Sunday was the fourth round of the team series in Banbury, Oxfordshire. Unfortunately the amazing weather we’ve had recently decided to disappear and it decided to rain like crazy instead… not fair! As all eight of us Scott girls were racing yesterday, and you’re only aloud six riders in a team series, Beth and I were riding for ImpSport, but in some sexy Scott Pioneer MTB kit!

It was so good to have all the team together again, even though the weather was rubbish, our spirits were running high, stimulated by some good laughs and banter! After a rider briefing in the very warm pavilion it was back out into the freezing rain to roll out onto the neutralized zone, think it’s fair to say the good spirits were dwindling by this point, but onwards and upwards, quite literally when we hit the huge climb on the first lap! The race was only three laps long, and the bunch split straight away on the climb on the first lap, with Elinor, Amy, Molly, Anna and Beth making the first bunch, with Zoe and I in the chase bunch, with Emily in a group further back. The finish line was on another shorter climb, a little bit steeper, but nothing compared to how tough the first climb was! After spending the whole lap chasing, Zoe and I finally managed to get back into the lead bunch just before the bottom of the climb, after losing a minute on them… but was soon lost as by the end of it we were back to a minute down… whoops!

That was the last we saw of the girls in the lead group, but by the sounds of it they did an amazing job, with El attacking after Natalie Creswick, who won round 2 in Twickenham, and catching her, and staying away for the rest of the race, with the girls behind doing an amazing job controlling the bunch, enabling El to take the win, with Amy coming in 4th, and Molly 5th. Beth came in at 11th place, with Anna 18th, Zoe 19th, me 21st and Emily 33rd, taking the team win on the day! We are now leading the Team Series by nearly double points over Node4… Happy Days!

This weekend I’m heading up north for another Hilly Race, a National Series round at Cappernway… will keep you posted :)

This weekend was spent heading up North, ready for the National Series round today at Capernwray, Lancaster. Thankfully I woke up today to find it was dry, mild and there was very little wind… result! Only Molly, Zoe, Anna and I were racing this event, and in the past week, only Anna had been of full health, so I think it’s fair to say our preparation for this race hadn’t been the best, but you never know what will happen on the day eh! There was a poor turnout for the race, which was really unfortunate. About twenty girls that had entered didn’t turn up! But it was still an extremely strong field with Sarah Storey OBE, and Claire Galloway keeping the pace high from the start.

The neutralised zone was crazy. The lead car seemed to think 32mph was a good speed to start the race at on the rolling roads out onto the course… I’m just glad I was at the front haha! The course had one large climb in it with the finish at the top on the sixth lap. There were two other shorter steeper climbs, with one very long, and pretty sketchy decent full of pot holes… fun fun! Needless to say the decent was really fast, so all of us Scott girls were spinning like idiots on a junior gears! The bunch split dramatically on the first lap with Claire Galloway hitting the front and driving up it. Coming over the top of the climb I found myself in a chase group of five, with riders shelled everywhere behind us. With only about 13 people left in the lead group. We came close to getting back on so many times, but the long decent didn’t allow it. We weren’t working well to start with, but we then shelled two junior riders, leaving me with one senior and another junior. About three laps to go the National Hill climb champ caught us, (sorry I don’t know her name) and we then rode away from the other two riders on the climb. Coming over the top of the main climb to take the bell, we caught Anna, so she tagged along with us after riding in the lead bunch for the majority of the race, but later got dropped on the finishing climb. I felt better and better throughout the race, and managed to out sprint the lady I was with, to get 12th place.

Molly had a really strong ride, but unfortunately missed the break of Sarah Storey, who went on to take the win, and Tamina Oliver. Molly finished in eighth, with Anna finishing 14th. Zoe unfortunately had to pull out due to illness. A good day for the team under the circumstances! :)

I was also lucky enough to have my amazing boyfriend shouting support for me… and his little sister, Caitlyn Flynn, as my photographer!

Got a few weeks off from racing, but I’m going to watch the Men’s National Champs in just over a week’s time, so will try catch some pictures of a few pro’s for you!

Catch up soon, Becs x