National XC in Adelaide

I was hoping for a decent result at the XC Nationals this year having put in some solid training over Christmas/New Year. Warming up before the start of the race I felt pretty average but tried to amp myself up and tell myself it was a good sign, “I’ll come good during the race” I said to myself.

With a bit more of a warm up I was on the start line, the gun went and I immediately knew it was going to be a long day. I just couldn’t fire. My legs felt terrible but I tried to suck it up and convince myself that I’d be able to ‘ride into’ the race.

The laps ticked by and I worked hard to get into a good rhythm. I was struggling but kept trying to convince myself that I might be able to get into the race. I used people ahead of me as motivation and tried to catch them as quickly as I could. It was working for me on the descents but my legs were like jelly on the climb; there was no doubt about it, I wasn’t going fast. It was hard to feel strong when my legs certainly weren’t playing the game.

Then, on the final lap, I had a big crash and that was basically it for me. I’d been working hard to stay positive during the race but now I felt like I was at rock bottom. I pedalled around the last sections of the course, crashed a few more times, and rolled over the line having had a forgettable day in Adelaide.

It was difficult to be positive immediately after the race, with blood and dust all over me and feeling very disappointed with myself, but after a few hours I was over it, ready to move on getting excited about riding a lot better in future races.

Thanks, as always to my sponsors, particularly Giant bikes for their awesome support.