caitelliott.co.uk » British MBS

BMBS – Newnham Park, Plymouth

Cait — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 08:51:55 +0000

I love mountain biking.

After last weekend I was almost ready to quit cycling and had no interest whatsoever in going the final race of the year at the BMBS in Plymouth. I only made the effort because everything was booked and paid for but I went into it with very low expectations, only hoping that I could at least rediscover an enjoyment of racing.

elite women's start

Newnham is usually a good race venue and pre-riding the day before we discovered the course was better than ever before. 3 main fairly steep climbs which were all rewarded with long sections of slippery, rooty singletrack. I managed to crash on a new descent that wasn’t fully bedded in yet, taking the top off an old scar of my knee. Pouring blood and some over enthusiastic first aiders resulted in butterfly stitches and a bandage the length of my leg! muppet.

Photo credit: Bob Bogdan Williams

Race day. I didn’t get the best start but after the first singletrack I managed to move up to 5th and before long we had a gap on the rest of the field behind. Maddie Horton was just in front of me and I had to dig in to make sure she didn’t pull away on the longer climbs, and then fly down the descents to close the gap. Having barely trained for the last month I was surprised to be feeling pretty good and able to push hard. The trails were very much like Irish mountain biking, lots of off-camber rooty, fairly steep technical descents and greasy but fast muddy sections. The faster you rode the more fun they were!

photo credit: Bob Bogdan Williams

On the second lap Maddie didn’t seem to be any quicker on the climbs and coming to the top of the last steep one I put in an effort to get onto her wheel but couldn’t quite do enough to get in front before we hit a long, fast singletrack descent. Halfway down the trail split and I took a different line to sneak past and attack down the hill. Back being able to race, riding totally flat out, amazing!

Photo credit: Bob Bogdan Williams

Maddie and I came through the start area together and realised we had begun to close the gap towards Mel Spath and Lee Craigee ahead. We agreed to work together to get up to them and I let Maddie ahead to take a turn on the front. Into the next climb and suddenly my legs switched off! My calves still don’t seem capable of going race pace for the whole race and I had to watch Maddie ride away. Frustrating as it was, I was expecting this to happen at some point so rather than letting my head go down as with last week I pushed on as hard as I could for the rest of the race, enjoying myself on the descents and hoping that I had already done enough to hold off people behind.

Photo credit: Bob Bogdan Williams

The climbs were hurting a bit by the last lap but the thought of not having to ride hard like that until next year made it easier. I hung on to come in 5th and finish 4th in the series overall (results here). It was good to finish the season enjoying racing but I’m looking forward to party season now!

photo credit: Bob Bogdan Williams

Thanks to all the organisers, its been a great series and definitely the best course was saved until last. A big thanks to WXC for all the support and assistance both today and throughout the season. Thanks to Bob Bogdan Williams for the cool photos

British MBS – Margam Park

Cait — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 19:23:33 +0000

Having defeated the killer Shingles virus and enjoyed a race free weekend since Wasing, it was back to the UK on Sunday for the 4th round of the British series at Margam Park in Wales. The week leading up to the race was very wet and Saturday’s pre-ride was pretty grey and miserable with rain, half of the course covered in clouds and extremely slidey, muddy trails (the fun part!).

Unbelievably by Sunday morning the sun had come out and with temperatures hitting 31˚C I had my dream race conditions of heat and mud. We set off straight into a long climb finishing on a tough, off-camber slippery singletrack before hitting a fast muddy descent. By the top cyclocross pro Nikki Harris (Scott Contessa) had already pulled a gap and I’d got up to 3rd following Mel Spath (Cycleways), with Lee Craigie (Torq performance) just behind me. The course was ‘proper’ mountain biking with several huge long climbs, some short technical climbs, and lots of great singletrack descents with spectacular views out to the coast. The combination of long climbs and technical muddy trails meant riders were very quickly strung out and big gaps developed as the race went on. I clung on to Mel for just over a lap but eventually had to let her go – still have to make up that killer 2 minute difference .

The final climb of the lap was a monster, 7-8 minutes with several false summits, a headwind and sweltering heat and on lap 2 Lee jumped in front of me towards the top. I had to dig deep to hold on but eventually into the next lap she pulled away. Although the hills were tough, mud meant there wasn’t much pedalling to be done on the singletrack so there was plenty of time to recover before the next batch of pain. The descents were awesome, mostly narrow rutted trails covered in a thick layer of mud making for lots of fast, fun sliding around. One steep chute through the rhododendron bushes was particularly fun – 20cm deep mud meant brake free ‘bike-surfing’ sideways at high speed was the only option to get down it!

