered into the final section that was absolutely flatout. I was loving my run, the crowds were wild, the track was insane and the speed was intense. I came around a corner and swapped out, all of a sudden time was frozen and for a small moment everything rewound in my head, off-season, practice, qualifying and now this moment - I tried my best to stay on my bike and all off a sudden “No, no, no,” I was down, my head driven to the ground. My run had been so good and I wasn’t ready to give up so as quickly as I went down I jumped up, found my bike and went as fast as I possibly could to the finish line.


Call it bad luck, stress, loose rocks - whatever reason I lay on the ground in my race run that day it doesn’t matter now. What mattered to me the most that day is that I gave all I could, I tried my hardest and left it all on the track. That run I left a bit too much on track but it's all about making mistakes and learning new things so that next time the situation arises I’m ready to take it and take it good.


Sponsors
UR Team, Coach Central, Polygon Bikes, Kenda Tires, BOS Suspension, E*thirteen, VP components, Spank, BOX, KMC, Alpinestars, IXS, Zefal, Ride 100%, ODI, Skyline Queenstown, Camelbak, JetBlack, Reverse, Unior, ClearProtect, Shimano, Moonlight, TiSprings, FiveTen, Pinkbike

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