Becky Cook @ BES 2016 Round 3 - Afan

After a long week at work it was time to pack up and catch the ferry from the sunny Isle of Wight and head over to Afan Valley in Neath Port Talbot, south Wales over night ready for Saturdays practice and qualifying.

After waking up and getting set up for a full weekend of racing with the TRED-SHOP.COM Racing team it was time to head out for practice. I've never been to Afan before but heard tails of what it had to offer so was looking forward to getting used to the conditions after not having much time on the bike due to my motorcycle commitments.


Stages were looking good with both technical sections and pure pedal power sections so it was going to produce some mixed results depending on each riders ability and fitness levels. In the afternoon it was time to race stage 1 which would also be used to allocate our seeding times for Sunday. I managed to get a good run and take the stage win in the Elites in front of Martha Gill (Marin Bikes) by 8 seconds.

Sunday morning soon came around with an early start after seeding first meaning I was the very first rider out on course on the day. Annoyed with my bad luck due to the typical Welsh weather (it was pissing down) the stages had a nice layer of slick slim on them which would probably clear after a hand full riders. Determined not to let the weather get me down I really went for it and took some chances which paid off giving me the stage win with a good margin of 30 seconds.


The weather soon gave us a break but it was never going to dry out, I took the next three stages by 9 secs, 19 secs and 13 seconds. Not knowing any of the times or what position I was in, it was left to the last stage to give it everything I had down the last finish straight which felt like hell of a long way!

After getting my breath back and heading over to the results screen I was over the moon to see I had taken the win with a winning margin of 1.34 from 2nd place Martha Gill (Marin Bikes) and 3rd place rider Claire Bennett (Flare Sealskinz Mudhugger) 1.58.

Over the last month I have ridden some big events and have been feeling like both my fitness and bike skills have moved up a level and in securing this win I cant help but feel more motivated to push myself even harder before heading to round 4.

Photo Credit: Doc Ward / Brendan Prudom