We arrived at the race site and immediately I realised that this would be no ”warm up” race for me, the mountains rose steep and covered in woodland, the peaks were still snow capped and i felt the familiar formidable feeling that comes with riding in such mountains, stirring in my stomach.

Friday morning was spent setting up the pits, next door to Ben Reid so we could use his bus to cook in etc etc… it was real cool just to have my 4×4 Sprinter, 2 GT tents and my new mechanic Andy Lund. i felt quite free and lightweight, if a little nervous to be at a race!

The race seemed to be really well organised and i was surprised how professional it felt with all the RedBull tents, finish arena etc etc, its nice to be racing a non world cup that is so well done. The pits were full of campers, caravans and vans, everyone seemed really chilled out and smiling, playing a bit of football, dogs running round, people cooking and talking about the track, it was really nice because all the lads were like ”hi Rachel” and all smiling and it made me feel really at home, such a great relaxed atmosphere that had me looking forward to getting stuck into my first proper race since World Champs last year!

Friday afternoon and practise started at 2pm, I decided not to walk the track first and just ride it, testing out my new theory that the first few blind runs down a new track often allow me to find the flow of the track quicker, not having to worry about where i am going but rather just riding what i judge at the moment to be the best line, trusting my instincts. Gaz and Me took a quick round trip on the gondola before practise, which gave me a rough overview of the track, long, dry, rough and challenging, and i couldn’t wait to ride it!

The first run was slow and i stopped to look at the track a lot, and from then on it got better and better, the track was so awesome, really long and fast with just about every obstacle mountainbiking has to offer, i was nervous to think about doing a full race run for sure! It seemed like every rider was struggling with some section, and i am sure every single person felt they didn’t know where they were going, so long was the track with so many turns, long whooped straights and sniper rocks everywhere.

I definitely feel such camaraderie with all the others riders at races like these, we are all doing the same thing, trying to manhandle our bikes down the hill as fast and safe as possible. There were these 2 dudes, so Funny! they were both bullet helmet, all black clothes, riding MAD bikes or something, clapped out forks and those old Sidi clip pedal boots, i followed them for a full run it was awesome, they were pinned so fast, shouting to each other flat out, the front one would crash like mad, jump back up and pedal on flat out, then the other one would crash, jump back up, on and on like this all the way down! I gave them a big thumbs up at the bottom and said ”that was awesome!” they just stared at me like i was mad.

Practise was hard work, i really struggled to let go and find a rhythm because there was just no telling how fast you could go, sometimes you just can never find a limit and i was really nervous about my strength and my shoulders, so i just went super slow the whole time and tried to feel the flow…Baltic Ben Reid has been my saving grace many a time, and this was no different, the man is a godsend when it comes to practise for me, he lets me follow him and he assures me he doesn’t slow down hardly at all because he is still learning the track, so i get to push to stay behind him and it was sick being able to keep his yellow race kit in my vision a few corners ahead, makes such a difference flowing someone you trust, reading his lines, preempting his high lines…rad.

So Saturday practise last run i decided to load up the pressure for a full run, i put on my heart rate monitor, stuck on a Contour head cam and got my timing watch on my bars and went up, its always so rad setting off knowing you aren’t going to stop once no matter what happens, just potter on down, not really stressing if you go off line, and i did get totally lost and nearly drove into some dudes who were shouting my name, embarrassing! At the bottom the watch read 6minutes and my hands certainly felt every second of it! I watched the head cam in the pits with the guys, pretty mental how long the track was! id ridden it and i couldn’t recognise some bits of the video….

A good lunch of baked beans and tomatoes on toast set me up rightly, a quick power nap and off up we went, myself and new mechanic Andy Lund, who is a welshman, lives in penmachno and had Cymru tattooed on his arm, what a chap! The views from the chair are unreal at Monte Tamaro, snowy mountain tops sat above forest riddled slopes, the sun shining, instantly puts me at ease.

Ragot and Seigenthaller laughed their socks off at me when i rocked unto the chair lift with a mechanic, spare wheels and a Turbo! but a race is a race and i need all the practise i can get, so we took it seriously enough!

The heat was almost unbearable for us Brits all weekend, so shade was the name of the game at the top of the track, Baltics mate, Jordan Scott ( who was Moto Trials world champ 3rd, 3rd in the Moto World Enduro champs U23, and has ridden a DH bike 5 days in his life! ) was at the top and kept me entertained trying to tape cardboard to his shirt and arms to use as body armour, a strict rule at the IXS cups… Jordan is so unreal on a moto bike, the lad has got more skills than anyone vie ever seen ride in real life, excusing watching super cross!

So, a good warm up went down and it was time to race…i was last down, a position that, when i have it, gives me a certain calmness in my mind. I didn’t feel any nerves which i thought i would, seeing as how i could count the number of times ive ridden my DH bike in the last 6 months on both hands, but although it was a race, i was more focussed on riding safely, riding with a high level of concentration and awareness, so that when i felt my body was fatigued, i could acknowledge it and adjust my riding accordingly, i set off knowing that i had to override my race instinct and that safety was my main concern here… as soon as i set off i nearly laughed out loud! my bike felt SIIIICKKK, we had made a slight last minute adjustment to my rear suspension just before my run, and i could feel the difference tenfold, i felt like a springbok, i felt so alert and aware, my eyes were like out on stalks, it was the sickest feeling ever and it made me remember why i race, becausewhen you race and race well, you never concentrate and pay attention so much, and so you feel everything, every little thing you are aware of, its amazing to bethat in tune with your body and bike, and on a long track it gives you time to relax into it and listen to things. I saved energy every chance i got, filled my lungs religiously and over braked most things, there were no risks taken and it felt good. I crossed the line and was surprised to see my name up top, 11 seconds up. The relief i felt i cant describe, after a long arduous winter of surgery, rehab and training, im beyond happy that im riding my bike again, having fun and racing,and that racing still means everything to me.

After the men raced, Baltic Ben Reid and myself persuaded the man to let us up on the last lift of the day, to walk the track. I was looking forward to walking the track, approaching a track walk after qualifying is always rad cool because you can remember exactly how you felt in certain sections, its all fresh in your mind, and Ben and myself were using this weekend as a real test before the world cups, so we walked a section, talked it through, then sat and went thru’ it in our minds eye, making sure we could remember each bit, giving sections quotes helped us remember them, because the track was so long and full, things like ”claudios section” because that is where we passed Clauido Calouri chainsawing and sweeping (Scott 11 team manager and Monte Tamaro track prepping machine) and one section was like ”brown line” because there was no line but the main line, and one section was ” inside Like Water” because i figured that was the line the water would take. Stoked to walk such a long track and find some amazing fresh lines, high lines and safe lines, all ready for sundays race.

