Three Seconds

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BY: Melanie Alexander

Published: 21st June, 2012

Three Nations in three weekends, second in Scotland, Wales and England.

 

 

3^rd June, Crow Hill, Round 4 of the Southern XC Series

Blame it on too much coffee, not enough sleep, not a big enough breakfast, the glass of wine the night before, not pre-riding a course or only a 10 min warm up, whichever, all are due to bad prep and it only takes a little of this for you to feel it. I was full of excuses afterwards and disappointed with myself. My body was rebelling for it. My stomach was in bits and I was extremely grumpy. Mental note to not do this again.

The course was twisty, with a lot of single track and a couple of steep short climbs. I felt sluggish from the start. Maddie Horton was there and leading in true style, I was fighting it out with Carla Haines for the first lap, dropped down to fourth at some point and fought my way back up to finish second on the last lap. Enough said about that. Lesson learnt.

 

10th June, Wiggle Dragon Sportive

 

This was tough, enjoyable and best of all I felt strong especially up the last two well known climbs the Rhigos and the Bwlch.128 miles with 3350 meters of climbing over the hills of South Wales. There were points of stunning beauty where I was left asking myself why do I not ride round here more often.

 

 

 

 

 

I know it is not a race but I got riding with Rachel Stoakes who started in the same group of 125 riders, we pushed each other on, I finished in a time of 7 hours 22.09 with an average speed of around 18miles an hour which I am happy with. Rachel finished 8 seconds up on me as the fastest female rider. The organisation was a huge improvement on last year, no waiting around at the start and timing chips that worked and Margam Park made a great venue for the start and finish of the race.

 

 

17^th June, Kirroughtree, Round 4 of the BMB Series

 

The weather finally caught us in Kirroughtree with rain all day on the Saturday. I headed out for a couple of practice laps with Sally Gabriel and Mark at midday. Non stop rain was making the course fairly technical. I liked the course as there was a bit of every thing, the climbs were rooty and muddy and took skill in keeping traction, there were fast sections of man-made trails and a few great muddy descents. The loop finished with a steep muddy drop into the arena which I hesitated upon on first look, watched a few people attempt the run up a few times and then Sally fearlessly rode straight off it so I had to follow, it was one of those "not as bad as it looks" moments.

 

 

Photo by Neil Hendry

 

Race day and I was nervous, I knew I could do well on this course but I also knew I was going to have to battle it out. This year's racing has been exciting with some close racing with certain courses suiting individual strengths.

 

Photo by Neil Hendry

 

Maxine Filby set a painfully fast pace off the start, Lee Craigie was close behind and then there was a load of us scrambling around each other aiming to tag on. I got into the single track around 5^th position but we were all so tightly packed. Gradually I worked my way forward on the early muddy climbs which we were off the bike and running up (I discovered I am not a bad runner- just need to work on the mounting and dis-mounting) until I had worked my way in to second and then pushed as hard as I could until I had a gap. Lee Craigie was still in sight 15 seconds up on the fire road  and this pushed me on. I had a good first lap (apart from chickening out on the final drop - I needed Sally to lead the way) completing it 25 seconds down on Lee Craigie and she was still in sight in the arena area. On one of the early running climbs on the second lap I am sure the gap decreased between us but Lee is tough and soon after she was out of sight. For the rest of the race I continued by myself, focused, keeping it steady on the descent and working hard on the fire roads and single track - I felt good, my bike felt brilliant and I was able to work hard which was good as I knew I had some tough competition not too far behind.

 

 

 

 

I finished second, 1min50 down on Lee Craigie and 2mins50 up on Maxine Filby. Such a brilliant feeling and I am going to relish it as I am not so sure that's going to happen again in a hurryJ.  Carla Haines had a brilliant race finishing 4^th and Jessie Roberts 5^th.

 

Thanks as always to sponsors:

 

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