Dalby dalby dalby, of all the courses in England this is the one that is the best comparison to any of Scotland's courses and this weekend had some typical Scottish weather as well just to make us a little bit more at home. RAIN!!! Rain is a bit of a understatment to the weather we had when we first got there, it was more hail (that was laying like snow) followed by downpours. Nevertheless the training kit was out on and it was time for a practice lap. A lot of Dalby is man made which is great for a person coming from Glentress but parts are natural or not quite a man made trail, by the time we got to the famous Worry Gill the gully was a river, I decided against practicing Medusa because the weather had turned the course into a bath and I didnt want to crash either in my race or the day before, chicken run it was for me. The one thing that I dont like about the dalby course is that you do most of the downhill in the first half of the race, others usually have the hill at the start, so about 3km to go there is a really long hill that feels like it lasts for such a long time. Ive done it myself when I have been chearing my friends on but the last km (contary to what anyone says) is not flat and one of the hardest slogs ever that you feel like you are turning the pedals but not going anywhere. The course finished in the same field that we started in and desperate to get in to some clean, dry, clothes we decided to only do the one pre lap rather than two. A quick change and we headed of for our accommodation, thankfully my dad had looked at the weather prior to leaving and decided not to camp (great decision dad!!!) so he booked a backpackers barn, which was literaly a matress on the floor but there were showers and a roof so as far as I was concerned so much better than a tent.
THE SUN WAS OUT!!! Oh no that was just my dream. Race day. After, supprisingly, a good night sleep we set off to the race course. And the water had started falling already, and I thought England had a water shortage... Thanks to Keith my bike had been cleaned after practice so I just needed to lube the chain and we would be ready to race. Before I knew it warm was done, under the shelter of the WXC tent, and we were standing on the startline ready to race. I must have picked the worse possible line to start as I seemed to be traveling much further. By the time we reached the first singletrack I was already wet and muddy but was done in last place, the pace was a lot slower that what I would have wanted but there wasnt much I could do about it. When we reached a little climb I took a different line and jumped up a few places, I could now see 4th, 5th and 6th infront of me but by the time I got to the start arena again they were just in sight. The chances of me catching them soon were small so I tried to get into a rhythm and see if I could pull them back over the whole race. By the time I got to medusa I had caught the girl in 6th and kept going at my pace rather than get intimidated by the people around me. But for the remainder of the race I didnt see anyone in my category. The long climb was harder everytime I got to the bottom of it but the bit I disliked the most was the last bit of singletrack and the grass field at the finish, with all the women and younger males having already gone through by the time I got to the finish every lap it was a boggy wet muddy slow field. But I amused some of the people watching by almost crashing a few times. By the 3rd lap I couldnt wait to finish my legs felt like they were going to give in very soon and a few times I came very close to giving up but I finished the race which for me was a great achievment considering I gadnt wanted to even start the last lap. Race finished and the sun comes out, typical. Everything was soaking wet and filthy my mum is going to love me when I get home. Rather than stay around the start we went to watch at worry gill and the elites and juniors made the course look easy compared to how I was riding it.
Thank you to WXC for there continued support and enthusiasm towards racing, and a especially big thank you to Keith for cleaning my bike afther practice!!!
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