Sunday and race morning saw the rain set in, misty mountains, thick wet rain! No body wanted to make the first move, a few brave soldiers were up on the lift but most people sort of stood around wondering when it would get sunny again,…no chance! i took my time, ate my porridge whilst staring at my race bike, asked what she thought of the situation. I decided then that i would not race, i had done what i came to do friday and saturday, good practise, good warm up, good race run. I felt that to push my luck up there on that hill in those conditions, this early in the season, well, i like to think i learn from my mistakes. So when i was stood in the lift queue just going to go up for a little look, and people kept muttering words like ”war” and ”battle” and ”death”, ”muddy and slippery” my heart skipped a beat, i love a good muddy track, time was id be first up that hill wallowing around in the mud, grinning from ear to ear, feet off and round my ears trying to ride, but alas, with every passing year you must learn to assess situations and listen to your body, your instincts. Eventually the race had to be cancelled altogether because the Heli couldn’t even get thru the mist to rescue riders if they fell, so Qualy results stood firm as the final results. i was stoked! First win of the year and safe as a house.

Id like to say Thank You to everyone that weekend who said hello, who said good luck, smiled, and shouted funny things, it was an awesome weekend racing.

Lastly Thanks to my Team, GT factory racing, Pete Michaliszyn – head mechanic and puts up with all my shite, and to all my sponsors, i wouldn’t be much without you all.

Marc Beaumont is someone who we have grown up with. He’s a British downhill racer who has won a handful of World Cups, World Cups podiums and top 10s litter his CV and numerous nationals wins and national titles are displayed in his trophy cabinet.
Couple this with the fact that he lives a mere 40 minutes from our home in North Wales and then add in Marc’s personality, – he’s a dude who is always doing something – weather riding his Moto with friends, racing 7 day stage races in Europe, riding the length of the country for charity or training for his World Cup race season, let alone racing the World Cups whilst at the same time keeping it fun and enjoying every minute of it.

I think Marc Beaumont is going to be just what Atherton Racing needs, a non-family team mate, fresh blood, new passion, a competitor, another face, a new friend or just a different smile, its going to be awesome….

When I think of Marc, two things spring to mind: moto and xc. That’ s just what comes to mind when I think of him.
Here we are, at Atherton Racing Head Quarters and the whole team is here, after getting home from a morning’s road ride in the sun, I find everybody on the decking outside the Office playing table football and commenting how cute my Dog is

Gill, Dan Brown’s PA is chasing me for a new blog, so I decide to write about Marc and ask him some Questions:

The boys are all out in the Field riding the track and the jumps, so I schlep over and bombard him.

If someone said race either Motocross or Moto Enduro, which would you choose? why?
“Moto, because I am a superfan of professional moto and in my dreams I race at the top level, enduro seems to suck… I like the speed aspect of motocross and the competitive bar to bar action…”

This is true, Marc s one of the biggest moto fans I’ve ever met, when he arrived in California for the training camp, he nearly wet himself when we told him we were at San Diego Supercross in a private booth of ONE industries but we decided to leave just before the finals to drive home so we could ride early the next day hahahahaha

Gee then pipes up:
”If you could take one aspect of another sport, and add it to downhill , what would it be?”

“I would have professional female volleyball players at all races giving out refreshments…but seriously, i would love for the glamour and professionalism of F1 to be more apparent on the DH circuit..”

Did you think Gee would be this sketchy in the Field????!

” I’m way worse!!”

Did you think Affy would be this awesome in the Field??

“unreal…”

How old were you when you raced your first World Cup

“16 years old, in Leysine, 2001. I finished 46th.”

How old were you when you won your first world Cup?
22. Vigo, Spain.

What was your VERY first thought when you were thinking of joining GT Factory Racing / Atherton Racing?

“I didn’t think it was a very good idea to be honest, I thought ‘ what the hell am I letting myself in for?!’
I was certainly apprehensive but after doing our Team Training Camp it was really good fun and I enjoyed it. it is going to be a fun year with good people around, apart from you, who tells me my blogs are boring….”

Sorry Marc. I just think you need more emotion in them….

How often to your ride your road bike versus xc bike?

“After doing John O Groates to Lands-End, I took a severe dislike to my road bike, so it is probably road once a week and xc 2-3 times a week”

I remember Marc telling me about this ride at a race once and I thought ‘what a cool dude, he is doing this pretty major ride and he isn’t blabbering about it to media, he barely even told anyone, he just got on and did it. I liked that.

How long did it take to ride?

“About 10 days, we raised money for Motor Neurone Disease. Pretty enjoyable, used a huge amount of chamois cream!”

At this point, Gill, the PA, comes into the field and asks Marc ”what other good results did you have at the end of 2011 apart from Champery and La Bresse?”
To which Marc replies : “that was it…haha”

Yourself and Gee were rivals all through the Juniors and into Elite, from my side of things I can safely say that having you as a rival definitely pushed Gee on and helped develop him as a racer. What is it like now being team mates?

“I was apprehensive at first about joining Atherton Racing , especially with the fact that I knew how dedicated and competitive Gee is, and I wondered how much he would let me into his daily routine, riding habits and so on , but it turns out that he was completely open and involved me in his daily routine, which was pretty cool to see how another World Cup racer trains and deal with things. Hopefully we both learnt from it, I know I definitely did ”

As a team we have noticed a difference already having Marc on the team, I watched them together training in the gym in California and it was awesome seeing Marc showing Gee what to do here, and Gee showing Marc what to do there. Pretty cool seeing Gee working with somebody that he obviously respects and that is not his brother!

This is a direct quote from Gee from a while back: “Marc is literally the only World Cup racer that i could be team mates with, that doesn’t have boobs”

So Marc Beaumont is on the team, he brings with him his Mechanic, Mark Maurissen, they have worked together for the past 3 years and before that Mark worked with many top racers and world champions, so Mark brings with him his own passion and knowledge of the sport, as well as being a super fun person to be with, chilled out but dedicated – and a dog lover….something tells me next blog will be a Mark Maurissen Interview

Thanks for reading. Rach. x

So much has happened since I wrote my last blog, the 2 biggest changes to note are GT Bicycles and ONE industries clothing joining Atherton Racing. For me this feels like a fresh start, and since I had another surgery on my shoulder at the end of 2011, a fresh start is welcomed!

