TRACKSIDE

British Cross Country Championships 2009
July 19 - Innerleithen, Scotland
Report by Ruth Mordaunt

The British XC Championships took place in Tweed Valley in the Scottish Borders not far from the famous 7Stanes Glentress mountain biking centre. The Championship course was a hilly seven kilometre lap, where you needed your climbing legs and the ability to descend well; a worthy championship course which separated the best from the rest over the weekend.

Leading up to race day the weather had been changeable from bright blue skies to the heaven’s opening, which defined a sketchy terrain on the descent. The course had approximately 500 metres of climbing followed by a challenging and technical descent. I needed to choose my tyres carefully to give me confidence whilst descending whilst not dragging on the climb. A Panaracer Rampage on the front and Panaracer Fire XC Pro on the rear seemed to be a good combination for these conditions. The practise lap went perfectly and myself and my super light Cannodale Scapel were ready for action on Sunday. I loved the course and could not wait until race day.

For the Masters Woman category the expected contenders lined themselves up for a three lap race. My main rivals on the start line were defending Master XC Woman Champion Nina Davies (Orgmore Valley Wheelers), Kim Hurst (Owen Cycles), Caroline Goward (Scott) and Emma Bradley (Torq Kona).

On the gun I was already at a disadvantage, with slipping gears through the opening stretch of heavy grass field which made me slip back to near-last position (I must point out that my amazing Cannodale Scapel was perfect during warm up.) I watched as the Master Woman category rode away whilst I attempted to solve the slipping gears, which 5 minutes into the long 500m climb decided to jump between the rear cassette and rear spokes. With little success of sorting the jumping gears I rode in a much harder gear than I wanted to, placing great stress on my quads and hip flexors.

So first 5 minutes I was at the back of the bunch and working my way slowly forward. This was hard work and I had to dig deep and dip into the red a few times to make up time lost. My legs were on fire and I was not feeling great at this point, I felt like I was going so slow, but I am not a quitter and I was going to finish and finish with a medal.

During the practise lap I prayed I would not get some ‘numpty’ who could not ride the descent in front of me, especially one that would crash and ruin my line. Well, as luck would have it, I overtook Emma Bradley on the first part of sketchy descent and proceeded to crash in front of her ruining her line (sorry Emma). So I suppose that makes me the ‘numpty’ on this occasion! I passed Nina on the descent as well, who later pulled out of the race.

By the end of lap one I had made my way from the back of the bunch to third position and was wondering how far in front Kim and Caroline were. During laps two and three I struggled with the jumping gears and the fact the race was physically demanding. My hip flexors and calves were cramping which was extremely painful and slowed me down. I have never experienced cramping at all especially in a race. This was showed in my lap times for lap 2 and 3. I put it down to pushing a harder gear up all the climbs and then whilst descending I was stretching over the rear wheel (almost like a squat position) which fired up my hip flexors and quads even more. By lap three I was crawling up the climbs and not really able to put any power on the pedals without cramping. I was going at a snail’s pace and just hoped I would not be overtaken.

Kim was well out in front of the chase by Caroline and myself and proved unbeatable and claimed the jersey comfortably. Kim was the best on the day and that my mechanical difficulties may have made little difference to the winning result. Who knows and that's racing!

Back in January, with all my personal problems, I never thought I would be racing at the British Cross Country Championships 2009 and receive a bronze medal. Of course I would have liked the National Championship title, but this takes consistent training and dedication to the sport and some ‘fire in your belly’. I have the latter two and an amazing bike, so if I can get some consistent training in for next year’s championship, you never know I might just win that jersey....just for you dad!