WXC World Racing video – episode 1

Cait — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:16:31 +0000

WXC World Racing episode 1 – behind the scenes at the Dalby World Cup from Cait Elliott on Vimeo.

British MBS – Dalby Forest

Cait — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 10:50:04 +0000

I seem to have hit a period of bad luck the last few weeks, beginning with extremely sore calve muscles as a result (or cause?) of a bad race in Sherwood that limited me to nothing harder than steady riding for 2 full weeks. On Saturday I flew back from Spain for the next round of the British national series but as the day went on I started experiencing stomach ache and feeling feverish. I hoped that a good night sleep would do the job but instead woke up feeling worse and if I hadn’t made such a long trip to come over I would have rolled over and gone back to sleep. Talk about bad timing, I never ever get sick!

I pre-rode the lap to warm up but increasing the intensity made the stomach pain worse, by the time I got to the start line I could barely think of riding around the course let alone racing hard. I tried to concentrate on the task in hand but struggled to put in enough effort to get into a good position approaching the first singletrack. The first half of the course is descending with some nice technical features so I was able distract myself from the pain and move up the field a bit, but each time we got to a climb I had shooting stomach pains that got worse the harder I tried. Not good.

As time went on I had a few battles with different riders but couldn’t hit the extra gear needed to attack and fight for positions. Luckily the course at Dalby is a good one, so there were some fun parts but most of the race was uncomfortable and painful so I didn’t enjoy it anywhere near as much as I should have. The stomach pains got worse as the laps went on, and I started to get fever like sweats. I began to think that I’d love to drop out, but something in my head won’t let me do it. I’d rather suffer like mad than give in completely, at least that way I can at least say I tried my best. I pushed on, only thinking as far as the top of each hill, finally getting to the finish where I doubled over in pain, unable to stand up straight and relieved it was over.

I finished 9th(results here), although very annoyed and frustrated overall, under the circumstances on the day I was glad to survive the race and still pick up a few UCI points. I thought I was better yesterday but had to lie down half an hour into an easy spin, hope I can get it out of my system soon I’ve got work to do before the world cups!

Thanks to the WXC World Racing for all the assistance and the Elliott family support team.

WXC in Dalby

Cait — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 14:00:05 +0000

In a moment of extreme organisation I did my preride for the Dalby forest round of the British NPS 3 weeks before the event. I was joined by a few less experienced WXC team mates who I’d promised to help with riding some of the more extreme drops.

A sucessful day was had by all. I kept myself busy trying not to brake on the descents, and for girls who’ve been riding less than a year to get down Medusa’s drop with no problems is impressive, especially as we stood an watched guys on downhill bikes take the chicken run!

Afterwards we met the nice people in the Purple Mountain centre, great place for a post ride cafe stop! I then left the race bike clean, shiny and ready to roll, and jumped on a plane to Spain…

caitelliott.co.uk » Dalby forest

WXC World Racing video – episode 1

British MBS – Dalby Forest

WXC in Dalby