Angie takes over the crib: Headed up to Scotland on the 22nd to race the Pitfichie SDA, the forecast was to be wet and it held its promise. I've never seen rain like it. From Friday to Sunday it didn't stop once, heavy with thunder showers!
I got there on Friday night with Ellen Tipple, it was her first race and we walked the course, it was a new track that hadn't been raced on before so I was pretty excited. The top bit was pretty much the same as the other courses up there through the open heather singletrack and then it dropped down into the new woods section, there seemed to be loads of line choice and plenty rocks and roots! I was debuting my new FTW Industries FB10 on this race and was eager to see how it handled.
Gloopy course!
The race was an old school push-up-to-the-top so Saturday morning I got pushing! Managed to get 4 runs in and sessioned a few sections. The track was running sweet in the morning but after 130 riders had been down a few times it was started to get pretty beat up with more roots showing through meaning every run was different and I had to adjust and change some lines. There were some huge ruts forming that were quickly filling with water as a stream flowed down the track! Pretty hard going but sooooooo much fun riding in the wet, you can take the girl out of the North-East....!!
(Unknown Photographer - make yourself known to Lee!)
The new FTW took me a while to adjust to, however after a few runs I seemed to get right into it, it just felt so good on the rocks :-) *thumbs up!!* The new Hayes brakes still needed bedding in a little but after two runs they were awesome, I never thought anything would live up to my Hopes that I had had for four years but they were amazing and I love the fact you adjust the lever reach without an allen key - I only have wee fingers! :-)
On Sunday morning I got one practice run in which went pretty well so I thought I'd leave it on a good note for my first race run. That first race run could possibly have been my worst ever, I went over the bars three times and had some other moments as well. The woods was just so physically demanding, with nine girls racing I was sitting in 3rd place with a 4.53, about 15 seconds off the win, feeling pretty annoyed with myself!
I went up for second race run, absolutely cold and soaking wet by this point. I was in more of a chilled mood though (see what I did then!) and seemed to hold a much better run together. Admittedly I did have a little crash but stayed with the bike and got down the rest of the track totally sweet finishing almost half a minute faster with a 4.24 which put me into 1st place. I was mega happy!
(Another unknown photographer!)
Just a six-hour drive home after that but worth a trip up!
Thanks for sorting everything out Lee, you've been a star!! :-)