Coming into the last lap I was starting to feel destroyed, I had given up on catching Lee again and could only hope I had enough left to get around without being caught from behind since I knew I didn’t have much energy left for a fight. Then at the bottom of the first decent I passed Lee who had punctured. I gritted my teeth and sprinted to get around the corner out of sight and then somehow found some extra reserves to ride hard for the rest of the lap, not daring to look back, convinced she was seconds behind me. It was only the thought of a medal that dragged me up the last climb and from there it was a long fun descent and a never ending flat grassy field to the finish where I crossed the line in 3rd, delighted with the result (full results here). With 47 minutes in my top heartrate zone I was certainly trying hard but it’s great to feel able to do that again, calves are almost sorted!

photo credit: James Milnes

Margam is fantastic course that really separates the ‘mountain bikers’ from the ‘xc racers’ and made for some great results for the all the Irish riders with Mel and Robin both finishing 2nd! Thanks to WXC World Racing for all the assistance over the weekend. Kenda Nevegal/small block was the ultimate tyre combination for speed and grip in the mud, and my Spanish hill training came in very handy for coping with the heat.

British MBS – Wasing Estate

Cait — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 08:24:20 +0000

photo credit: Tor Olav Kjøren

British MBS at Wasing Estate in Reading, a course I hadn’t raced before and having heard it was fairly flat and uninteresting I wasn’t expecting to like it. However after a practice lap I was pleasantly surprised, not much climbing but some great singletrack through pretty woodland (similar to Castlewellan in places though without as much wow factor). Until Thursday I wasn’t looking forward to racing, still having problems with super sore calves I knew I would be there making up numbers again which is no fun at all. Then I had 1.5 hours of deep tissue massage on my legs and the effects were miraculous, I still wasn’t 100% but only felt slight tightness rather than pain so went into the race with a bit of confidence for the first time in weeks.

photo credit: britishcycling.org

On race day my prayers for rain were answered and although it wasn’t quite muddy enough to slow the race down as I’d hoped, the singletrack had become nice and slidey making for some fun racing. I got an unusually great start and was soon into 3rd place sitting on Maddie Horton’s wheel. WOW, this is racing! I hadn’t had that feeling for so long, pain free legs and feeling strong, brilliant! For a couple of laps I was back and forth between 2nd and 3rd place with some great battling on a close course and several other riders hot on our heels. The twisty trails flowed really well with rain making wet roots and corners all the more interesting.

By the end of lap 2 Mel Alexander and Mel Spath had caught me and we rode together for a while. By this stage my calves were beginning to tighten again and I felt like they were reeling me in from then onwards. The two Mels got a gap on me when a junior crashed in front of me and I got stuck behind another one – one your were into a singletrack section it was very difficult to pass and then hard to close a gap. I could see them ahead for the rest of the race but couldn’t do enough to get back up there, instead enjoying the increasingly slippery trails and keeping an eye out for other riders close behind.

photo credit: BritishCycling.org

Under normal circumstances I’d be annoyed for throwing away a couple of positions but 5th (results here) is a big step in the right direction and most importantly I got the race buzz back and feel like I can go at some proper training now and get back on track. What a relief. More killer massages this week will hopefully get me fully sorted, bring on the hills of Margam! Thanks to WXC once again and great to see the team dominating the podiums.
Check out the race video here.

Racing aside it was a very English weekend with tennis on the lawn, stonehenge, winsor castle, a tour of Cambridge, pots of proper tea and real ale. I like England. Identity crisis, haha.

British MBS – Dalby Forest

Cait — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 10:50:04 +0000

I seem to have hit a period of bad luck the last few weeks, beginning with extremely sore calve muscles as a result (or cause?) of a bad race in Sherwood that limited me to nothing harder than steady riding for 2 full weeks. On Saturday I flew back from Spain for the next round of the British national series but as the day went on I started experiencing stomach ache and feeling feverish. I hoped that a good night sleep would do the job but instead woke up feeling worse and if I hadn’t made such a long trip to come over I would have rolled over and gone back to sleep. Talk about bad timing, I never ever get sick!

