This race took place in a grassy park in Dublin – not your usual mountain bike location at all! The course was nearly all flat with several short kickers and lots of tight, fast singletrack winding through trees. Torrential rain overnight made it incredibly muddy and even unridable in parts – totally different to the fast relay race the day before.
Four girls lined up in the Elites, Mel Spath being my main opponent. I sprinted off to get into the singletrack first and by the end of the first lap had a bit of a lead. I knew Mel was fitter but tired from her marathon race the day before so I aimed to hold her off as long as possible. I kept getting glimpses of her closing in and eventually she caught me on an open section, I had to dig deep to stick to her wheel and stop her pulling away after that. We were wheel on wheel for the 4th lap, and there were several times when she had to dab or hop off and on reflection I should maybe have overtaken. I was struggling to keep the pace going round thinking this was the hardest and most painful thing I’ve ever done! The mud was unreal, my bike was the weight of a downhill bike and the gears were skipping all over the place.
On the last lap Mel began to pull away and eventually won by 30 seconds. Maybe I should have been disappointed to be beaten but I got such a buzz from the tight racing that position didn’t matter. I can safely say I’ve never been so muddy in my life but I was great fun!