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Another weekend, another race – this time up to the North of Ireland for round 6 of the NPS run on last year’s National Championships course. I didn’t have great memories of the course, last year was hard and energy sapping with lots of short climbs and little chance to recover. Still, the weather was good and I was looking forward to giving it another shot.

We flew off at the start, with Mel Spath quickly taking the lead and setting a blistering pace. The ground was super dry and the course almost all grassy or dusty singletrack, with a few sharp rocks to catch you out. I had to work hard to stick to Mel, and with one short hard climb after another there was little chance for a break. The first half of the lap was mostly climbing and I was able to cling on, but after that it flattened out and I began to drop back.

On lap two I still felt I was going like a lunatic but struggling to keep the pace up, it was such hard work! By the end of the lap I’d lost sight of Mel and had to slow down a bit, my legs didn’t feel like they were firing on all cylinders, and I was stuck out racing by myself for the next lap or so. Between all the nasty little climbs, there were a few nice descents, particularly some super tight dusty switchbacks off the top off the hill that you could take really fast, and a couple of steepish rocky sections.

Ploughing on towards the end I was able to battle with some of the guys who were catching from behind. By the fifth lap I’d had enough and couldn’t wait to finish, there definitely seemed to be more pain than enjoyment going on. I told myself that if I wanted to get something from the race I should try to step up the pace on the last lap, so dug deep to get round as fast as I could.

I finished 2nd, 3 minutes behind Mel – results are here. Not my greatest race, but it came at the end of a hard block of training so not a total disaster. I’m looking forward to a recovery week now before heading over to Yorkshire for the BNPS in Dalby next weekend.

Thanks for all the cheers from the Epic and Mad pit crews, it really helped motivation each time I passed them by. Thanks to Drommara CC, the race was very well run and it was actually a really good course, just didn’t suit me at all. Liked the way all the climbs were given a name and number, a bit of pain distraction!

On Saturday the Halfords ProTour Series came to Dublin, with crit racing on closed streets in the city centre for the first time in 20 years. Despite it being a road race, I’m always up for trying something new, and chance to race in the city centre was too good an opportunity to miss. The course was a very short loop, up Dame street, down towards the river, along the cobbled streets of Temple Bar, and back up the hill. For the ladies it was 30 minutes long and then 5 laps at the end. The night before I had a quick look on the internet for tips and tactics on how best to race a crit – it seemed staying near the front was the best option to avoid bunch crashes and wasting energy on the corners.

50 of us lined up and somehow the supposed neutralised first two laps were ignored and we went straight into fast racing. I got up towards the front of the bunch as a front group split off. It was fast, exciting stuff – pedalling hard, getting around the corner as fast as possible and then sprinting out of it. The cobbles were a killer on skinny road tyres, battering the bike all over the place, but faster was easier. A few times I found myself leading at the front, and at one stage had a bit of a gap without really trying, so put in a bit of effort to test things and see if it was possible to get away – in the end I dropped back in, not confident I could maintain a lead.

Hammering up the hill on Dame Street, turning a tight corner and zooming down the hill towards the river was great fun – crits seem like the way to go for road racing, all the excitement without the boredom in between! The atmosphere was good too, crowds cheering, music playing and a commentator on loudspeakers.

I had no watch, so no idea how long was left, but suddenly they announced 5 laps to go. Ok, legs feeling fine, time for some action. I was watching out for attacks and when Mel Spath came flying past I got up and chased, we got a bit of a lead but holding it didn’t seem possible on the tight course, lapped riders made it hard to attack on the corners and the group got back. 1 lap to go, riding on the front feeling fine, telling myself this is no way as hard as the Epic club races, attack early or wait for the sprint at the end? I waited. Last corner, take it handy and hold position, its make or break time. Final stretch on Dame Street, I started to go, shit, is it the last lap? Nobody sprinting. Split seconds hesitation and not fully committing myself to the final sprint and suddenly 3 riders flew past me and I ended up 4th. Prizes for the top 3, doh! Report and photos here.

I’ll put it down to lack of experience but I definitely could have finished better, the race went perfectly other than that! Really enjoyable though, you could almost call it technical since cornering and descending skills were so important, and when it’s so short it’s all fast and furious stuff.

