I decided it was time I dusted off the DH bike and just checked that I hadn’t forgotten how to ride one ! There was also a perfect opportunity to race and support a local grassroots downhill event at the Forest of Dean put on by the volunteer trail building group, Dean Trail Volunteers.

I definitely felt a little rusty on the DH bike and it felt so sluggish and slow compared to the XC bikes I have been riding so much over the last few months ! However I soon got back into it and realised that you really can just point the DH bike at stuff and it just eats it up ! Even with all my xc and pro sprint training the DH race run still left me breathing hard at the finish !! It’s such an intense event and this one was short and pedally so it was even more of a interval session !!

I managed to just take the win ahead of fellow Trek racer Jess Stone and now I have a few more weeks of XC before really turning my hand back to some more downhill in preparation for Fort William World Cup !

Thanks to everyone involved for putting on a great event, even the sun came to visit !!