Here we go again another race season about to kick off. It always amazes me how fast the winter’s go and being back on the start gate, feels a little bit weird but not like I haven’t done it for 6 months !! After one of the coldest winters for a while there was still some snow at the top of the track at Innerleithen. The previous 2 rounds of the series had both taken place in minus 10 conditions with ice on the track so I was quite glad that the snow that was still there was quickly melting, just making the top section of the track pretty wet and slippery, but the rest was dry and really fast. It was a good track with some new sections and lots of open fast sections at the bottom. I was really enjoying riding at Innerleithen as I always love the tracks here although the 2 mile ride along the road on your downhill bike to catch the uplift never seems to get any better ! When you work it out by the end of the weekend I did 20 miles on the road on my downhill bike, something that I would never entertain, but these are the things we have to do to race downhill in the UK.

For this race we only had 1 race run, so I was actually a bit nervous as I wanted to do a good run and Myriam Nicole, a French rider who podiumed at a few world cups last year was also here, so I knew I would have some good competition. I had done a full run in practice so I was ready to know what to expect, it was a pretty long track and quite physical at the bottom and I certainly felt a little out of race fitness, but with the world cup season still a long way off I have plenty of time to work on that !
So my race run went ok, I was pretty cautious at the top but got better the further I got into the track. I was pleased with how I rode and ended up with a good enough time to take 1st place, with a comfortable margin over Myriam.

I was really happy to get the season off to a good start with a decent race, no injuries and ready to go for next weekend racing out in Spain in Vigo.