National Championships, Bala – Wales

After a quick turn around of washing and packing it was off to the Nationals. As it was the middle of July I decided I would dig the old caravan out and have some summer camping at the race as there was very little accommodation nearby. Sadly summer really hasn’t hit the UK yet and especially not North Wales. Friday night it rained and the wind blew so hard it sent a couple of ezy ups flying across the campsite and I ended up pegging down my awning in my pyjamas at 5.30 in the morning !! Fortunately the weather was set to improve and although it was never warm it did gradually get better and the track slowly dried out so that we were back on dry tyres by the time of the race.

The track at Bala has been used for loads of races over the years and has also been used for loads of filming and training as it’s just a mile from the Atherton’s house ! It is a good track, very open at the top with a wooded section and then open fields to finish. For a UK track it’s fast from top to bottom which is a nice change. I was enjoying practice and managed to get quite a bit of practice done which again was a nice change from some of the UK nationals this year. Pearce Cycles did a fantastic job organising it and getting the uplift working. For the seeding run I was still on mud tyres, but it was drying up really fast. I had a pretty good run but knew that with some more practice I could get some sections better. I was therefore pleased to only be 3 secs back from Rachel as I can’t imagine how many runs of this track she has done !

Race day it was on to the dry tyres and even though there were a few persistent showers the track stayed pretty dry. I got another 4 practice runs in the morning and was feeling happy with my riding. Unfortunately Rachel crashed in the last run of practice, hitting her leg really hard on a tree which left her unable to race. It was a shame that there would not be a full field for the final and I was looking forward to the challenge of racing Rach on here home turf, but I guess crashing is part of the racing game and the risks that we take. My final run went well and I managed to improve my time from my seeding run to take the win with a 3.19min. Helen Gaskell took 2nd with Katy Curd in 3rd.

It felt great to take my 7th Senior National Title and quite a memorable one as it was exactly 10 years since I won my first senior title !! Scary how the time has ticked by !

Next stop is the next 2 world cup rounds in Canada.