Once I got out of my sling I hit it HARD. Jamal (my physio) and I worked tirelessly for weeks pushing my shoulder to its limits to get the range of movement back so I could start with rehab and strength training. Now we are mid February and boy oh boy I could not be more stoked! Every day I wake up excited to train and to see which muscles may have grown over night!!

Arriving in America to start a 6 week training block was awesome, the first day went out on my brand new GT GTR carbon road bike, all shiny white and fast, was pretty surreal. For one thing I’ve never had a white road bike, and for another it was my first official ride on a GT bike! AND first ride out on the roads since my surgery. A win-win situation!

It’s all been pretty hectic since then, fitting in a couple of gym sessions a day, road riding, tanning, meeting sponsors, spotting supercross racers riding along the boardwalk, design meetings, arguments, playing Bocce on the beach with new teammates Strait and McCaul, circuits on the beach….blah blah blah…!

Changing 2 major sponsors is quite daunting to be honest, everything changes and you have to get to know the new guys, find your place within the company, not to mention getting used to the new bikes and kit, but I’m pleased to say its all going really well! GT seem to have merged with us seamlessly, and things are coming together for the new season nicely, bikes are looking sharp and ONE industries have surpassed themselves with the race kit: a completely new look for us and a fresh challenge is just what we needed I think!

Yesterday myself, Gee and Darren ”The Cone” Roberts (our coach) went out for a big road ride and it was awesome! We were up in the hills behind the Oakley factory and although Gee dropped me when we got to the hills, my can of Redbull and chocolate bar set me in good stead to leave Darren the Cone for dust…I was worried after all my hard work on the hills he would make up the time on the descents because he weighs ALOT, but I managed to keep the carbon GTR pinned all the way down! What a sick road bike she is!

When we got home we grabbed some lunch, had a sleep then headed out onto the beach for sunset circuit training! Its amazing to be on the beach working out, watching the dolphins swimming, people jogging up and down, and I feel SO LUCKY to have the opportunity to come away and train, but a part of me was thinking about the mountains, the dirt, trees and trails, rain, mud and crashing, tractors and trailers, and dogs, and then I thought ”you know what? that is all coming, soon, Its going to be AWESOME to be back on the mountain bike, but this time right now is what you have to do to make that time possible, so lets DO THIS!!

I’d like to say to everybody, Thank You for sticking by us. Your support means a lot to me. Stop by the Race Pits one day and say hello…. The thing that brings us all together is Bike Riding, and I think it is the most awesome thing in the world to do, so Have Fun and Stay Safe friends

Anyways: The drive to Windham from St Anne was long and arduous, but 2 hours from winham lies Lake George, and as it was July 4th, we thought we’d stop off and join in the celebrations. Watching the fire works over the lake, and just being around Clay (porter : www.3mg.com) who was so stoked to be back in America after French Canada! haha we were all happy and mellow.

The next day we rented a boat, Stevie myself and clay hopped aboard and Gee, Affy, Browny and Pete got jet skis and off we went for a few hours, hot sun, water, boats, it was awesome and just the way to chill before the next world cup race….

Once we got to windham and found our accommodation ( the place we stayed last year wouldn’t have us back, something to do with Gee and I setting fire to his bedroom on race night i expect) we walked the track…and similar to every race track so far this year it had been somewhat groomed and ‘bike parked’ which is a real shame but understandable as they are trying to promote the place year round to ride.

Personally i love the track which surprises me as its not really as technical as i normally like, its quite short, its intense from tip to butt, with rock gaps and senders and such right off the start, its so fast too, with a lot of corners that count for every little .05 of a second, putting a run together on that track is hard work as theres so much on it, i mean its really full with things for such a short track. Some big gaps and rock hucks make it nice and scary!

However the first day practise i thought i might actually have to retire, i couldn’t ride my bike at ALL! i felt horrendous, and i couldn’t see how people could ride bits, i walked down 1 rock section, then the last rock garden i thought, fuck i cant walk this too, everyone was there looking at it so i pushed up and made myself ride it and it was fine, so i knew it was all in my head, this funny feeling, and i think a few people felt the same after st anne being so tough and such a long drive, not much rest really.

The shoulders were still so beaten up and sore, and it would take me and hour every morning to warm myself up enough to go ride, something which i have learned as a most valuable lesson.

we were also having trouble sleeping, so i decided to smash out some Co-Codamol before bedtime, which i don’t recommend but hell did it work, slept like a frog, sometimes needs must…..

Affys neck was so sore and stiff that he resorted to this wierd honey liquor, he never drinks normally so it knocked him out a treat!

The next day was completely different and i was having a lot of fun, although slowly! i remember Affy saying to me last year (who was at home then in his Halo) learn the track, not the speed, and i won last year despite all my worries, so i tried to do the same thing. i made some quite drastic changes to the geometry of my bike with mechanic polish pete, and shit the bike felt good!

Stopping trackside to whoop at the guys and pump my fist in the air, and when they return the fist pump it makes my day, Elliot Jackson got top marks!

The first day or 2 and it was quite wet, it rained intermittently which made it hard to know how fast to go, one run i tried a different line into this bog and i heard this huge whoop and Cedric comes charging top side of me thru the bog screeching with laughter, so funny i almost fell off! guys rad and makes racing so much more fun!

Sven Martin chief photographer caught the sharp end of my tongue a few times after he told me i ”had to practise quicker” i was furious and told him where to go, but secretly he had hit a nerve and i know i gotta practise faster, then the end result on sunday will be faster, but its hard to do when you scared!!

ANyway, theres this one rock gap that was called ”doom drop” last year, and i hadn’t done it yet so saturday i decided to hit it up, just like last year,before race day came around. i was scared to do it for sure, its gnarly, you send off this rock not very far but so fast and you land in a rock garden, you gotta be precise and you smash your life up. guys were wild, smashing wheels and faces galore!

Tried to follow Gee man in but by now the dust was so much i couldn’t see, so i just nailed it myself, scary. The next 2 runs i landed different place each time, only once smashing my chain guide into bits! That done, the track was dialled, i had my lines, i was confidant in them all, i just needed to speed her up now.

dream team!

