Alpine Winter Series
Innerleithen, Scotland
5th & 6th March 2011
Jenna Woodruff
With a bit of a gap between the end of the mini downhill series at the Forest of Dean and the start of the new season in April, I decided to head up to Scotland for the 2nd round of Alpine Winter Series to get a bit more race practice. Knowing that Innerleithen is a very steep, technical and long track I was looking forward to the challenge!
Arriving on Saturday I signed on and went to walk the track. Just from walking up the very end of the track I realised what I had let myself in for, it was some of the steepest stuff I have probably ever ridden and I started to feel very nervous!
After getting kitted up and building the bike, I headed over for the first uplift and had a nice easy roll down the track. There was a lot of scope for line choice and places to make up time, but there were also a lot of lines to avoid where big mistakes could be made. I tried not to work too hard on the Saturday to conserve energy as it was a very long track, I had just had 3 runs down on the Saturday practice.
Sunday morning I managed to get 1 more practice run in, which didn’t go very well at all, I made far too many mistakes and had 4 off’s, 1 straight into a tree! I got back to the car, fixed the my bent brake lever, taped up my torn number board, had a quick drink, then it was time to head over to the uplift to get back to the top of the track for race runs.
1st race run was nice and steady, had a bit of an off in the same place I hugged a tree in practice, but this time managed to keep some speed out of it. 2nd run down I was feeling very confident and a lot more focussed, I went through the track in my head over and over on the uplift and felt I knew the course a bit better. From the start the run was going fantastic, I didn’t make any mistakes and kept good speed right through to the bottom of the course, I was slightly thrown out of focus as I caught up the rider infront, it all went wrong, a tiny mistake and I was off the track... I was gutted. I rolled through the finish line with a time 3 seconds slower than my 1st run.
After realising I had made podium with the 1st run time I was quite shocked! 3rd place finish in Senior Women’s. After a bit of a post race breakdown, I wasn’t happy with my 2nd run atall but I figured it’s just part of racing and something I learnt from, which is the main reason I wanted to race at Inners in the 1st place.
The results in senior womens...
1st Emma McRobb
2nd Sara-Jane Rennie
3rd Jenna Woodruff
With only 4 weeks left until the official start of my race season I still have plenty to work on, starting with some serious training in the gym and a team training weekend away in the Lake District. There will be a full Team NCA turnout at all of the Pearce Cycles races, so if you are there pop over and say hello :D
Jenna Woodruff