The Race I'd waited for All Year

Although I'm still in my first year of riding Downhill, at the start of 2014 I realised I wanted to start racing and the Borderline race at Llangollen was the first race I booked onto. We all have that one track we'll always go back to and mine is Llangollen because it was the first Downhill track I ever set my tyres on.

Starting Downhill
After trying a friends downhill bike at Farmer John's Bike Park, a month later I had my own Downhill bike. A Scott Voltage FR20 2013. I'd only had my bike a week, barely ridden it and then found myself on a Girls Campbell Coaching Weekend at Llangollen. I must admit riding my Voltage at first scared me a little. I'd gone from a Scott XC hard tail that's 8 years old (which I still have) to a brand new Freeride bike. Still to this day its the biggest purchase I've ever made, so I suppose I was nervous about whether I'd get the hang of Downhill or not. I'd spent the weeks of Summer when I wasn't riding watching videos on Pinkbike and Crankworx, could I really ride like them? But soon I realised it wasn't going to happen overnight so I just enjoyed the weekend getting use to my new bike! Ask any of the other girls on the weekend and I'm sure they'd say I was like a 12 year old! Non-stop all weekend! By the end of Sunday I was loving riding track 3 at Llangollen...a step up from Llandegla. From that weekend I've been hooked on Downhill, most would probably say I'm slightly obsessed with it.

After that weekend I ended up at Revolution Bike Park and Moelfre in one weekend. It was probably the most muddy and tired I'd ever been after that weekend. Both tracks were amazing and Revolution along with Llangollen are my favourite places to ride. But at Moelfre, a charity weekend MTBuplifts.co.uk had organised, little did I know I met my future grass-roots Downhill team...North West Alliance. I rode with them at various places over the next few months and then earlier this year got offered a spot on the team. Baring in mind I'd never actually raced before, it shocked me quite a bit! I wasn't really sure when the possibility of racing for a team would happen, but I didn't think it would happen that quickly.


Racing
So over the next few months I was riding and racing, and managed to do 2 races, a Pearce round at Bringewood and Antur DH Fest. Bringewood was my first race and happened to fall on the weekend of my 18th birthday! It certainly took me a while to get use to the concept of a race weekend. I'd never ridden on tracks with so many other riders. I let the pressure and nerves get the better of me, not pressure from my team but from myself. I was so focused on the result I forgot to just have fun on my bike because that's when I ride best. After a disaster of a first race run losing all ability to focus, I decided to walk up the track before my second race run to look if I could change my lines a bit with a disappointing time in my first run. So as risky as it was trying lines I'd not ridden before, my second race run was definitely interesting. Catching my handlebars on trees but somehow keeping the bike in the right direction, jumping rather than rolling drops, I got to the bottom with my arms literally shaking with adrenalin and excitement I'd managed to put down a race run I was proud of, nailing new lines and riding 20s faster! Yet further down the line, racing at Llangollen would top that feeling.


Antur DH Fest was another interesting weekend. Practice seemed to be going well after managing to get down a drop in my first practice run that I'd not been able to get down before. And by the afternoon there was visibility for about 5 feet in front of you. For me that riding was so much fun because with the tracks at Antur mainly being covered in rock gardens there were some rather wild runs down the hill! Getting a bit too carried away having fun in practice, by the time race runs came around my body decided to give up. I was more nervous than at Bringewood and to be honest I was embarrassed with my race runs. I just knew I could have ridden better than I did. In fact I had ridden better than that, but in practice Sunday morning not in my race runs where it mattered.