Race day came and i awoke bright and early…in a good mood no less so i was stoked already! Up to the pits and it was just pete, stevie and myself there so i took the opportunity to sing whilst i warmed up which is by far my favourite race ritual.

singing Ace Of Base flat out, with the fan blowing cool air because it was that hot already, thinking about my 2 practise runs, feeling my shoulders all tapped up and safe, watching Pete readying the old girl, i felt calm, i felt happy and i felt ready. and nervous!

We always try to chill on the first practise run, just rolling down, checking things out, getting ready, and i tried to do this, but i couldn’t! i just couldn’t, i set off on a roller, found myself going faster than any other run, i hit the turns so good i whooped, hucked the rock gap at the start, drifted the lost turn like never before, it was so sick! i kept stopping on the way down and saying ‘slow down chill out’ but id set off again and it was like i just had one pace that day, and it was a good pace!

Going up for race run i was slightly quietly confidant, i knew that if i had a good run that i could win, its just that putting a ”good” run together these days was something of an anonymity!

After Mt St Anne Browny had mentioned to me that i seemed wholly unfocused at the top, and so i tried to bring pull myself together at windham. Thinking back to the good old days of 2008 before all the injuries and problems started and i believed it was possible to be invincible, i remembered my focus at the top, how i would warm up, where my mental state lay, so i tried hard to create that vibe. Even thinking back to Windham last year got me into the groove.

It surprises me again and again just how much of a mental game DownHill is, of course skill and physical fitness play a huge factor, but i believe that half of it is down to your mental state.

For some reason Windham just seems to do it for me, im not sure if it is being in America, a country that i affiliate with, or Windham being quite back country and relaxing, of the fact that the crowd there is always so vocal, it just gets me going and this year was no different.

Off the line i felt something change, something in my mind said ”you can push this 110% and its going to be ok” into the first rock section the crowd was WILD, it made me laugh out loud, boom boxes: flags: chants: bongo drums, it was such an awesome feeling having those people pressing in on both sides of the track, whooping and hollering so close to you, making me brake late, making me trust my tyres that bit more. ill go out on a limb and say my top section was one of the most perfect race runs i have done, vie never slid and pushed that hard, arriving at the middle where you send a huge road gap i got nervous and thought ”no one will ride that faster than me, i need to chill out so i don’t crash and waste that good a run” so i held back and rode on.

sitting on the hot seat watching Pugin come down i was nervous, she pulled 2 seconds back on the bottom half but it wasn’t enough and i took the win! The relief i felt was enormous, after all the injuries, after all the tears, i was stoked that i could still be up there and win, stoked to be able to win riding at 80%, stoked on life!! stoked on america and stoked to be going to whistler for 2 weeks to ride and chill out!

I must mention the Organisers at Windham, they are ALL volunteers, and they do an amazing job. So friendly, so happy to have the races there, they get really involved and just check out one of the ladies finger nails! dedication!

No other World Cup has an amateur race on friday, World Cup XC on saturday  and World Cup DownHill on sunday, with kiddies races in between. It makes for such a good vibe and atmosphere and other races could learn alot from these guys!

Well Thanks for reading. as ever i feel weird writing blogs as they always end up so ”me” oriented, but i hope that this insight into my racing life might give just 1 little girl the drive to become a professional DownHill racer, lord knows she can do it!!!

Cheers.

this is a direct quote from Wikipedia “The ramparts surrounding Old Quebec are the only remaining fortified city walls that still exist in the Americas north of Mexico” this is a pretty cool fact, and reinforce Quebec, along with Porto, as one of my favourite old time cities.

The World Cup was in its 16th year at Mt St Anne, and im going to say the Peaty is the only person to have raced them all. correct me if i am wrong? second cool fact of the blog!

Mt St Anne is always the toughest track for all 3 of us, mainly consisting of alot of ”old skool” fast as hell piste sections and wide open fastness, interspersed with technical rocky sections, around 6 minutes long, its a damn hard track and we dont have nothing like it back in Blighty.

My second world cup ever here in 2005 i qualified 1st, then crashed and burned,podium 2006, missed 2007 due to injury,then 2008  i won. 2009 i missed the race due to injury, 2010 World Champs i crashed after my shoulder strength failed me. so 2011: was this going to be my first win of the season? NOPE!

I will not hesitate to admit that Mt St Anne kicked my ASS! As well as it being horrendously wet this year, so wet you couldnt ride 100 yeards without pulling a tear off, and even that didnt help! the holes were huge and it was wild wild fun!

The lay out of World Cups has changed since i last raced and now Thursday is first day of practise, this means an extra day of riding, and i was so tired by Sunday, my shoulders were sore, i couldn’t lift my arms to get a bowl out for my cereal, i could barely pull my skins on, it was pretty gnarly and i have not felt that bad since Windham last year, which was BEFORE my surgery, so i also felt pretty bummed out with that fact that they still can get so fatigued so fast. oh well.

making mudgaurds for the v3 and contour….

Race day and i did 1 practise run and holy fleck, the track is actually awesome fun, so challenging all the way down, keeping you thinking 100% to the finish, but i just didnt have the strength needed to attack the whole way down, i felt so sick at the bottom, thought i would puke, so i chiiled out and I was sat in the pits at 9am waiting for practise to finish so i wouldn’t have to do another run ( !! ) Browny rolls in and says ”are you doing the last jump?” i reply, no way. He says ”well i think you should everyone else is!” I had no idea the other girls were doing it, i hadn’t even bothered to look at it for cripes sake, because it had been SO WET all weekend, some guys weren’t even jumping it. Anyway so i jumped up and pushed up with browny to the last wood section and hit the bitch up, it was so easy but i was nervous to do it after a full 5 minutes of canadian gnar…

My race run was, how shall i say, strange. i struggled all year to get my head into the right focus and mind frame for racing, struggle to get to where i know i need to be to win, and my shoulders were almost all i could think about which is not how you should start a race. First turn i couldn’t commit and stalled, that pissed me off so much i went a bit wild and nearly crashed a lot, until i told myself to just chill out and flow, maybe slow down a bit, i had a steady run, feeling the lack of strength, until the last rock garden where i slid on a rock and because i was so tired i just pottered off line instead of controlling it and rode a few extra seconds out and then back into the line, ooooopsy!

