World Cup 6 – La Bresse, France


After only 2 weeks at home which seemed to fly by I was once again on the road, this time in the camper and heading out to Europe, which is always easier as you don’t have to try and pack your life into a bag and get it on the plane !
La Bresse is also only a short drive from Calais so it’s a pretty nice change to arrive at a world cup without jet lag and feeling fresh. The weather was also pretty fresh, having had an amazing couple of dry weeks at home we headed further into France and the rain got heavier !

We hadn’t been back to race at La Bresse since 2009 and the track had also not been ridden since then. It’s a unique track as it starts high above the town and drops through fields, across a few roads, through some woodland and finishes across a few peoples back gardens ! It looked as though the grass had been cut for the first time since the race in 2009 and you could just about make out the old lines and ruts from 2 years ago !

It took a while on the first day of practice for the track to bed and new lines to get formed. Once the lines started appearing it started to flow much better and I was starting to enjoy riding it. There were a few new additions mostly in the way of some awkward, blind gap jumps which took some commitment and good technique to get over. They all had pretty flat landings too so it was hard on your body and bike. I felt as though I bottomed my shoulders out on many occasions !

By qualifying the track was super dry and riding really fast. I had done all the gaps and the finish line jump and felt ready to try and get some valuable points for the overall world cup. I had a great warm up and felt really confident and put together a pretty good run. I still knew I had to work on a few sections before the final but was really happy with how I rode it was good enough to take 1st place just ahead of Floriane, the one person I needed to be ahead of so that was good !! After such a great dry track it did not stop raining all night, and not just raining, it woke me up it was that loud at times ! I was not looking forward to heading up the hill, but it was race day so I had to get into it and try and get some confidence. It was hard and very slippery in places and also really hard to carry speed for a few of the important gap jumps. I had managed to jump everything but not confident I could do it in a full run. I certainly did not feel as confident going into the final as I had in the qualifying but I knew I had to attack the track as I needed the points and I know how good Floriane rides in the mud so I was going to have my work cut out.

I had the most off putting start I have ever had, hitting the same rut as I had always in practice, but this time the rain water had settled in it and it felt like I hit a massive hole with a swamp in it ! I nearly went over the bars at the same time as getting absolutely soaked, so much that I could not see a thing and had to grab the one tear off I had put on my goggles in case of an emergency ! It was an emergency and thank goodness I didn’t need another one further down the course !! I managed to regain my focus and had to pedal really hard after making that mistake to clear the first gap jump. I made a few small mistakes lower down the course but not enough to lose too much time. I crossed the line to take my 4th win of the year with a winning margin of over 4 secs. The perfect weekend for me, maximum points and it has set me up with the best possible points lead going into the final in Val Di Sole in two weeks time.