Southern Enduro Round One Queen Elizabeth Country Park – Hampshire.
Arriving
When I arrived at the event, I was very excited but also quite nervous. We met up with my new race team beyond the mud, at the tent Rafe had set up for us. It was great to meet with the team again and Rafe made sure to let us all know what was going to happen.
Practice
We left for practice and I was very exited to ride the trails that I would have my first race on. Charlie, Jacob and I started on stage 5 which was very fast and jumpy, which I liked a lot. Then Rafe and Demi joined us on stage 4. Stage 4 was similar in speed to stage 5 with just a few less big jumps. We then went over to stage 3 which was again quite a fast one but it was a bit more rooty and technical. Penultimately, we headed over to stage two which started off slow and pedaly then fast and technical in the middle section. Finally we went over to stage 1 which again started quite slow and pedaly but then picked up speed in the latter part of the course. We all headed back to camp and made sure to flue up and keep warm!
The race
At the start gate of stage 1 I was very nervous, however as I started to pedal towards the first berm it was like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders and I was at home again, shredding my bike!
The first half was a bit slow but as soon as I got near the road crossing, it started to pick up in speed and I was loving it. Unfortunately at the last 50m or so my chain came off but I knew that it wasn’t far from the finish so I just rolled with it.
Stage 2 – I was a lot more exited then nervous on this one and I had a good start, got my foot down and smashed through the 1st section, when it came to the road crossing I listened to Rafe’s advice and stuck to the high line unfortunately I got my pedal stuck on the tree roots costing me a few seconds. The rest of the stage was good.
Stage 3 – started off fast however I missed the first shortcut and had to hit the drop, I think this caused me to get a bit agitated about getting the next short cut, which might of cause a bad line choice after the second short cut causing me a crash which costed me about 30 seconds.
Stage 4 – went all well and I felt fast.
Stage 5 – also went well I was a bit on the fence with some of the jumps so I just decided not to hit them (next time I think I will have a better look at any jumps so that I am more confident) I came 22/45 which I think is a good place for my first race!
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