Crossed the finish line into first but with Tracey and Florianne still to come i knew i hadn’t done enough,Pugin went into 2nd with Tracey killing it in first, she rode so good, so strong, manhandled her bike around and made me jealous! i was happy enough in 3rd, happy to have held on, happy knowing the times would be closer if i was stronger, and that is how i entered the year, preferring to not win because of a lack of strength, instead of not winning because my actual shoulders have fallen off!!

Watching the guys was so hard, so many people having bad luck, gee having to walk down with a flat and then greg crashing over the bars was hard to see, i hate it when the racing isn’t just fair and legit, it sucks so hard when the top boys aren’t all having a good run, but i guess thats racing,Aaron Gwindow kept up his winning form, but it was Josh the rat and Danny Hart who were the talk of the party, amazing to see josh final on the big dog box in 2nd! so rad.

Party was pretty dope in St Anne as always, hung out and talked about the world and life with Warner and Peaty,got some goodadvice.. those guys have been around for so long you forget how much they seen and how much they know, both of whom i would like to offer my extreme admiration too, for knowing what they want and how to get it and knowing that we need them in Mountain Biking.

chilled in the media room for few hours!: victor lucas, sven martin, john lawlor, josh rat, sambro dale, minnar.

End.

welsh boys.sushi and water = party….Al Bond, stag.

Travelling: the things Myself, Gee or Affy miss the most about home:

1) The cats, Nancy and Weeble, they stay at home and fight with the farmers dog and defend Frith, who works in the office, from loneliness!

2) The Moto bikes. The YZ and the TTR. i dream about them almost nightly.

3)Baked Beans. not a hope of seeing them out west!

4)the Vito Sport.mmmmm speedy!  hire cars suck,they lack comfort and style, not to mention size and speed with all our luggage rammed in!

5)the Digger and Dirt Jumps, affys long lost loves

6)Peace and Quiet away from the brothers! (they are lucky im not partial to superglueing their mouths shut)

7) Goats Milk. Gee is a sickly boy on Dairy!

Geordie Shaw…enough said!!

9)Quiz night in the pub with our mates, who have dubbed themselves ”The Danimal Syndicate”!!! hahaha!

10) Waking up in the morning with the window open and not being able to hear the hardcore stragglers from last nights post race Party!

gotta love travelling tho, maybe ill do a ”things i love about travelling”

All i really knew was that it is based around a little town called Sauze D’oulx, in the Italian alps, just over the hill from Sestriere, a place that i idolised for its quality skiing World Cups and that it is favoured by Lindsey Vonn, a hero of mine!

I now know that Alpi consists of 8 towns/ resorts which means basically that you have the run of those 8 areas/ towns on your DH, XC and Freeride bike…and 40 minutes from Turin airport too!

We got out the first day on our DH bikes, Myself, Affy, Gee, Stevie Bell, Dan Brown, Sven Martin chief photographer, Anka Martin, Daffydd Evans (Bam), Francesca from Alpi and Enrico, Alpi’s head guy. It was awesome!

After arriving in the dark the night before i was literally beside myself with excitement the first morning to rush out into the streets and see the view. The streets are tiny, narrow, cobbled affairs, with a water butt thing and flower trough on every corner. I took a quick drink in the fountain and then snuck around the corner, i crept because i thought that i might catch the view in some sort of action, and i did! Behind the tops of the old italian houses, behind the church, i saw the mountains sprawling out in both directions! YESSSSSS. i knew id love it here! they didnt know i was watching and they were lazy, chilling in the sunshine, trying to melt their still snow topped heads, it was awesome.

After breakfast we walked to the main square in the town, which was the furthest point which we could get the big race truck too. Stevie had unpacked EVERYTHING, and to be fair i think the locals thought a bomb had gone off! Our entire racing lives was strewn across the carpark with race kit drying out, bikes being fixed, bikes being not fixed, wheels, tyres, shoes, parts etc everywhere!

We were a week too early for the lifts to be open,so we piled into this Ghetto van and trailer and trundled our way out of Sauze D’oulx to the top of the mountain. I loved how Enrico explained that ”this side is for the cows to play on, the other side is for the bikes to play ” we couldnt believe the terrain, it was so pretty and obviously Alpine with meadows of wild flowers, but what struck us was the lay of the land, how it rolled and tumbled in little dips and valleys the whole mountain across,in the open and in woods, it offers the most potential for mountainbiking out of anyplace we have been, just the scope to use the way the land lies in those natural berms, banks and kickers is unreal.

The next thing that struck me as we arrived at the top was the size, i thought we had like, one piste or something to play with but the area from Sauze is huge, i mean its the whole mountain range along, and over the other side to Baradonecchia, with Sestriere over there in front of us, and the other places you couldnt even see, all Alpi!

We set off from the top on one track, did photos, shouted at Sven, gee disappeared off the side of the fire road upside down, Dan Brown got his shoe laces caught on the old tyres strapped to his hire bike for protection, etc etc. Then we arrived at the mid point and that was when i decided we were actually in the land of Fairies! it sounds stupid and girly but it was true. The woods were PERFECT, the like of which i dream about riding my TTR in.

The trees were straight and grew spaced apart from each other, giving the forest floor the ability to thrive, it grew in a non stop blanket, green as you would expect in the spring time, and bouncy when you trod on it, it was the most perfect forest ive ever seen, and non stop, it just carried on and on, down and across and everywhere. The track was the only mark thru the perfection, a brown seam peeling thru the trees, following the dips and fades for step ups and down, bombing down hidden glens and scrubbing over rises, it was Dope!

I loved riding that first day, the track was so much fun, it was long and flowy in this perfect forest, with endless lips, berms, flat turns, smooth roots,wooden kickers, jumps, S bends, it had it all…

The last section of track we death trained all the way down into town, straight into the restaurante L’assiette, where we ate good italian food and drank good italian wine. What a day!

The next 2 days were taken up with a visit to Baradonecchia, a place that has World Cup venue potential for sure, unreal track out in the open piste, bit of woods, finishes in a massive carpark by the gondola overlooking the town, awesome, here’s keeping my fingers crossed! The Alpine meadows were amazing again, Affy found a huge gap and nailed it, Stevie got his helmet stuck in a tree, Bam and Anka shredded the track so hard they both want to go back for the mega enduro race thing in August, and Sven went mental shouting at us a fair few times. brilliant!

