The end of alpine biking

So unfortunately my time in Liechtenstein has ended and I’ve left the ‘mainland’ and its opportunities for racing. The whole thing has been a great experience, I had no idea how much there is to learn doing these international races. No matter how well a race goes you always come out of it learning more about your strengths and weaknesses, and motivated to improve before the next one. I’ve also learnt a lot about training and my own body, how much I can push it and when I should take it easy. I did seem to learn a lot of things the hard way – how not to do it, but at least they’re done now! (Collar bones etc)

It opened up my eyes to a whole new world of riding and racing – to compete against so many other girls at such a high standard is amazing, not to mention the amount of supporters, the culture of cycling there and of course great trails.

Some things to note for racing and riding in the Alps:
1 Don’t crash into trees
2 Don’t go skiing
3 Olympic and world champions are pretty damn quick!
4 Be prepared for anything

1 Don’t follow marked mountain bike routes – they’re boring
2 90% of footpaths are awesome to ride. The other 10% can get very scary and you should not go near them with a bike!
3 Don’t trust local riders when asking if a trail is good – they’ll point you towards fireroads and away from the good stuff
4 The mountains are very high, very steep and very tiring

But the season is by no means over; it’s now time to readjust for Irish racing with the national champs on Saturday.

I quickly realised that just because the mountains are small doesn’t mean it’s easy, in fact quite the opposite! I already enjoyed getting my ass kicked by Mel at the Epic club race on Thursday and some great mtb on the world’s best secret biking location yesterday – the North York Moors (but only in summer!).

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