Well, at last the podiums have started to roll in for the Clarke household. We have spent the last month completing some good training & bagging some solid result along the way.
First off was Wiggle Enduro6. Having competed in this event in the past I have fond memories of an enjoyable weekend. For the first time I raced the night TT on the Saturday. I had a great time swooping through the singletrack with my lights on, completing 1 full lap of the next days race circuit. I even managed to catch my minute man & take the win by a substantial gap from Jenn O Connor which was a morale boost after the disaster of NPS1 :-) It was good practise for Mountain Mayhem riding in the dark, as I expect to do my full fair share of laps in our SIS Trek mixed team.
Next day me & Barrie competed in the mixed pairs category. We decided it was best for my training (for XC) to complete 2 laps each. This in effect gave me the chance to ride three 1 hour races in one day as each lap was taking about 30 mins to complete. I think our strategy did not do us any favours for the final overall result but we managed to get a podium in 3rd never the less. The other mixed pairs teams seemed to be sending their female rider for less laps. It would have been a hard task though to beat Gareth & Amy who won, as Gareth came storming around after a lap with a huge margin on the entire field! Hats off to Pat Adams, Ag & all involved who even managed to hold off the rain until the prizegiving. A super event & a huge success.
Next off was an epic weekend spent at home, with a good road ride on the Saturday followed by a real out in the wilds type of MTB ride that we do not get to do very often, around Wasdale head & the Duddon valley.
Then it was up to Scotland for NPS2 at Drumlanrig. A unique & beautiful setting for our race. I decided on a steady controlled start, ensuring a solid result hopefully ending up on the podium. I was very pleased to finish 2nd behind Jenny on a challenging course with lots of roots that made for some technical challenges. This gave me the feedback I needed to take my training up another level & progress even more.
This past week has been quite tough, with some specific hill work aimed toward the Grizedale NPS in 4 weeks time, plus plenty of off road riding developing skills. We decided to make the hike 'down south' to race the Southern XC race on the course that is to be used for this years National XC Championships. The idea was to check out the course & take this information back home to start planning specific training aimed at Nationals with the nature of this course in mind. I ended up taking the win by a huge 10 & a half minutes from riders who pasted me in Thetford. This has given me a real boost in terms of confidence & knowing where my form is at presently. I rode a strong evenly-paced race, with the emphasis on nailing the singletrack & keeping it smooth. It was certainly worth the drive down for us!
Happy riding, Sue Clarke.
