World Cup – Dalby Forest

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!

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