Enjoying a bit of a Southern at Porridge Pot Hill

I have to start by saying how much fun I had yesterday at the Southern XC race at Porridge Pot Hill. The course has got to be one of the most enjoyable I have ever riden in anger, and left me with a complete buzz. it was fast and punchy with some great technical sections and loads of flowing single track. Unusually for this venue there was no killer climb (although the fenceline climb did start to pinch by lap 5) and I think it was so much better for it (although I am sure all the mountain goats - and especially Cat Ross - will disagree).

5 ladies lined up for the start of the elite race. This was my one and only Southern XC of this year due to the change of race timing not fitting well with family life and babysitting duties but attendance defiantly seems to be down in all the ladies race categories this year - although I have no idea why. With only 3 more weeks until Bontrager 24:12, the aim of the day for me was good consistant lap times without the usual race fade by lap 5.

With such a technical course I was very glad of my pre-ride and the sessoning I did with the Four4th boys on the A-line sections in the arena. When the gun went, the other girls dropped the hammer and I went into 4th place. A stumble by Cat Ross put me into 3rd and then another stumble by the leading lady put me into 2nd behind Ruby Miller. All this was before we reached the big drop off out of the arena. I followed Ruby closely until we reached the first flat fire-road section when she absolutely stoked it and I had to let her go. Being a local girl, the single track flowed really nicely and I concentrated on riding well and carrying speed from corner to corner and out of each decent. This really paid off as I caught sight of Ruby again shortly before the end of lap 1. I reeled her in and we were wheel to wheel again by the time we hit "Watership Down" on the second lap (that nasty left hander onto the shale). The tricky tree trunk took Ruby's front wheel and gave me a moment to nip past. She barely missed a beat however and was pretty much instantly on my wheel. And there she sat, for the next 3 laps. I kept the pace on the edge of comfortable but with Ruby breathing down my neck, there was no room for mistakes.

By the time we started our final lap I knew Ruby would be looking for any opportunity to pass me and that I would be able to defend my position in the single track but it was going to be the climbs where she was going to take me. So I did the only thing I could, and attacked the first climb, prayed I hadn't done too much too soon and didn't look back. As it happened I did just enough at just the right moment. Out of sight is out of mind so I pushed on throughout the final lap and managed to pull out nearly a minute in the end. First place was mine, 57 seconds up on Ruby and just shy of 3 minutes up on Cat Ross, who was recovering from a hard fall last weekend (even The Mountain Cat has tough days - who knew!)

In the other races, things were quite eventful. With a very dry and loamy course, the trails ran fast and hard. Particularly hard if you got the cornering wrong! One particular off camber loamy section just before the big drop off was particularly tricky and had riders off left right and centre. 

Expert rider Paul Lloyd had a particularly nasty fall at the pointy end of the expert race, in the Watership Down section (close to where Ruby fell) neccesitating a red flag to the racing to allow him to be safely removed to hospital. I don't think i have ever seen this before in an XC race but these things happen. Racers were restarted in the order they finished their last lap (but without the time intervals) so this  obviously gave an advantage to some riders and a disadvantage to others. However, Motor racing works in exactly the same way and they just get on with it - that's racing. The important thing was that Paul was safely evacuated and no one else was hurt. Heal quick Paul, our thoughts are with you.

Many thanks to the organisers and marshals today who certainly earned their money and to course designer Chris Peacock who provided us with an amazing race track!

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