So after just two races I'd learn a lot but mainly;
-Taking it too seriously doesn't work for me
- I need to keep count of how many runs I've done in practice so I don't do too many

After Antur and Bringewood I realised I needed to go back to how I was when I'd first started riding Downhill, simply enjoying it. I went back to riding my hard tail for a while at local tracks that I started on. Just riding by myself with my iPod in on some tracks that are really just a few corners seemed to bring the fun back into my riding. I wasn't against the clock, not trying to find new lines, just enjoying being on my bike. I'd got so focused on racing, I had forgotten why I started in the first place. To get that adrenalin rush. After Antur it was more embarrassment rather than adrenalin. Looking back I'd even managed to mess up the Atherton Experience Day I won a place on back in May. I was pretty quiet all day, yet I was riding with my role models? I should have been as excited as I was when I first picked up my bike. But I'd put this enormous amount of pressure on myself that I didn't need to, so much I wasn't riding even close to my full ability. Even if I wasn't riding like I should have been, I did learn a hell of a lot off Rachel Atherton.


So over the next month or so before the race at Llangollen came round I forgot about the racing and just worked on my fitness and having fun on my bike. As Llangollen came closer I wasn't aware I didn't stop talking about it. How my friends and family didn't tell me to be quiet I don't know!

Returning to Revolution Bike Park
I've been back to Revolution Bike Park a few time since my first visit there, but a visit at the start of 2014 meant I left there going to A&E with potentially broken ribs. I'd been trying a track I'd not ridden before but being unsuccessful in getting down it cleanly all day. I was so focused on trying to get down the track I ignored how tired my body was getting resulting in an over the bars landing on my chest. It hurt....alot, but I was more bothered about potentially not being able to ride Bringewood! Thankfully it was only bruised ribs so I could still ride Bringewood. I was back running after a few days and back riding in about a week. It scared me that day because all I'd been working for, all the training I had done for Bringewood could have been completely pointless. Soon I was back on the Voltage hammering out runs with body armour!

In between Antur and Llangollen I returned to Revolution and was determined to conquer that section of the track I bruised my ribs on. So my first run down and I came up to it, made sure I was looking where I was going (not at my tyre) and I did it! Got down it cleanly! That set me up for a great days riding meeting new people and going from only riding the Freeride and bottom part of the tracks to the Ffar Side and Main Line! That day certainly helped going into Llangollen. I'd found the 'fun' again on my hard tail over the previous month but not yet on my Voltage and now I had and it felt good!


Why was Llangollen such a big race?
I first found out about Downhill through the British Downhill Series coming to Llangollen. Back then in June 2013, I was big into photography so decided to go and watch and photograph the event. So I suppose I've done the opposite of what most riders do, which is ride but then get into photography. I started with photography but deep down wanted to be on the other side of the racing tape. Right there and then, I realised I wanted to be able to ride like the competitors at that race. Its funny looking back at walking around the BDS, all my idols were there....Gee, Rachel, Brendan Fairclough. Yet I didn't have a clue who any of them were walking past them. When I realised I wanted to be able to race the tracks at Llangollen, I had no idea it would happen just over a year after!


Race Weekend
So race weekend came around and I had spent time having fun on my bike. Exploring the Welsh hills with one of my friends I'd met at the Coaching Weekend getting lost, crashing and just enjoying being in the outdoors. I'd also been riding on my own working on my cornering. I'd been on an uplift the weekend before the actual race weekend, since I'd not been back to Llangollen after the Coaching Weekend I thought I'd better get use to riding steep tracks again. It was certainly a shock to the system how steep some of the tracks were! And I'd not even got into the Woods.....

The uplift went well. I got down the track they used for the BDS in 2013! Right then I was sure I must have made progress because on the Coaching weekend I had to push down it because of how steep it was. After doing more of the tracks I felt confident going into Llangollen come race weekend.

Since it was such a big race for me I wanted to make sure I did everything I could to make it a successful weekend, and one of them things was a decent track walk. At Antur and Bringewood my track walks were pretty pointless. I couldn't remember any of the lines I'd noticed, but not only that I couldn't really remember the track at all. So I didn't know what was around the corner. For Llangollen I decided to make a 'map' of the track and different lines I'd spotted. I didn't know how much it would help but it did! Instead of spending most of practice trying to remember what part of the track was around the corner I could try different lines and see which ones worked and which ones didn't.

