Mel Spath and Ciara MacManus had also travelled over from Ireland and I had raced against the girls on the British team over in the Alps so I had some idea of their standard, but didn’t know much about how I compared to the others. I thought I’d try to get as close to the lead group as I could manage at the start and play it by ear after that.

It was straight into a grassy climb, and though I was gridded on the second row, the starting pace wasn’t as crazy as I expected and I found myself in 5th by the top. That’s not to say it was easy since once I’d got up there I had to try and stay there! I kept the leaders in sight for quite a while and was totally kicking Gunn-Rita’s ass but eventually she passed me and I couldn’t quite stick to her! Then after coming down a big steep descent I thought my bike was feeling a bit funny and had to stop and check it out – good job I did, the front wheel quick release had come really loose! (my fault for not checking it). Although I was only stopped for seconds I lost 3 places and spent the next lap trying to fight my way back.

After all the recent good weather the course was bone dry and super fast so it was tough going. There was quite a bit of climbing with some nice singletrack through trees and a couple of nasty, deep river crossings that didn’t serve much purpose other than soaking you. I had a really close battle with Lilly Mathews and Jenn O’Connor for the next few laps, I was going well on the climbs but had to put in a lot of effort to keep ahead on the flats and some of the descents. Normally I’ve no problem holding my own on singletrack descents if its technical but this was almost too easy and I’m not used to going that fast! On the fifth lap I was able to pull away slightly but then Jenny Copnall came flying out of nowhere to pass me. I stuck to her for a while but was beginning to tire after my exertions at the start and a long race so couldn’t hold on to her.

The rest of the final lap I was out on my own a bit but was able to use girls from other categories as targets to try and keep the pace up. I finished in 8th place in just over 2 hours –the longest xc race I’ve done for a while and especially hard having to push all the way through. Full results are here. Really enjoyed it though and was happy to be ahead of some good, experienced riders and not far behind some even better ones!

start of the elite men's race