Afterwards it was nice to enjoy the scorching sun and watch the hour long men’s race, with a load of pro team over from the UK. It was amazing, the speed insane. Garmin-slipstream rider Dan Martin absolutely annihilated everyone – he made it look so easy, leading with a huge gap for more than half the race. There’s a nice video here. More of that in Dublin please!

I was back doing some Euro-racing at the weekend, returning to the Hors Class race I did last year in Albstadt, which forms part of the German national series. Irregular flights meant travelling to Munich West 3 days before the race so plenty of time to practice the course and have a mini holiday too. I went from Dublin with Mel Spath and initially enjoyed 35 degree heat, dusty trails, swimming in outdoor pools and sitting out on pavement cafes – if that’s pro-life I could get used to it!

By the time race day arrived the weather had changed completely, we woke up to cloud covered mountains, constant rain and cold temperatures– like being back home! Almost 40 riders lined up in the elite female race, including several world cup winners, Olympic and world champions, 10 different nationalities and loads of pros. The start was nerve racking, loads of noise from hundreds of spectators and lots of pressure being boxed in with such a big group of riders. I got a good gridding on the second row right behind eventual winner Sabine Spitz, and managed to fight through initial chaos, avoiding an early crash as people battled to get into a good position.

Things spread out pretty quickly as we hit a super steep 3-4 minute fireroad climb, and feeling good I started making up places. I’d forgotten how steep and nasty some of these European mountains are, it was a killer, but spectators lined all the way along, cheering and spinning noisy rattles making a great atmosphere and distracting from the pain.

Riding the course in previous days we thought it fairly easy – some steep switchback descents but nothing really technical. However in the rain it was totally different and became really hard. The rocky tight, steep singletrack was covered in a layer of wet, slippery mud making it really hard to get down in control. The first lap I dealt with it ok, a few dabs but making good time, and got round in 12th place at the end of the lap, up with several top riders – way better than expected!

Then it all started to go wrong. Mud was clogging up the bikes, tyres turning to slicks, and worst of all my pedals completely clogged up with mud. I had loads of trouble clipping in, meaning descending off balance and struggling to stay upright. I lost confidence and started to ride like a muppet, loosing time on the steep slippy singletracks (I wasn’t the only one, lots people were sliding, falling or running down hills whatever way they could, but still felt I should have been better since I get lots of practice in these conditions!).

The steep climbs got progressively harder too, legs burning and cramps setting in. I rode by one girl puking on the edge of the track – nice! By the last lap I just hoped to survive until the end and managed to finish 21st so at least got a few UCI points, overall not a bad result (results on cyclingnews.com here). Infact despite all that I did enjoy it, racing over there is so different – having your name called out on the loudspeaker and hundreds of people cheer you on up painful trails is an amazing feeling, and to be able to compete with the best in the world is great motivation to get faster.

We also had the luxury of technical support from WXC team mechanic Mike, who was also working for the USA national team. It makes a huge difference, taking so much stress out of things both before and during the race – thanks Mike! I had to fly with my bike from Dublin since my new Moda wasn’t ready after the robberies – another thing that really makes me appreciate having the support of the team. Signing away your bike to ryanair baggage handlers in the airport is not a nice feeling, nor is it fun carrying a 20kg box around Dublin at 1am to get home after a race!

Mel has a great report of the whole trip here.

After the BNPS race at Margham I somehow got roped into putting my wet, muddy gear back on and racing a team relay event later that day. Teams of 4 races around a 1-2 minute circuit with each person doing 3 laps. It wasn’t too serious but of course got pretty competitive and was a lot of fun. Unfortunately we didn’t win due to extreme chaos with changeovers at the end of each lap! Here’s a video:

I want my bike back! Here are the details of the two Moda bikes belonging to WXC stolen from Margham the other week, keep your eyes peeled.

“One was a Moda Encore Medium (17.5 inch) carbon hardtail. Had a Garmin fitted, full XT group, Magura Marta in Black, Magura Durin 100R in white, American Classic White wheelset with tubeless Kenda tyres, Blue Bike Pure headset spacer on top of the Barelli stem, and the name ’Cait Elliot’ with the Irish National flag on stickers on both side of the frame.

“The other was a Moda Canon Small (17 inch) carbon full suspension
Full XT group, Magura Marta in Red, Magura Durin 100R in White, American Classic White wheelset with Kenda tyres, Blue Bike Pure heasdset spacer and the name ’Carla Haines’ with the English National flag on stickers on both sides of the frame.”

