British Cycling National Cross Country Series - Round #3 Hopton Woods, Shropshire

Emma has been at it again, more racing and more blogging...

A busy few weeks before had seen me do quite a bit of riding and I felt like I was definitely making some improvements in terms of my ability to perform over full race distance. With its full on and up front climb, Hopton would be one hell of a test.

 

Thankfully, Pearce Cycles had once again arranged some amazing weather; not quite as hot as last year but at least it was dry, bright and warm. I headed out for a practice lap and it was basically up straight off the start line, with the gradient of the climb being the only thing that varied. For a change, I’d also opted to put a Schwalbe Racing Ralph on the rear since it was dry and I reckoned I could handle it; I tend to prefer having the grip level that the Schwalbe Rocket Rons give me normally but thought I’d see how  the Ralph went. The majority of the first climb was the same as the year before, however whereas previously we’d made a right turn near the top, this time we went left. This led to a really wicked little rooty downhill singletrack which offered up multiple line choices and some jumps before spitting you out onto a fireroad at feed zone 2. It also had these great root ‘nests’ that looked like a mass of snakes. After some more fireroad climbing you sped downhill into more singletrack, with a cheeky switchback into a little rise that caught you out (if you hadn’t been pre-warned)  then more twisty, rooty singletrack.  Even more singletrack (got to love it!) after that, where I found having the Ralph on the back called for a bit of skidding the back end round the corner (getting the hang of this more and it makes for getting round the corner a bit quicker). One more section of fireroad climbing before it all went downhill via various singletrack sections, some hard packed, some fresh cut and rooty, and a fast slightly damp fireroad. The last section of singletrack was carved into the edge of the hill with a loamy base, some small drops and which eventually led you to the last tight berm section and a tabletop to ping you into the arena. My hardest decision was whether the course this year was more or less fun than last year!

Race day dawned and we were soon lined up. I decided that a full on race start wasn’t needed as there was no dash for the singletrack due to the climb we were to face. The aim today was to pace up the climbs and keep people in sight. From the off I was able to keep relatively close to a small group of girls. They managed to open the gap out a bit as time went on over the first lap but what helped me keep pushing was that I could see Anna (my Erlestoke12 partner) who wasn’t that far in front of me. Coming through after lap 1 I was behind Anna with AQR team mate Ruth chasing me. I seemed to pull away up the steeper climbs but Ruth was stronger on the fireroad aspects and caught me part way around lap 2. In a bid to stay with her I came in quite hot to one of the sections where I’d been skidding my back wheel around only to find that it seemed to have become really polished; the result being I almost got the bike through 180degs whilst it deposited me on the ground. I was soon up and running again although had to take a brief breather whilst my arm came back to life. I tried to chase Ruth back down and on the start of  the lap 3 climb I seemed to once again be making in-roads and closing the gap. However, just to highlight the effect of a moments inattention I made a mistake in the rooty downhill singletrack and went down hard on one of the rooty ‘nests’. I also discovered I’d broken my fork lockout lever too. After making sure I was alright, tucking the now loose lockout safely away and making sure my bars were straight I once more set about the chase. I could see Ruth on the fireroad ahead, but unfortunately I was too far back by now. For the remainder of lap 3 and all of lap 4 I was mostly on my own (apart from lapping some of the slower girls in other categories), but when I came across the finish I had a huge grin on my face.

I was so happy with my performance even though I was still the last rider home (one DNF’d). The difference between here and Wheal Maid was tremendous. I was no longer grovelling up the climbs but riding, even though the last lap hurt like hell. I was also able to ride a decent amount of the race with other riders in my category in view. I also felt like a racer again and had done full race distance at a national for the first time this year. This really is a great step in the right direction, and I aim to build upon this and get stronger as the season goes on. AQR Coaching’s Kate Potter is carefully tuning me in a way that allows my body to adapt to the higher intensity exercise and not aggravate my knee at the same time. No rest for the wicked though, Sunday 9^th June brings on a 6hr mixed pair at Britsol Bikefest, this time with AQR teammate Matt Prior.

