Why do I bother???

Well we are the other side of the race weekend and it is with gritted teeth and furrowed brow that I write this. I never got to race day! I barely made it through practice... Why? You may ask... Well all was going swimmingly, the sun was out and John and I arrived in good time on Saturday morning, full of antisapation on riding a new course. Having got ready we rode the few hundred meters to the tractor and trailer posed to take up to the top of the hill for the first time. It was indeed a treat to be taken to the top for a change rather than spending the best part of an hour pushing to the top.

The first run went well... As well as it could as this was riding the course blind. The course was long, wet, and ran from the dark depths of heavy forest before breaking out into a cleared area before once again plunging into darkness with trees aplenty. The highlight on the first run when, on swinging round a tight, off camber, rooty blind bend, was being confronted with a 4 foot vertical drop with a inclined landing.... As stopping to consider my fate was now not an option, a deep intake of breath, a huge pull on the bars and the grace of God saw me decent the cliff in a manner that can only be compared to a sack of potatoes being dropped from a window... I continued on my merry way wondering what other delights lay ahead...

The bike felt good and my riding was ok.... Perhaps I would be setting times somewhere in the middle of the pack...So with high spirits, I was ready for another up lift.... This would be the last time I smiled that day... It only took until a third of the way down on the second run for things to start to go wrong. A rear blow brought things to a halt. The only solution to get me back to the car was to tie a knot in the inner tube before re-inflating the tyre ( pump provided by another unlucky biker who had experienced to the same fate) and taking a steady approach to the rest of the decent. Having got to the car I changed out the inner tube for a fresh one and munched down some refreshments... Surely the next run would be more satisfactory.