World Cup 3 – Vallnord, Andorra

We took 2 days to drive down to Andorra which was a pretty civilised way of doing it. It also allowed us to be able to take in the impressive views on our drive into Andorra from Perpingnan. The last 160km must have taken us 3 hrs as we winded up and down the valleys, but it was a blue sky day so it really didn’t matter. There was still so much snow around it was beautiful. As soon as I arrived I made use of the nice weather and got straight out on my bike and rode up to the race venue. It’s a 10km climb up to the resort which was great to stretch the legs and lungs after 2 days in the back of a van !

I’m really glad I did get out on the Tuesday as the next 2 days it poured with rain, letting up for just enough time for you to go outside and then it would start again ! We even played a round of par 3 golf in the rain, the owners thought we were crazy wanting to play in the rain.
Fortunately by the time practice began it was already beginning to dry up and by the end of the day it was almost time to go back to dry weather tyres. The track in Andorra, although surrounded by mountains is pretty sort and not very steep. They had done no work to the track since last year, apart from clear a tonne of snow to allow us to ride the top section. As the track dried it just got rougher and rougher and the main line just turned into a bigger and bigger rut. Although not a long or steep track, with the altitude and the roughness it turned into a really physically challenging track. Loads of people were complaining about how tired they felt and how sore their arms were, so I was glad I was not the only one finding it tiring !!

We still had sun on qualifying day and the track was getting faster. I had a pretty good run with just a few problems in a couple of places, but it was good enough for 2nd with a time of 2.52min, just 2 secs behind Sabrina. I walked the track after qualifying and found a few good lines to avoid some of the bigger holes. To my amazement we had another day of sun for race day. At the start of the week it was meant to rain all weekend, so to have a bone dry track to race on was amazing. I knew I had to go faster in the final as the track was drier and everyone pushes that bit harder in the final. I thought a time of 2.45min would be a good run. I set off and just didn’t seem to have great focus on the first few turns and drifted a bit wide and didn’t carry great speed. After the first split I seemed to get it together and I was pretty happy with how I rode the rest of the track. I sprinted for the line as the crowd were going crazy, to miss out on taking the lead by 0.02sec, but with a time of 2.45min! Very annoying. I then had to sit and wait and see what Sabrina could do. She had a great top section and my errors there cost me as she was already 2.41 sec up on me, she then continued to take a bit more time off to finish with just over 3 secs ahead of Emmeline, to knock me down into 3rd place. I was bitterly disappointed as although I knew I had lost some time with my mistakes, I knew I had not lost 3 secs, so I knew I had been truly beaten today and it hurt. It also meant that I lost my lead in the world cup by 2 points.

I now have to go back home and get my head up and work hard to be back on the top spot on home soil at the next round of the World Cup in Fort William in 3 weeks time.