The next day we trundled off to Sestriere, about 15 minutes down the road. I was stoked to be going there, getting to see where the hold the World Cup skiing and planning our winter skii trip this year…yeaaa!

We met up with the local guys from Bike Cafe who were pinners all the way down. The rack reminded me of new zealand and was different to anything else we rode there. Enrico builds the tracks and takes great care to put a bit of everything in them, so if he has sculpted the top half to be wide open, massive senders and fast as fuck, he is careful not to overbuild the bottom half which was off camber in the trees, fast as lightening, rough as daisies and awesome. We had a blast messing around, trying to see who could kick up drifty dust clouds, Dan Brown team manager was the best by far!

So that was it, we flew home the next day to rest a while and get a little training in before Mt St anne and Windham World Cups. nervous!

We return to Alpi between the last 2 world cups of the season, and then again at the end of the year to get some track construction and planning underway, if AFFY could have it his way…well you can imagine letting Dan Atherton loose over 8 Alpine ski resorts with a shovel, a digger, and his moto…Watch This Space!!

more pics over on the team facebook page.

Leogang was how i remembered it from last year, huge craggy mountains topped with mist and bottomed with grassy pastures. I love the place. Was Stoked beyond stoked to get going, but then we walked the track and my heart sunk! Last years gnarly tech rooty tough as fuck straight lined muddy rutted track had been replaced by a mellowed out and surfaced track, with manmade berms up top and even more pedalling. Gutted.

Was so nervous to ride because last year i dislocated my shoulder, but First practise run however and it was AWESOME! the track was dry, flat out fast, fun as fook, jumps jumps jumps, rooty turns, it was sick, i loved it!

But it was tough, because it was so fast, and it was tough not to get carried away and do a million runs! After last years race where i dislocated my shoulder i wrote to myself that i have to remember racing is my job, and im there to do my job, so i have to do as many runs as i need to learn the track and the speed, and not more just because its fun, cos then i get tired and get hurt!

Practise went well, it was just so fun and relaxed, following the boys and then following random people down was dope, i loved stopping on the jumps and watching guys do whips and stuff, Elliot Jackson- USA-  got a good loud whoop from me and he fist pumped the air in response, i was stoked!

The rain was intermitant but on the whole it held off until after qualys. Qualys was cool fun, starting off at the top right underneath this massive zip line that people were taking, zooming right across the valley! cool beans. I was pretty tired for Qualyfying but held on to the bottom, pretty easy run, went real slow and to be honest i couldn’t do anything but because i was so tired!

The rain started pretty much right after the top 20 men, so the last few hours saw all the other guys coming down in the mad wet, Affy walked the track and said people were just sending it out the tapes and down the hill cos it was so slippery!

The top bermed section of track got gnarled up and Sunday morning practise was so hard. It was sticky deep ass ruts in every turn, holes the size of my wheels and just ridiculously hard to get through, i gave up trying to get my line and just trucked thru the rut i happened to be in, it was fun, but it ruined my poor upper body for the rest of the track!

The rest of the track was sick, wet mud in the woods, but real slow in the open jump sections. Caught a few hang ups for sure!

Come race run and i was pretty beaten. Sat in the pits warming up i suddenly realised i was shaking all over, i think i had no food for a while and on race day i suck at eating real bad. I was asking Polish Pete what to do, what to eat, Quick! but i couldn’t get anything down so that was that!

The track was drying out so this made it more sticky and slower, you really had to manhandle and physically charge your way down. I felt totally relaxed and chilled out up top, maybe too much, but last year i fired myself up so much that i went to fast and crashed, so i preferred to be chill and reach the finish! The track was BUSY with people all the way down, it was Sick! Everyone was cheering and yelling and it was the best crowd vie ever seen in Austria for sure, Cheers guys!

I will admit that i had the worst race run i’ve had for a long time, no excuses needed, i just lacked strength and energy!

My upper body, arms and shoulders, were just so tired from fort william and then leogang with no rest. I could feel myself getting lower and lower on the bike, and each time i hit a hole in a turn id collapse onto the bars with nothing to hold me up, swapping and sliding around. The lower section of track is steep and tech woods and you needed to be strong to hold on fast, i swapped and safety braked and pottered down, then out the woods onto the last straight to the finish line. WOW!

Absolutely knackered. I was stoked to beat Tracey, lets be honest, but it was close and she pulled a blinder of a run out of the bag. The real action came with Floriane, a rider who i respect probably more than any other girl, apart from anne carro.

She is legit,she is real nice, she is studying Mechanical Sport Engineering (or something) at university, has been for like, 4 years and its a 7 year course! In the winter she hikes up the mountains in france and skis back down, i forget the name? And she takes the jumps like a 17 year old BMX boy! I really like her, and now she beats me, i like her even more!

To give the girl credit, she nailed the last section. She pulled what, 3 seconds on me in a minute section of track?! thats cool. its awesome to be fighting with another girl that isn’t Tracey or Sabrina. She is fresh, she is same age as me and she rides like she isn’t scared and like she hasn’t worked her way upto this speed for the last 10 years. She rides because she loves it and you can tell.

So 2nd for me, Debut win for Pugin, and then the men….

It is so nice watching the men race after we race, everything has happened, theres nothing more i can do, the result is what it is. Gee was tripping about weather to keep spikes on or put his dry tyres on, and i was tripping about what to tell him to do! Then Affy came down, smooth run,looking good, then he crashed in the last section woods and that was it. The amount of guys crashing was unreal, pretty much everyone i know crashed, Sic Mick, Riffle, Al Bond, Sam Dale, it sucked.

So Affy was rushing around talking to people about their tyres and watching some sections on track dry out, but still it was mad wet up top….Peaty came down and he had hurt his wrist real bad poor guy you could see it hurting him. it was the first race where i could see the guys struggling, it was weird, i guess everyone just gave it their all and got super tired, people were hanging apart, getting all girl arms in the braking bumps, stumbling over the roots, it was pretty cool actually to see the guys having a hard time too, made us girls feel better about things!

