My first race of the season took me to the Forest of Dean for the 661 Mini Downhill.
This time last year there were six ladies entered, only one year on and our numbers had doubled.
The Forest of Dean itself is a fantastic place, with a proper MTB centre and what looked like very well maintained trails.
The race track itself was mint! It started on the fireroad at the top of what can only be described as the steepest push up. Ever.
Straight into a rooty wooded section with a couple of small root drops onto a right hander and down a rocky chute. All good.
Off a little lip you could managed a bit of air time into the next chute, then it was a pedally straight with a couple of small doubles. Down again over more roots followed by another chute into a second wooded section with a nasty tree stump to avoid (more about that later...) another pedally straight, sharp right hander, drop, sharp left hander, berm, pedal to the table then a set of left to right switchbacks, mini road jump, more left to right switchbacks and finish!
I managed three practice runs in the morning and actually felt pretty good about the track considering I'd never ridden it before and most of the girls there were either locals or had spent the Saturday practicing!
My first race run came and I felt really fast and smooth through the whole top section, entering the second wooded section I somehow managed to get my line wrong and hit the tree stump I'd mentioned earlier (nice of the BC Commisiare to spray it red so it called out to me like a beacon!) off the track and down the slope I slid! Uninjured I clambered back onto the track and kept going, annoyed that I was doing so well I lost my focus (and my footing) on the tabletop and finished the run with a time of 1.17906 putting me in 7th place!
I was annoyed because I knew I'd lost a good 5 seconds on the crash and probably another 5 due to not being able to get it back together for the bottom section but I also knew I could make that time up with my second run and get a 1.7 or below which would put me in 5th place.
Sat at the top waiting for my second run I was uncomfortably nervous, I knew I needed to make this time up to get a result I'd be happy with so the pressure was on for me.
As I left the start gate I hit the first section with a good smooth speed. However, that was where it ended! For some reason I rode the remainder of the track slower than my grandmother could and finished with a 1.17428. I was still in 7th place, hadn't moved up the 2 places I was hoping to and had only improved my time by a fraction!
I was so disappointed with myself despite my times not actually being that bad, my practice runs had felt so fast I just don't know what went wrong for the race runs. My friend made me laugh by informing me that I'd picked my way through the roots near the stump I'd crashed into and did I not realise the bike would cruise over them!
All in I still had a fantastic day and will definitely be heading back to FoD for some casual riding very soon!
The journey home was a different story, I blew a tyre on the A34 by Newbury and sat there for an hour in the dark waiting for the RAC. I'd already established that there was no spare but didn't realise that my cover was invalid because of that so was presented with a bill for £220 for the new tyre. I think that's the most expensive race I've ever done!
Thanks for reading! SJ. x
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