US Pro Gravity Series – Round 2 Plattekill, NY

I had a day at home to try and wash the mud out of my race kit and then it was a repack and back to Birmingham airport for my next trip out to the US for the next round of Pro Gravity Tour. This time it was on the east coast only a few hours north of New York. You really would not believe that we were only a few hours away from one of the biggest cities in the world as it was one of the quietest little mountain resorts I have ever been to. We rented a house about 8 miles away and we were well and truly in a house in the woods, no one or no other houses in sight it was great !! I saw a beaver in the stream by the road on my first ride out to the track, a really beautiful unspoilt place and the people were so welcoming it was amazing.

Plattekill bike park has 2 lifts and miles and miles of bike trails. We only got to ride on the race track, but that was certainly really fun. It was very narrow, rooty and rocky with a few technical sections with rock drops. It was a really fun track and the faster you went the more dangerous it felt, with the trees getting closer and closer to you !!

It was dry and sunny nearly the entire time which was such a welcome change from last week. We did have some rain during the night before the race, which made the first few practice runs a bit slippery, but it dried up perfectly for the race.

I had a pretty ragged race run, hitting my pedal on a rock, unclipping my foot at the top which lost a lot of momentum, I then tried to make up the time and just felt like I wasn’t being smooth, but I think the sketchy riding paid off as I went 5 secs quicker than qualifying finishing in a time of 3.00min, 5 secs ahead of Melissa Buhl in 2nd and Jill Kintner in 3rd. My team mates Andrew took the win the mens and Justin was 3rd so it was a great weekend for the team.

Next stop is Diabalo Mountain next week for the US Open, more fun racing to come. Tracy