The whole field was sat at the finish watching and there was a real good vibe around, one of the best for a while i think, people were excited to watch this track get attacked, the sun was out, everyone had finished racing, some people were stoked, others were covered in mud with smashed up parts and tape coming out their mechs….So Greg smashed the hot seat for a bit then Gee laid down his run, (with spikes on) i think he had a pretty smooth run, nothing special, a few swap ons,he took the lead but not for long. Gwinny came into the mid way split and was up by a pretty decent amount of time! The guy was loose in the last woods, you could see him hanging it all out, and he smashed it. Everyone gasped as he flew out the woods clearly on a winner, it was insane how quick he went really and it was cool to see him emotional again after his 2nd win (with dry tyres on i might add) The guy has put the effort in and its cool to see.

Danny Hart managed to hang on again to 6th or something which is dope, Gracia needs a special Big UP for his 7th place, so sick for the guy! He whipped and popped each jump too so who knows, if he was a dedicated racer instead of everyones favourite showman he could have podiumed, who cares, he looked good!

Barel gets props too, from gee and myself,if im honest i think the guy is a bit of a dick and he knows it, he can be pretty mean, but fair play to him he is passionate. His injury list is longer than stevie bells hair and he keeps coming back, he comes back fast, and maybe thats his problem, but he isn’t scared, he had 2 HUGE crashes, in his own words ”career ending crash” but he gets back up always.

Gee tells me a funny story about the riders intro thing on saturday i think, all the guys gathered at the bottom waiting to be introduced and Fabien rolls across the line from practise, covered head to toe in shitty mud, shaking his head, he stops, spread eagles himself down on the grass next to everyone and just shakes his head and breathes real deep, eyes shut. Then he looks at Gee and says ”career ending crash, holy shit’

Fair Play!

Gee just said to me right this second that its the first season for a little while where all the top guys are racing and no one out with injury, Fabien is back, Hill is back, Greg, Gee, Gwin, everyone is fighting!

I really really enjoyed the whole race. It felt like everyone was really relaxed, the top guys are nice to each other which i like, i love seeing them all chatting behind podium, when the race is done and dusted, its cool to see how they all handle not winning, i learn a lot from them. Greg is for sure the best at swallowing a beating, and i try and learn from him because theres no point getting sour about things, i know why i got beat, i know what i need to strengthen (my shoulders!) and i know how long it will take.

Sam Hill is still a sick rider, he is so smooth and catches down sides where others do NOT! Peaty is like the Godfather, riding thru the pits, no matter who you are, you still look at him, slightly wide eyed and a bit star struck!

Of course, as we are taking the pits down and packing up, Brook Macdonald and Sam Dale are merry drunk and causing trouble! Then this wasted guy rolls up with a HUGE hip flask that he has welded together, with slots for his fags and cigars, he causes a lot of trouble and the guys leave it up to Me to manhandle him out of our pits and into Evils pits, so Brook can take over and cause him grief! so funny…

Fort William and Leogang also saw the Anthill crew filming for their new movie ”

which i am delighted to say they have asked me to be in! I couldn’t believe they wanted to follow me, along with Gee and Stevie Smith, for the race section, its sick, and at Fort Bill they got my whole run from the Helicopter, which i could hear following me all the way down, it was rad! Leogang they were up track all weekend shooting, 4 of them, sniper shots all the way, every time i crashed or pulled over from exhaustion they would be there and id feel bad i wasn’t going faster or with more style! Anyway, movie is going to be so sick, different and insightful into every community within Mountain Biking. I was waiting for Peaty to finish his interview for them one day and got on his xc bike, holy wow that guy has got long legs!

Affy got fly swatted!

cheers for reading. 10/4

This is what i tried to focus on, that no matter where i finished life will go on, Monday will come and we will dive to Hull to get the ferry, Leogang will start to unfold and we will race it all over again. Life goes on. The big picture.

Still, i was pretty nervous! Being my second race since my shoulder surgery back in September, i felt a bit out of my depth trying to remember what i used to do race morning, what to eat, what to think about, how many full practice runs to do etc etc, but i think i enjoyed it!

At the race the pits were getting busy and it was only 9am! First practice run was pretty dire, i was knackered beyond belief, i couldn’t point the girl in a straight line let alone hit my lines, and it was so HOT! Watched in the woods for ages and it was quite funny really because there was this wooden drop thing into some stumps that i wasn’t dropping, i was like, doing a stoppy around the edge of it, but while i watched i saw ALL the other girls do it! I couldn’t believe it, i thought no the girls were doing it cos i thought it was gnarly, but they all did so i had to re evaluate my line!

I never thought i could do it but Affy was there so i smashed it out and it was so easy and way fun! so i got all confidant from then on, but legs were FU**ED on the pedally bits, so tripped out a little at the bottom, soaked my arms in the bucket of cold water we keep for such special occasions, then tried another practise run, which was AWESOME! i nailed it all, so stoked, wished my race run could be that good!

Race day is always more hectic for me because i have to practise pretty much back to back if i wan to get 2 runs in, because you want to do your practise runs as late as possible so the track is as similar to race run re: dryness and holes as possible, but you need enough time after practise to ”switch off’, have a nap etc, then warm up and ”switch on” before your race run…very technical! plus i was very out of practise with this racing lark so it all got a bit stressful!

Managed to sneak in a good 30minute snooze before it was time to warm up, then i put Black Eyed Peas on and got kitted up whilst boogying my feet to the sensational beat!

Dan Brown and I headed up in the Gondola and at the top i just lay on the floor for ages feeling real tired and a bit lazy! Last year i qualied first too and burnt myself out getting all hyped up, so this year i barely even turbo’d at the top, just ran the track in my head and talked shit with Browny. I felt wayyyyy mellow, not even nervous or anything, it was pretty weird, i thought id be crapping myself but i totally wasn’t even bothered!! i was real looking forward to racing, cos i always go a bit looser on a race run so i knew it’d be fun!

In the gate, last rider down, i said to Little French (or Swiss) Man, here we are again, how funny! cos ive qualied first at fort william a few times and its just funny cos i knew he knew that id never won there despite this. Set off and thought ‘i wonder if Affy is watching” cos he was at the top too warming up, so i tried to nail the turns and get a good groove on, think it worked cos i had a good top section, its a shame Affy wasn’t watching on the pedally section too! HAHA…

race run went ok, i had 2 massive moment were i blew off line a bit and in the last woods i lost my strength in my arms and had to unclip and lost all my speed into the start of the motorway, but i know why that happened and know what i have got to work on for sure! same as always – pedalling!