Photos courtesy of Darren Ciolli-Leach and Neil Hendry 

AQR Skills Day, Southern XC Regional Champs & the SPAM Erlestoke12

Emma reports from a busy few of weeks racing and training

A couple of weeks after the last national round in Cornwall I had some domestic issues to sort oop North. Some good friends of mine agreed to put me up mid-week whilst I did some house faffing. However, I ensured that the house faffing was relegated to predominately the morning and early afternoon to enable some biking fun to be had. Whilst the faffing wasn’t good for me in terms of maintaining proper hydration and nutrition, the riding was superb; the new trail at Gisburn Forest one evening followed by a trip to Lee and Cragg Quarries on the Friday afternoon (well it was sort of on the way to Nottingham!). I have to say that the amount of time and energy that has gone into both areas is amazing, hats off to all those volunteers who made my rides fun (even though the weather tried to put a dampener on things).

A small traffic nightmare later and I was welcomed with open arms by my team mates Rachel Sokal and Anthony Jordan. I’m not sure which one was worse off from the effects of 24hrs of Exposure; the rider or the help! Rachel was doubly awesome in that when I came down early Saturday morning to get my bike washed she’d already done most of it; thank you Rach (and Ant you were great in your heckling role!).

I (or Rach) was washing my bike at silly o’clock in the morning as firstly I was knackered/hungry the night before, and secondly I couldn’t possibly show up to my AQR Skills day with a dirty bike (what would Mr Potter say?). I was joined on the day by fellow team mates Matt and Kirsty Prior, it was just us three and Mr Potter since it seemed some of the others had been scared off! Today we were doing some Advanced Skill  work aimed primarily at maintaining speed through the twisty stuff. We sessioned sections of Sherwood’s singletrack, either following the leader or with Mr Potter behind and observing what each of us was doing. It was also quite interesting observing and then critiquing other rider’s styles. I did have one instance where implementing the ‘more haste, less speed’ philosophy was blindingly obvious as I almost careered off the trail into an angry looking rock. Overall  I had a really good day and came away with a few points that I need to work on to help me get that little bit quicker; push the bike into the trail more and more ‘zip’ when switching sides on the bike.

In action at the Southern XC -

Southern XC pic http://www.flickr.com/photos/southernxc/

My mad few days of travel wasn’t over and after my Skills session at Sherwood I hit the road and headed south again. Another early morning and I was at Crow Hill, a fun, twisty, rooty Southern XC course. It was also Southern Champs time. I’d missed round one as I really wasn’t ready, however I love Crow Hill and really wanted to ride and test myself. A good turn out of 10 elite girls meant the front row was full, plus a really good showing in the other categories gave a decent start field. The drawback was that, at the start, myself and another rider had a bit of a coming together, then got partially engulfed as we tried to navigated the sweeping 180° turn and the entire field tried for the shortest line around, i.e. the inside line that we were on. I’d gone well back at this point however the field opened up again and I put the power down to take as many riders as possible before the first section of singletrack. I was told by one of my friends I looked as though I’d been kicked the speed I came past her (helped by a downhill I pedalled rather than freewheeled down). I managed to maintain contact with a decent group of girls for a period of time however once again as soon as the going got tacky and some more power was needed I just didn’t have it. I came through in 8^th after the first lap, got caught by another girl and unfortunately didn’t have the power to even stay with her.  The start of lap 3 was interesting as the Open Men had just set off and as I approached that first singletrack section I could see them queuing out of it. Perhaps my politeness of Cornwall had worn off as I just  muscled my way through (with some ‘pleases’ too of course) and worked my way around some of the guys until things got moving, a really good overtaking practice session I thought (we won’t mention the small departure onto the floor when I reached the limit of the grip envelope). In doing so I must have also overtaken 8^th place briefly as she passed me again, much to my confusion, on the next fireroad! Muscle fatigue was certainly setting in as the race progressed and the course degraded, however towards the end of the race I started to see another rider getting closer. I tried my hardest but couldn’t catch her, finishing in 9^th in the end and just under 2mins behind 8^th but with almost a 6min gap to 10^th. Although I was absolutely shattered I was really happy with how I’d ridden, feeling once again like a racer. Throughout the singletrack I had also been thinking about the skills session I’d had the day before and was really enjoying trying to put those aspects into practice when the course allowed. My speed and power will eventually come as my training slowly ramps up. I said in my previous blog I would be looking for little indicators and I felt that this race was a really good indicator of progress. 

