British NPS – Dalby Forest

Saturday was the 4th round of the British NPS series taking place on the world cup course at Dalby. I was keen to prove that my podium spot at Margham was no fluke and make the most of lots of points available as it was a UCI C1 race. I was lucky to have a new replacement Moda bike for the race, but didn’t get it until the day of the race. Arriving a bit late and a lot of faffing meant I only got 20 minutes to warmup and check it out before the start.

We set off, charging across the grass to get in to the first singletrack – I was 6th or 7th at that stage and had to get around a big loop before a passing opportunity. As soon as possible I got up to 3rd , and chose the rocky line as the track split in two. Hammering down seemed awfully hard work and I realised something was wrong, I was riding rigid, forgetting to turn off the lockout on the forks after warming up! Quickly fixed, but as we hit a fireroad Lee Craigie came flying past and I spent the rest of the first lap following her wheel. The course was relentless, no chance for a break at all, you’re working hard all the way through be it climbing, descending or flat. Although following Lee, I was keeping an eye of Mel who wasn’t far ahead of us, and hoped that we’d be able to keep her in reach.

Looping around the grass field at the end of the lap, I was surprised when Lee went left, I was sure the course went right. I began to follow but realised just in time that she’d taken a wrong turn. I veered back on track and put my head down to get as much of a gap as possible. The next couple of laps I concentrated on making the gap bigger, and by lap three I was sure I was clear. Although it was really hard, especially in the sun, I was having a great time. The course is so much fun and really comes alive in a race. Lots of big berms, nice singletrack and rocky, steep descents that seemed to get faster each lap with the adrenaline pumping.

Next target – Mel. Familiar feeling! I knew she was about a minute ahead at the start of the lap, though the nature of the course meant she was out of sight a lot of the time. By the end of Medusas descent on each lap I had her within sight as we went up one of the nasty climbs, but she’d disappear again on the flatter, more draggy 2nd half of the course. By the last lap I was pretty knackered and had to force myself to keep pushing on, but into that climb for the last time I realised I’d gained some time, Mel was less than 30 seconds ahead. That spurred me on to ignore the pain and dig deep, but I couldn’t quite find enough to get up to her so finished 3rd, about 50 seconds behind.

Brilliant race and very happy with the result and the ride overall. Not getting ahead of myself though, New Zealander Rosara Joseph gave us all a proper schooling, finishing 6 minutes ahead. Results are here and British Cycling report here. Big thanks to all the WXC crew for their support, my mum for her chauffeuring and Eoin for making the descents faster. Also to team sponsors Moda, Magura and Sram for the new bike – rode really well, I was particularly impressed with the Magura forks, float over everything so easily.

Now looking forward to racing dirt crits at Bike Radar Live next weekend!

Thanks to Micheal Grainger for permission to use his photos.

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