I pre-rode the lap to warm up but increasing the intensity made the stomach pain worse, by the time I got to the start line I could barely think of riding around the course let alone racing hard. I tried to concentrate on the task in hand but struggled to put in enough effort to get into a good position approaching the first singletrack. The first half of the course is descending with some nice technical features so I was able distract myself from the pain and move up the field a bit, but each time we got to a climb I had shooting stomach pains that got worse the harder I tried. Not good.

As time went on I had a few battles with different riders but couldn’t hit the extra gear needed to attack and fight for positions. Luckily the course at Dalby is a good one, so there were some fun parts but most of the race was uncomfortable and painful so I didn’t enjoy it anywhere near as much as I should have. The stomach pains got worse as the laps went on, and I started to get fever like sweats. I began to think that I’d love to drop out, but something in my head won’t let me do it. I’d rather suffer like mad than give in completely, at least that way I can at least say I tried my best. I pushed on, only thinking as far as the top of each hill, finally getting to the finish where I doubled over in pain, unable to stand up straight and relieved it was over.

I finished 9th(results here), although very annoyed and frustrated overall, under the circumstances on the day I was glad to survive the race and still pick up a few UCI points. I thought I was better yesterday but had to lie down half an hour into an easy spin, hope I can get it out of my system soon I’ve got work to do before the world cups!

Thanks to the WXC World Racing for all the assistance and the Elliott family support team.

WXC in Dalby

Cait — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 14:00:05 +0000

In a moment of extreme organisation I did my preride for the Dalby forest round of the British NPS 3 weeks before the event. I was joined by a few less experienced WXC team mates who I’d promised to help with riding some of the more extreme drops.

A sucessful day was had by all. I kept myself busy trying not to brake on the descents, and for girls who’ve been riding less than a year to get down Medusa’s drop with no problems is impressive, especially as we stood an watched guys on downhill bikes take the chicken run!

Afterwards we met the nice people in the Purple Mountain centre, great place for a post ride cafe stop! I then left the race bike clean, shiny and ready to roll, and jumped on a plane to Spain…

BMBS – Sherwood Pines

Cait — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 10:57:10 +0000

British MBS in Sherwood, the first international xc of the year, UCI c1 classified, lots of world class competition, bad day at the office.

I had a bad start, didn’t get off fast enough and couldn’t pass enough people before we hit the first singletrack, not ideal but its a long race so it shouldn’t have been over then. Into lots of tight, flat pedally singletrack I could do no more than follow the wheel in front until the course opened up a bit and I could move up. By that stage a lead group had moved off, I should have been up there but instead tried to focus on Lee Craigie just ahead. I chased for a lap or so, working fairly hard but struggling to get into real race mode, I just couldn’t get into that extra gear both mentally and physically.

Two girls caught me from behind and I jumped on for a while but couldn’t hold the pace. What was going on? I tried to stay interested, to make myself angry, to tell myself to push, that I could do better. Nothing worked. The course at Sherwood is unbelievable for its ability to sap all the energy from your legs and desire to race from your brain, its not just that its flat but I find it impossible to race. The singletrack is alright, tight and twisty but very bumpy so even of you’re not pedalling its draining the leg muscles and there are no descents to recover on. If I’d felt strong it might have been different, but once you’re going badly there is no adrenaline filled descents to get you going so the whole thing quickly becomes very miserable.

On lap 4 I tried a new line which didn’t work and I crashed into a bump. As I stopped to twist my handlebars back into place I was caught from behind again. After that I finally got slightly into racing mode, it was easier working with someone on the fireroads and we kept jumping in front of each other trying to lead in the singletrack. This continued until towards the end of the last lap so I started to get psyched for a sprint finish, not something I was keen on having to do at that stage! Luckily I attacked on one of the tight trails 3km from the end and got a gap that I kept until the end. I finished 10th, way of the pace, way of my own expectations, and not impressed (results here).

So what went wrong? Maybe I’m not recovered from Spain? Maybe pushing super hard against Mel in Ireland last week was a bad idea? Maybe I did too much in the week? Maybe I’ve been kidding myself all winter? God knows but at least I don’t have to go back there for another year! Even better, 5 days until real mountain biking…

Thanks to WXC for the excellent race support and SIP events for the shiny new bikes, I’ll race like I deserve it next time.