Anna in action - http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinsheldrake/

 The few days after the mad dash around the country and I was super tired plus my knee was complaining, so I opted to rest it up. Thankfully the knee was really just feeling tired and perhaps a little swollen but there was fortunately no real pain. A few days later and I was feeling as good as new. With the rest of my team mates otherwise engaged I was looking around for a pairs partner to tackle SPAM Biking’s Erlestoke12 (although the 6hr not the 12hr race). Finally, about  16hrs before the 1200 start time I managed to talk Anna Cipullo, an MBSwindon/Hargroves Cycles elite rider, out of a solo ride (she thanked me for it afterwards!).  Anna, as the faster rider, started; although the start was a bit of shock being 8mins early and she’d barely gotten her wheel swapped back over after getting off the turbo. We actually had no other real competition as there were no other 6hr Female Pairs. However, our mission was to at least beat the 6hr Female Team and finish as high up in the other pairs categories as we could, bearing in mind we might find ourselves merged into one of them. Anna came through after Lap 1 with only the 12hr Female team of Four4th lights in front. I started a bit hard and paid the penalty on certain parts of the course but it was a fun course so the small torturous bits were just about bearable. It was dry, there was dust, the singletrack was rooty and twisty (more AQR skills practice), steep little ups, fun downs (even a Redbull timed section) and one hell of a grass slog (thankfully dry too). With laps around the 40min mark for us it ended up with us both doing 4 laps. Anna was pretty consistent throughout, however my lap times did drop off a little more as the day went on but I maintained as high a tempo as possible on all laps, even when my legs were screaming at me; I was however very glad I wasn’t soloing. SPAM were very kind giving us our own podium in the end (you’ve got to be in it to win it), however we were more chuffed with having beaten the female team, come 4^th in the mixed pairs and 10^th in the Male pairs, not too bad really. I really am so very thankful to Anna for agreeing to partner with me, it meant that I did one hell of a hard interval session which will help make me stronger in the long run; of course no more friendliness as battle once again commences at the next round of the British Cycling Cross Country Series at Hopton! 

A successful couple of weeks

All in a day's work

Team rider Matt reports from his relay triathlon last weekend 

What better way to spend a day at work than riding my bike around a big lake in the sunshine with a few hundred other people?

 A few weeks ago I took park in the Jones Land LaSelle Property Triathlon as part of my work CRBE Triathlon relay team. Donning a combination of CBRE and AQR kit (great colour clashes!), I set out with a personal goal to beat last year's time for the 20km bike leg of 36 mins 41 secs. Well, I didn't just beat it, I thrashed it by almost 3 minutes with a time of 33 mins 56 (stats from Kirsty - that's a 7.5% improvement!!!)

My team finished the top CBRE mixed team and my bike time ranked me within the top 20 for the cycle leg, finishing in the top 1.5% of all riders! Including some of the 'pointy-helmet' brigade ( you know, the ones that ride full-on time trial bikes!) Pretty impressed with that and it is clear that with personal ambition and aim together with expert coaching from the Potters that results can be achieved. Those times when Kate's punishing coaching drills have pushed me to the limit were worth it - thanks Kate and bring on next year's race!

It's been a busy few weeks!

To be honest, the last week has been quite surreal.  A week before my first ever World Cup race I was racing at one of my favourite courses - Margam Park in the glorious sunshine at the Welsh Mountain Bike Championships.  I was hoping for a podium as I am one of the small number of female riders eligible to challenge for the Welsh Championship title. 

I left my warm up until the last minute (probably cutting it a little too fine) and rolled onto the start line raring to go.  After a good start I was in 2nd place behind Mel Alexander, who unfortunately for her, had a mechanical problem about half way round the first lap and had to retire.  This then left me in the lead with 2nd place hot on my heels.  After some tooing and froing at the end of the first lap and beginning of the second, I drew out a gap on 2nd place and managed to stay away for the rest of the race.  I struggled quite badly with cramp from about lap 3 onwards so I had to back the pace off, but still managed to do just enough to maintain my lead.  Due to a mix up with lap numbers I ended up doing an extra lap, 6 in total, and came through the finish happy to take the Welsh title with an extra lap in the bag.

