I was really looking forward to this one, last race of the year, an opportunity for some competitive racing, as well as great weather and one of the best courses of the year. Mel Spath of Torq/MAD was once again my main competition, and I was hoping that i’m fit enough now to be able to have a good race with her.
I knew I was really going to have to push myself physically and make the most of any technical advantage if I was going to have any chance as Mel still has an edge on me fitness wise. I was feeling good on the first climb, right on her wheel going into the singletrack at the top. Pretty early on she had a nasty looking crash and I passed by. It didn’t take long for her to be back behind me but she seemed to be struggling on the technical trails. I just kept pushing on and began edging away.
I was on my own a lot of the race in the end, although the juniors were often close by so I tried to race them to help stay focused. The course was amazing, a perfect combination of climbs (nasty at times but not too long) and then the reward of really fun singletrack descents, a mixture of some fairly difficult technical bits and some really fast swoopy stuff.
By the last lap I was convinced Mel was seconds behind and kept imagining I could see here torq jersey closing in. I pushed on, preparing my head for a fight, but was still feeling good enough to be really enjoying the riding and almost felt like another lap by the end (well maybe without the up hills!).
I finished first, finally feeling back to fitness, and happy with the way I rode. It wasn’t until afterwards that I realised how mush Mel had hurt herself in the crash, fairplay to her for finishing at all. Bit of a pity it wasn’t the close fought battle I’d been preparing for but it was fun all the same enjoying some great riding. Shame that’s it now until next year!