MBUL hosted the 5th round of the NPS in Killaloe on Sunday. I was looking forward to this race, remembering the killer climbs and technical trails from the NPS a few years ago, and wasn’t disappointed. A lot of work had gone into making the singletrack more weatherproof and the course was great – one huge long fireroad climb that was very exposed and hot, followed by lots of damp woody singletrack, mostly downhill with a few steep kickers.

There was a bit of confusion at the start, they suddenly announced that the elite men and women would go off at the same time, and the race was already underway by the time I realised what was happening, so I was way off the back. We set off up a very long fireroad climb at a blistering pace, almost sticking to the men. As ever I was attempting to keep up with Mel Spath who was pushing the pace at the front. I managed to keep her in sight until the top and when we hit a long section of off-camber, rooty singletrack through the forest I was able to gain some time. I almost got in front as she dabbed on a steep kicker but resigned to following as closely as possible.

Each lap I lost sight of Mel as we descended a narrow switchback trail towards the finish, thinking I’d lost her, but once we hit the climb I could see her again 20 seconds or so ahead. This gave me all the motivation I needed to cling on, pushing hard to stop her getting away with the hope of making up time on the descent. The climb was a killer though, long, hot and painful!

On the last lap I managed to close the gap slightly, Oisin and Sean passed me on the climb and I jumped in behind them, hoping their pace would get me up to Mel so that I might have chance to get ahead on the singletrack. I almost succeeded but just lost them as I dropped my chain coming to the top of the climb. I quickly sorted it and set about catching up, but the hill effort left me pretty wrecked. It was hard to get enough composure to ride the decent smoothly and I was making stupid mistakes on the greasy roots. Any chance to catch up was lost when my chain got tangled somehow as I tried to climb the last kicker and I couldn’t turn the pedals. I stopped to sort it but lost about 30 seconds, so finished over a minute down in 2nd.

My last half lap could have been better, but overall I was happy with the race, to be close enough to put Mel under pressure is a big improvement! Thanks to MBUL for putting on a great race and UCD for their support. Expecially thanks to Conor and Aine of MAD for the lift down and Aine’s flawless bottle support!

I had the option of doing a marathon on Sunday, treating it as training rather than an important race. I wasn’t sure putting on muddy wet shoes and braving the trails for a second time with heavy legs from Saturday, but the sun came out making it much more appealing.

I went to the team tent where Trevor asked if I’d taken my bike – ‘no’. Uh oh, I’d already heard of several bikes being stolen over night, and two of our Modas were missing from the rack. We ran around thinking of all the options of who might have them but they were gone. Altogether 15 bikes were taken from the campsite, locks cut, tents slashed, all whilst people slept right beside them. It took a while to sink it, we were so p****d off. The bikes are only a few rides old, my forks and brakes were literally brand new, and my garmin was on it which is really, really annoying since I use it for training every day. Also I’m racing in Germany in 2 weeks and I’ll be lucky to get a new bike sorted before that. So keep your eyes peeled for a hardtail or full-sus Moda for sale, or infact any of the parts from them.

I’d almost forgotten about the race in all the panic, but at the last minute we were kindly offered the loan of a bike from the Merida demo fleet. So with some running around and without time to warm-up or test the bike, I made it to the start line for the 50km race. It was a mass start, straight into a big long climb that was quite loose and rocky at times. I put in a bit of effort to get up towards the front, keeping my eye on Sue Clarke who was ahead of me, and then settled into a steady rhythm. My legs were definitely lacking some power after yesterday but felt ok considering.

With all the rain the day before the course had been changed to that there was more fireroad than had been planned. I don’t know how they did it but it felt as if the course was about 80% climbing and only a few short descents! Luckily it had dried out quite a lot and there were only a couple of really muddy parts and some greasy rocks. For most of the first lap I was riding just behind Sue, I don’t think she knew I was there so just kept quiet and ploughed along.

It was an enjoyable course despite being hard work, the sun came out and there were great views across the mountains and out to the sea – something you never get to appreciate in an all out xc race. As time went on Saturdays efforts started to take their toll and I struggled to keep the pace up and started to drop back. I could probably have forced myself to go faster but my head wasn’t really in race mode and I settled for a steady training session and enjoying the trails.