The day after the Welsh Champs and during the working week leading up to our flight out to the Czech Republic I was buzzing and proud to have a national title under my belt.  This gave me an extra boost during my preparations for my next and biggest ever challenge prior to my first World Cup.

We flew out to Prague late on Thursday night, prior to the Sunday morning World Cup race.  Thinking we’d have enough time, we stayed in the airport hotel and picked up our hire car on Friday morning.  This was our first error as the car hire place didn’t open until 8am and I’d hoped to get to the race site for 9.30am ready for sign-on and practice.  This was evidently not going to happen as it was a 2hr drive.  In the end we didn’t get there until 10.45am, leaving me 15 minutes to frantically run around and find sign-on before it closed at 11am.  I then had to build my bike in the event car park and proudly attach my World Cup number board to my handlebars.  I could now relax and use the next hour and a half to have my first practice session on the World Cup course.  I thought this would be enough time to get a feel for the course, but I was very wrong.  I could have done with much longer than this as there were a few sections that I had to session before I was happy with them and I ended up not being quite finished with my practice by the time the session was over.  I knew I had another opportunity to practice on Saturday morning so didn’t let this worry me and we drove to our hotel, a 7 mile drive away from Nove Mesto Na Morave in Zdar Nad Sazavou (don’t ask me how to pronounce it!!).

The hotel was perfectly situated in a small square in the centre of town, with plenty of convenient parking right outside and our room was huge – probably the same size as our whole ground floor in our house!

The rest of Friday was spent chilling and exploring the local area and random supermarkets.  We found a nice pizzeria for dinner (although we had to use trusty Google translate to help us decipher the menu!) and got everything ready for practice on Saturday morning.

After a good night’s sleep we trundled down for breakfast (where thankfully there was an English menu available) and had our fill of cornflakes and weird herby bread.

I then rode the 7 miles to the race site as a gentle warm up before practice and Mat followed in the car and walked out onto the course to shout at me on the techy bits I was struggling with.  I had 2hours to clean the two sections I was mentally struggling with – the ‘Rock and Roll’ rock garden section and the three log drops just after the start/finish area.  Thankfully, after the XC Eliminator event last night the log drops had been given an addition of some advertising boards just underneath each log which meant they were now roll-able rather than full on jumps, so this made me very happy and I moved onto the rest of the course.

I rode the whole course, using the lines I wanted during the race and felt happy with them and as I rode them faster the whole course started to gel and feel much better and flowy than in yesterday’s practice.  The course felt very similar to our local trails at the Forest of Dean, but to put it in Mat’s words the Czech course was ‘The Forest of Dean, but on steroids!’ as everything was slightly more gnarly than at home – the roots were more numerous, more slippy and the hills were definitely more challenging.

At the end of the lap I had one hour left to session the ‘Rock and Roll’ section as I really didn’t want to have to run this section because I’d definitely lose time.  I spent a while watching the lines other riders took and chose the one I wanted, but after a number of attempts I was just struggling with a mental block.  I was getting through the rock garden, but struggled to get through a small gully of rocks and onto the north shore bridge.  There were a couple of marshals watching me and came over and suggested I needed more speed and less tyre pressure.  I was becoming more and more determined, but also frustrated so I knew I needed to change my approach.  I let some air out of my tyres and asked Mat to stand further away from the main obstacle so I could look at him and passed the obstacle rather than focussing on it and not looking where I’m going.

I gave it another shot, got a bit further and realised that this was going to be doable.  With a bit more speed and determination and I was there. Once I’d cleaned it, I did it a few more times to prove it wasn’t a fluke – the marshals even congratulated me I think because they’d seen how long I’d been there trying!

This was the end of the practice session and we had to get off the course ready for the U23 and Junior Women’s races.  I was feeling very happy to have cleaned the two sections I really needed to conquer and felt happy with how I was going to approach the course on the morning of the race.

We stayed and watched the women’s races, noting any issues they had at the start and around technical sections.  Unfortunately our talented British competitor Bethany Crumpton was involved in a crash at the start where the course narrowed to go over a bridge, but she rode on to fight back into a top 20 position, which was a great ride.  I noted this down as I certainly didn’t want to get into a similar situation when my race started.

We spent the rest of the day chilling and making the bike race ready and trying to rest my legs as much as possible.

Race Day – Gulp!

