A welcome surprise

I'd been having so much fun hanging out at the track with the Merida crew that I was talked in to racing the short track on Sunday. I don't normally race them as I lack the raw speed and am normally busy checking out of a hotel room and running for a plane at the time the race is held.

The legs felt fairly sore from the previous days efforts and the head was fairly sore from the previous nights activities. I rode out to the course which involved a bit of climbing in the hills which seemed to help me on both counts. Just prior to our race the clouds came over, rain fell and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. It sure makes a difference having a team tent with a roof over your head and somewhere to keep warm.

As we lined up the weather cleared and the gun went off. I got a slow start but managed to cross a gap to the main group when there was a crash right in front of me. Kath O'shea and Bec Henderson had locked bars and both were in the dirt. The race was stopped for 5 minutes as Kath was badly hurt and medical staff were called. We were restarted in the positions held at the time of the crash and Row Fry, Heather Logie, Bec, Jenni King and I formed a lead group. Row and Heather had a good lead until Heather crashed and the 3 of us passed her. I sat behind King to draft as I was unsure of my ability to maintain the pace. Bec had got the gap on us and with 3 laps to go I jumped away from King and tried to catch Bec. Unfortunately I left it a lap or 2 too late but was happy to get on the podium for 3rd place.

It was a nice surprise to end the weekend. A big thanks to the Merida Flight Centre team, SRAM, For the Riders, Mega bike (for mending my buckled road wheels courtesy of last weeks crit) and Trak Cycles for sorting me out with some new Crank Brothers Candy pedals in a hurry!