When things go wrong....
I decided to change my brake pads and on my first practice run on Saturday, I only had to press the front brake a tiny bit and it would lock on fully. It certainly made the steep corners of the track (start of track 2 going into track 3) interesting! I managed to avoid a few over the bars and through help from other riders and my Team Manager my brakes were as they should be and I got some clean runs down the hill.

My brother was actually the biggest help on that weekend after showing me some new lines from my GoPro videos Saturday night. His lines meant I went from ring about 4 minutes on Saturday to 3.24 on my 2nd race run. He's never ridden Downhill tracks, only XC single track but his lines went unnoticed by a lot of the riders over the weekend.

Although he'd shown me new lines, actually trying to do them in reality took a bit of time. On practice Sunday morning I was worried this race would go the same way as Antur DH Fest after practice not going so well. It wasn't long before practice ended and I'd still not managed to get a clean run down the hill! I started to panic a bit, what if this race turns out to be a massive anti-climax that I completely mess up? But on my 3rd practice run following some friends down the track something clicked in my head. 'If I don't nail these lines in this run the whole race weekend will be pointless.' went through my head. So all along the top straight going through my head was 'You can do this.' 'This' being the inside line on the first steep corner cutting it fine close to the tree on the inside, missing a blown out root drop on the outside. I managed to hold the line and it felt great! It set me up miles better for the next set of steep corners. I only had to get the high line on an off camber section that had been catching me out all weekend and I had my lines sorted for my race runs. I managed to pull that line of too! In the pits at the bottom I was like a bomb waiting to explode I was so excited for my race runs. If I could hold my lines in my races runs I could actually make this a good weekend!

Come race runs I was shocked at how excited I was. At Bringewood the excitement wore off by the time I was on the start line, but at Llangollen I was a Duracell Bunny (my nickname) ready to go! I just could not contain my excitement. So the count down began and off I went down the hill. Still all along the top I was saying in my head 'you can do this line' and I only went and did it! Somehow getting my concentration back to finish the steep corners and onto the straighter parts of the track. I ended up on new lines on the straight parts of the track because I couldn't control my speed for some reason! Then came the off camber section. A slight hint of doubt came into my mind but I wasn't giving in. I got down it and then I found myself pedalling faster than I'd ever done before across than finish line. I'd bagged a clean race run keeping to my lines! I was so happy with my run I didn't bother going to look at my time. Even though I put down the best run down a track I'd ever done, I didn't want to lose my excitement for my second race run. I was actually more bothered about having fun and it felt great!


So second race run, I was just as excited as my first race run and just as ready to go and ace my lines again! I was so chilled at the top talking to the other female racers I just rolled up to the start line and went off down the hill again. Successfully got down the inside line on the steep corner again...even tighter than last time and somehow managed to hold on on the off camber section after going into it a little too quick. I'd bagged another clean run down the hill riding about 10s faster (can't be sure as the race results haven't been posted yet)

So after some embarrassing runs in practice holding other riders up whilst I got back on the bike, I bagged two solid race runs. Sorry to those riders I did hold up! Especially some who made me laugh so much I struggled to get back on the bike! The relief crossing the finish line for the last time that weekend was miles bigger than that at Bringewood because I knew I'd given 100%. Regardless of times, I managed to hold my lines and that is what I went to do. And the speed came alongside that after the seconds I managed to drop from practice to race runs.

Sad End to the Weekend
Sadly the weekend ended with a visit from two Air Ambulances after an incident involving a spectator and a rider. My thoughts go to them and those around them and my donation has been made to the Welsh Air Ambulance who are always there in our extreme sport.

So where from here?
Well I'm definitely carrying on racing and even want to try a BDS next year if I can get enough points on my licence! But most of all make sure I'm having fun on my bike, because when I'm not my riding is terrible. So starting earlier than expected has taught me a lot and that's why I wrote this blog so I don't forget what I've learnt in my first year of racing.

Photo credit: EaglesNest Photography, Sarah Barret Photography, my Dad!