Although I try to ignore it, I do get nervous before races, which in some ways I think is a good thing because it helps with the adrenaline, but it does make eating breakfast quite a challenge and the day of my first World Cup race was no exception.  I ate as much muesli as I could stomach and then packed up my things and went for and easy spin over to the race arena.  Mat followed in the car with spares etc.

Before I knew it I’d finished my warm up and was being called to get into the holding area and then line up.  I made a bad decision straight away with my spot on the start line as I ended up in the middle of the pack at the back, whereas I’d have been happier at the side.  I was taken aback when they took the tape down and everyone filtered forwards – this is not allowed in British racing so I wasn’t forceful enough with getting a good spot in the group – lesson learned for next time.

The countdown started and the gun went and immediately there was a delay as the top girls shot off and we were left waiting for the pack to get started – it takes a while to get 60 riders started.  Once we’d all set off the pace was ferocious.   I just about hung onto the back of the field down the tarmac start straight and onto the fire road.  There was some panic breaking as a few people had to filter in due to the course narrowing and I was nowhere near aggressive or pushy enough.  I ended up staying at the back of the pack and fighting to stay in touch, whereas I should have pushed forwards when people slowed up and got myself an advantage – another lesson learned.

From then on I was riding as hard as I could, but try as I might the pack got away – the course going uphill right from the start of the fire road didn’t help as I just didn’t have the legs for it and I could only keep one rider in my sights.  I caught her up and rode with her for about half of the start loop and then dropped her, but there was no way I was going to make the gap back to the main field.  So I just rode as hard as I could to get some good lap times in and keep away from being lapped.  Annoyingly I messed up the ‘Rock and Roll’ section that I had worked so hard to clean the day before and had to run with my bike.  I made the same mistake on my first lap after the start loop and gave myself a serious telling off. 

The spectators were amazing.  They shouted encouragement at me when I was climbing as I was obviously struggling with the harsh climbs and this really helped me to keep going and not get off and run.

By the latter half of my second lap (not including the start loop) I could hear the motorbike in front of the leaders catching me up and I knew it was only a matter of time.  I raced hard and started to ride much better than before with things starting to flow a bit better.  At the top of ‘ACDC’ (the fun switch back section before the final technical section of the course – ‘Rock and Roll’) I was lapped by the leading group so I knew that this was my last chance to nail the ‘Rock and Roll’ section.  The spectators were so loud, it was amazing.  I cleaned the section and rode through to the end of the lap where I was pulled as the leaders had already gone through.  This meant that I’d done the start loop and two laps out of five – which may sound pathetic, but I’m quite pleased with this as my first attempt because I only needed to be about a minute quicker overall and I may not have been lapped on that lap, so the margins were quite close – especially as I know of a number of places where I could have made up time.

Overall I’m pleased with my first effort at a World Cup event.  It was a massive learning curve, from things like knowing when/how/where to sign on and register, to finding out what time to arrive before the race and how many laps we were meant to do – which is hard to find out when you’re not allowed to attend the official team manager’s meeting.  During the race itself I also learned many things from my experiences as a racer and also from watching others.  These are all things I will take on board and put into practice at all of my future races both at home and abroad. 

The course was also a technical achievement for me as I’d expected to practice the course and struggle with lots of sections, but by the time I’d finished practice on Saturday I could ride the whole course, which is a huge achievement in my book.

I loved the whole experience, the atmosphere and encouragement and I’m also chuffed to see the amount of people who got behind me and encouraged me via Facebook/Twitter etc. which is great for me and also really positive promotion for the AQR Team, Coaching and our sponsors so thank you to everyone who encouraged me and I look forward to improving on my 56^th place at my next World Cup adventure!

My next challenge this Sunday is the third round of the British Series at Hopton in Shropshire, this race will round off three big races in as many weeks – phew!

British Cycling National Cross Country Series - Round #2 Wheal Maid, Cornwall

Having finally found some time to start catching up I thought I best start with the last round of the National MTB Series (before the next one is upon me).

