This month has been quieter with only two races but that has not stopped the excitement. Finally, being able to race the Nové Město na Moravě UCI Junior World Series, one of the most legendary cross-country courses in the world, has truly made one of the best months of racing ever.
We started the month with round two of the Scottish Cross-Country series at Lochore Meadows country park. Disappointingly, due to some land use issues the course had to be reduced making the course easier and reducing the climbing. There were not many technical sections but plenty of single track and the consistently twisty course provided an interesting if different challenge to maintain pace. It felt more like an extra-long dirt crit.
I had a good start sitting comfortably in the top five. I managed to attack to the main short climb of the second lap and by keeping the pressure on I managed to pull out a gap. I managed to maintain and extend the gap and avoid any mistakes. In the end, I won the race as well as beating all the elite men racing at the same time.
I then had a few weeks away from racing and I had to miss the second round of British Cross Country Series at Margam park as I had an English exam the next day. The combination of last race on Sunday afternoon in south Wales and exam first thing on Monday just did not work.
The Nove Mesto course is probably the most technically challenging in the world, but I really loved it and felt confident on it. Three of the four main climbs are very technical being covered in roots and rocks. I love technical climbs. Luckily it was not too wet so the climbs where mercifully rideable. If the climbs were hard the descents where even harder with extensive rock gardens, plenty of big drops and what felt like continuous off-camber rooty descents.
My race started well managing to move up from my poor griding of 106th avoiding the numerous crashes. I then began to chase doing my best to move as far up as possible. Frustratingly at the bottom of one of the rock gardens my chain came off and I lost a few positions and some time getting it back on. After that I had no more major issues except elbowing a tree during an aggressive overtake on one of the most technical climbs. I was really pleased with managing to move up to 29th but just missed out on UCI points with a top 25. I felt with a better gridding I still could have done better.
Overall, this month has been very positive, first exams are finally over and then a great result in a stacked field at a UCI junior series race on one of the toughest courses. Next up is a busy June with three British XC Series races.
*Photos By XCOMTB
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