I finished 2nd behind Sue, with teammate Carla also on a borrowed bike having a good ride to take the final podium spot. Although my second lap was quite a slower I felt I could have kept that pace going for a lot longer, maybe I should have done the full 75km! A big thank you to Merida for the loan of the bike, it was good to salvage something from an otherwise frustrating day.

Due to my last architecture commitments I didn’t arrive at Margam until late Friday night, missing the practice day, so I intended to get up early and do a lap before the race at 10am. However, I woke up to heavy rain at 5am which continued all day, so I decided it was better to stay dry, warming up on the turbo-trainer and racing the course blind. It probably didn’t matter too much since the trails changed so much from their dry, dusty condition the day before.

There was a strong field of international riders braving the cold and wet to line up at the start. I had a terrible start, firstly couldn’t get clipped in, and then my handlebars got tangled with Lee Craigie’s and I had to fight to stop myself being wrestled to the ground. Luckily I stayed upright and there was a fairly long open section before we hit a singletrack climb, so I was able to make up lost time. By the top of the climb I’d managed to move up to 5th place, and since I had no idea what was coming up on the course, there was an extra incentive to stick to the wheel of the person in front.

Conditions were treacherous, it was raining, and the trails had turned to thick, slippery mud making it very difficult to have any kind of control over the bike. In between were several long fireroad climbs, which suited me well. By the end of the first lap I was in 4th, following Lee Craigie and Lilly Mathews, and feeling strong. The conditions made the descents very slow and awkward, I had a few moments of sliding down steep banks on my bum, but at least there was time to recover before the next hard climb. On lap two, Lilly stopped with mechanical trouble so I got ahead into 3rd, gritting my teeth to try and take advantage and put some time into her.

It didn’t last too long though, by lap four she was on my tail, and got ahead as I got stuck behind a junior dabbing on a narrow kicker. I caught her again on a climb and it was a bit of a cat and mouse game for a lap. Someone shouted that I had a 12 second gap, but soon after the track looped back on itself and I saw her several minutes behind, having had a puncture. I’d been preparing myself to try and kill it on the last nasty climb so it was a bit of a relief got get such a lead. I couldn’t believe my luck, all I had to do was hold my position and I’d be on the podium. The mud was getting harder to deal with, there were a couple of steep banks where I decided sliding down off the bike in a damage limitation effort was the best approach, but other than that I quite enjoyed the trails.

At the bottom of the final descent I glanced back and saw British national champion Sue Clarke not far behind so had to put my head down and power across and windswept muddy field to get to the finish. I finished 3rd (results here), first podium in a UCI race, so really delighted with that. Report on British Cycling here. Big thanks to WXC for all their support, thankfully didn’t need to use the tech zone! I enjoyed riding my newly pimped bike – brand new forks and brakes from Magura were really nice.

It’s been a while since I last raced with exams and college work taking over life even more than normal. I’ve had to spend 12-14hrs a day 6 days a week in the architecture studio the last month or so, but was happy to manage to keep training all the way through (though hours were reduced quite a bit). It was a massive relief to hand in my thesis at 5pm on Saturday, just the viva on Thursday and then done with college forever!!

There wasn’t much chance for recovery before the long trip up to Maheramorne quarry on Sunday for the 4th NPS race with an amazing day and roasting sun. I’d done this course a few times before so knew what to expect – flat, a few fun kickers and drops, fast hard racing. I’ll withhold my opinion but I wouldn’t exactly call it mountain biking. I have to say as we drove past the Mourne mountains I wouldn’t have taken much persuasion to turn off for a long sunny mtb ride! Anyway a race is a race.

It was good to see a few girls in the Elite race. We set off chasing the juniors, with Mel Spath quickly moving in front. I got behind, fighting my way through clouds of billowing dust that kicked up from the stony quarry, but struggled to hold here wheel and it didn’t take long for a gap to open up. I felt as if I was going like crazy (true according to my garmin!) but didn’t seem to be going as fast as I’d have liked. Its weird, this has happened at exam time last year – legs rested and although not feeling completely rubbish, things just don’t click and the race seems like a lot of hard work. But I suppose its to be expected and I’ve a few days to sleep now before the British NPS in Wales on Saturday.

I got a bit bored on the second lap, stuck riding on my own, but it improved after that when some of the guys caught up from behind and I had some good battles with them. It was all fast and furious stuff, pushing as hard as possible without much chance for recovery since there were no real descents. I finished second but would have liked to be closer to Mel. Ah well, plenty of time to get fast now…!
Many thanks to the Epic pit crew for their help with bottles.