I came into Fort William looking for a top 3, being happy with a top 5. I was ecstatic with my 2nd place, and as Affy and Me said all winter, I would prefer to loose the race because im slighlty unfit and unconditioned than loose because my shoulders have dislocated!

So im stoked with 2nd on a track that is my weakest race track, im stoked that i didn’t have one single crash all weekend, im stoked that just as many fans turned out this year, im stoked that all the young girls are into it, im stoked on life right now! Gee Atherton probably isn’t so stoked on life after he was on a stormer of a run, giving Greg a good run for his money, then his wheel explodes. WTF! so Gee rode most of the track with most spokes loose and snapped….

Dan Atherton was on a good run, he felt good, he says he was having fun, then he got a puncture. When he came into view at the finish and we realised he had a flat, i cursed the Gods. Then i burst into tears. Life seems to act of its own free will, sometimes it appears that the more someone puts in, the more energy life has to say -fuck you- My brother went thru hell to be fit in time for Fort William, and then he gets a flat. there is nothing that explains why Affy gets the shit luck, just that he always seems too. I think everyone saw at Fort William that Dan Atherton is a man unto himself and the support that you guys gave him out there, the cheering and sheer wall of noise made for him as he came down was unreal, so Thank You for that. big love.

Thanks for coming to watch, thanks for reading and thanks for cheering!

The run up to Fort William world cup was pretty crazy for me and Dan. We attended the British National round weekend before at glen cow and the track was so rad, so gnarly, muddy and rocky, but the weather was atrocious and the snow, wind and hail had the event canceled, so we rolled into Fort William on Sunday night, exactly a week before the event!

It was so cool being in Fort William way before the world cup, really chilled out, rode a bit of XC and hung out with friends,the weather was still horrendous with the gondola being closed right up until Thursday when the rest of the team rocked up and we walked the track,i chilled on the boardwalk for ages, watching the clouds making shadows on the hills, it was cool.That day the sun came out and shined so hard until literally 2 hours after the racing was over on Sunday, YEAAA!!

It was awesome being around the race site before people started to arrive, seeing the grandstand going up, the big screen, seeing all the behind the scenes action, watching more and more race teams arrive and set up and the all of a sudden it is Thursday night, the night before practise and its all GO! Dan said to me ‘it feels like i have been preparing for tomorrow for so long’, i felt his nerves for sure. Affy has worked so so hard to be fit and strong so he could come back to race at Fort William, he loves to race there and loves the track.

His best result in 2008 was a 3rd in 4x and 6th in DH, which is pretty damn cool!

So thursday night Dan was feeling nervous but excited to get stuck into the the race weekend, Gee was stoked to be riding with his Bro tomorrow and i was mad looking forward to riding the track,after walking it looked so much fun, and Clay Porters 3Minute Gaps film (which is a different blog post entirely!) made me so hyped up to smash the track hard!!

Friday morning we rocked unto the pits at 7.30am and it was so cool being back amongst it, walking into the pits with my helmet bag, my kit bag, and my brothers, it just felt right again. We warmed up and Affy, Clay and Me took the Gondola up and waited for the track to open. I was TRIPPING! It was mad how excited we both were to ride, like little kids…my whole body was shaking a little and i was talking Shit so much, my legs were tingling and my heart was racing, Affy rode in front of me and went so slow to make me chill out and calm down, it was awesome! Friday went well,arm pump was had by all involved, and the pits were a collection of Family and Sponsors…Affy and Me were not top 80 and top 20, so we didn’t get ”elite” practise so we walked the track in the afternoon and watched the fast guys, WOW! i love watching them boys ride more than anything else…

The track just got better and better over the weekend, and every day got busier and busier.

Now ill let you into a little secret; i have always hated fort william! Everyone always assumes we love it because, as Brits its our ”home world cup” but i have hated it since forever, its so brutal, so rough, so manmade, and so scary to crash on!

This year was the first year i can hand on heart say, that i loved it! I guess approaching the race from a different perspective helped, that perspective was one of ”im here to go as fast as i safely can” and i did. it was more of a relief than i thought it could be, practising so chilled out, i had courage in my lines, not bothering who was going where or whatever, just riding what made sense and what was fun!

And fun it was! Stopping on track and watching the dudes ride was unreal, they seem to have become even faster this winter, lines i didn’t even realise existed, skills i could only dream about, roots i thought slippery were obviously not! Luke Strobel for one, Lewis Buchanan another, Danny Hart a third! some euro guys blew my mind, Boris Tetzlaff and Nick Beer…. Unreal.

Qualys came around and i was pretty damn nervous to be fair, Affy was all ”stay present” but i couldn’t help putting scenarios in my head about crashing and wrecking my shoulder and not qualifying because im not top 20 and a protected rider…. blah blah blah. When i was saying cheerio to the boys before i went up i got all teary eyed and couldn’t breathe very well, but the nerves vanished soon as i got to the top and it was all gravy, the start hut is an old friend of mine and i had missed Little French (or Swiss) Man who always ALWAYS starts the races and who sees it all, every rider, every nerve, every win and loss. what a guy.

Crossed the line after a pretty chilled run, sat down a lot to try and save some energy, (didn’t work) and couldn’t believe my ears that id gone into 1st. I know I was beyond ecstatic that i was still in the game, after a winter of tripping out in my head i was relieved that i was there or there abbots with the other girls, and even with Ragot and her massive crash that caused Jonnier and Pugin to get a re-run, i knew that the game was back on!

The guys came down and it went pretty much as standard, Gee sitting down and chilling like he does every time! Then we waited for Affy…we were all real nervous and i was stood with my mum,step dad,aunty,uncle and cousins,who were all nervous for Dan. I just hoped with all my heart that he didn’t get any bad luck, i know you make your own luck to a certain extent, but last year Affy got a mechanical that he shouldn’t have so he didn’t qualify,and then he broke his neck,so luck was on my mind! He loves the track but i guess he was also pretty nervous so were waited for him to pop into view and when he did the response was incredible! So he got in the top 80 which was all that mattered!

After Qualys we had a little session called ‘The Atherton Project Live’ which was cool, hosted by Rob Warner, just a bunch of questions and answers and you guys were the crowd,then we signed some stuff and it was lovely and relaxed!

Back to the house where we kicked back, had some dinner cooked by Timmy and Karen the chefs, polished our knee pads, back to black’d our tyres and then slept before the big day tomorrow!

How many mechanics does it take to screw in a bolt?!!