Just about two weeks before this race I was at the physio and the decision was to try out some wedges that fit between my cleats and my shoes; the wedges are tapered and so would angle my shoe slightly so that it mimicked the angle my feet naturally hang at, whilst still allowing the shoe to clip into the pedals whilst fully horizontal. By doing this it was hoped that it would reduce foot rotation inside my shoe. This has been thought to be one of two issues (the second being an asymmetric pelvis) that has resulted in me getting knee pain, since my knee has effectively been piggy in the middle of two unnatural rotations and has meant I’ve had to back off the training. Initial results seemed promising and after a week of low volume and intensity work I went out for my longest pain free ride since before Christmas. It was now starting to look as though AQR Coaching’s Kate Potter could start building me back up. However, I have a long way to go as I’ve had to go back to Base, day 1 (therefore for me it’s like being in October again).

So, I’d had a ride the week before at Cwmcarn and had got my rocky eye back in and boy am I glad I did. I arrived Friday evening to a blowing gale in the arena field with the course dropping below the arena level into the disused Copper mines area.  This being a ‘Horton’ course I knew it would be technical and I’d seen some pictures and video footage that showed some of the course. I opted to do a course walk on the Friday evening, something I have never done before but am glad I did.

The ‘Ridge Run’ was a really long section of gravity assisted singletrack straight out the arena, but the consequence was that there really was nowhere to overtake for a good number of minutes until you got to the first climb. A loose climb, split in two, followed into more singletrack and then the first A/B line split. Some mini rock gardens presented themselves and then this led to ‘The Leveller’. Basically, the right line was an off camber, with a root across it, line and the left line was pretty much a small sheer drop (well it looked that way).  After some fluttering of the heart I then analysed it a bit more thinking less about what it looked like and more about what a bike wheel would be doing; based on that I was taking the drop and did so throughout practice and the race.  This then led to ‘Down to Brown’ (dodgy name, but the water at the bottom, in ‘Toxic Pond’ was brown!). A/B line choices here where B lost you quite a bit of time. The A line was a slightly tricky entry  to a steep, loose left hand turn which then put you into a steep right hand turn with a small drop off at the bottom and a left turn out (unless you wanted to end up in ‘Toxic Pond’).  The technical rider in me wanted to nail this, and in practice the next day it took a few attempts and words with myself about where I was looking but I cleared it. Some more loose climbing followed to what looked like the surface of Mars and then onto more singletrack to the last A/B line section ‘The Wall Ride’. This was a bus stop type feature and required a certain technique and power to clean, which even in practice I couldn’t manage so I made the decision to take the B here. More climbing, a loose descent, more climbing still, singletrack, small woodland section and then into the arena. A really lovely course with some good technical challenges.  My Cotic Soda was loving the course also, with my Magura Durins soaking up the drops,  and the Magura Marta Brakes allowing me to really feather my speed for obstacle entry I was properly set.

  

With me not having any real power in my legs I knew I wouldn’t be competitive here however my aim for this race was to finish and to ride technically well. After all, this was a new course and I would come away with more lesson learnt no matter what the outcome. As suspected I was engulfed at the start and also a little too polite so went into the singletrack last, whereby I was held up as I could descend faster than those in front of me. That advantage was soon wiped out when they were able to climb away from me. The group of girls immediately in front steadily pulled away as I couldn’t answer their climbing pace, however as I popped out of the A line at ‘Down to Brown’ I was suddenly around some of them again and had gained enormously. Unfortunately, as the race went on I just couldn’t keep that advantage and with the amount of climbing soon lost touch. I then concentrated on riding well. I did crash on lap 2 at ‘Down to Brown’ and lost some time there, but again knew what I’d done wrong (not looking properly where I was going) and rectified this on lap 3. We had World class representation in the form of Topeak Ergon’s Sally Bigham and she lapped me towards the end of lap 3 which meant I was pulled from the race by the Commissaries. Even though the race was shorter than I’d hoped for me, I’d been really grovelling up the climbs and therefore it was probably for the best in the end as I was struggling due to my lack of form. I then hit the turbo for another 15mins to get the legs spun out.

Whilst not a result that I am proud of, I am really proud of how I dealt with the course from the Friday night course walk, to the pre-race day and race day riding. I would have been fooling myself to expect a really good result when I haven’t been doing that sort of training, however it is a really good basis on which I can now start to build. Over the coming months I’ll be looking for progress indicators to help keep me on track as whilst the wedges have helped me, they haven’t cured the underlying problem.

Thanks to Darren Ciolli-Leach for the photos