I lined up against over 100 of the top riders in the world, excited and prepared for a seriously hard race. I was number 82 on the grid and right behind former world and Olympic champion Gunn-Rita Dahle, so my plan was to try and follow her since she has way more experience than me with these things. It didn’t last long however, someone clipped a wheel right in front of me in the first few manic seconds and in avoiding crashing I was dragged right to the back. After a few lung busting seconds to try and move up we hit the singletrack and since squeezing 100 people into a tiny space doesn’t work, there was a big queue – time to recover a bit. I eventually got through and from there things strung out a bit. The pace was quick but not unmanageable, there was a lot of singletrack at the start making it hard to pass people so all I could do was hold the wheel in front of me.

After a start loop I’d managed to make up a few places and got into a good position with a group of 5 or 6 others, a few of whom I recognised from racing in Switzerland last year, and I knew if I could stick to them I’d do ok. With seconds between the person in front and behind all the time, you had to be really careful, relying on the person ahead not to crash or mess up a technical bit – I had a dodgy moment when a rider stopped at the top of the ‘bus stop’ (a kicker with a step halfway up that turned sharply round a tree into a steep, rooty drop), to get down it you really had to carry your speed but I just managed to squeeze past.

Next was a nastily steep climb to the top of Medusa’s drop, followed by chance to calm down as we descended several bermy switchbacks before approaching the drop. I have to admit I was feeling a bit wary of racing this – a sharp corner turning into technical rocky drop followed by a steep, rooted section. I creamed myself on it in the ice at Christmas and came off again pre-riding the day before when my tyre burped all its air, but the chicken run was a huge detour and as far as I was concerned I didn’t deserve to be racing a world cup if I couldn’t ride the course. Anyhow not to worry, got down it cleanly and from then on it got easier, faster and more enjoyable each lap.

Things were going well, my legs felt good and I was able to push hard to stick to the girls in front. Then disaster struck. There was a technical rocky climb, which was more or less unridable (I even only saw a handful of the guys get up it cleanly), so I hopped off and carried my bike up. Jumping back on I couldn’t get clipped in and lost valuable time kicking at the pedal trying to get my foot in. Eventually I realised it wasn’t happening and had to stop. I couldn’t believe it looking down, the cleat had fallen off my shoe! There was nothing for it but to pedal the rest of the lap balancing my foot on the pedal, losing lots of power and making and downhills very dodgy. I made it to the tech zone having completely lost the group I was with, screaming ‘cleat, cleat!!’ to Mike the team mechanic, knowing he’d have no idea what I was on about since its not something you’d expect to go wrong.

I stood getting frustrated for what seemed like forever while Mike and Trevor fixed things, watching rider after rider passing me by (actually they were super fast but still a few minutes). At least I had chance to catch my breath and gulp a gel, so that once it was fixed I was ready for action. I went off like a maniac, knowing that I was more or less in last position and if you get lapped or fall more than 80% down on the leader’s time, you get pulled from the race, so I had no time to lose. I caught a couple of girls within a minute or so, and from there I spent the race of the race picking people off the back.

Unfortunately it meant I was out riding on my own most of the time, not what I expected in a world cup, but usually once I caught someone it wasn’t long until the next rider came into my sights as a new target to hunt down. It was fun overtaking people since most of the course was quite tight – especially when the track split into a dual descent at one stage and I took the long but fast line at full pelt to blast ahead of someone – good buzz!

Towards the end of the fourth lap (of 5) I thought I could hear the dreaded sound of the lead motorbike behind me (the sound of doom, once this passes you its game over, pulled next time you pass the start), so started to go all out to try and stay in the race. I avoided getting lapped but was pulled anyway due to the 80% rule, gutted! But happy enough all things considered, every time I passed the start I half expected them to pull me over so at least I got a good race in. Freecaster has a video of the race here.

I finished 76th, a bit annoyed, but the course and atmosphere were so great that I really can’t complain too much, it definitely made me hungry for more. It was brilliant to ride such a big race on home turf, ‘Mrs French’ screaming encouragement at me was like being back in school! MASSIVE thanks to WXC team for all the support, especially in the pits, I probably wouldn’t have been able to finish without them. Also to my parents as ever for their chauffeur duties and support – good to have an Irish flag in the crowd!