Pearce cycles Round 5 (ENGLISH CHAMPS) Hopton

Having won the national champs about 2 weeks prior to this race, I was feeling on it. I had been out riding more or less everyday, going to different places, doing different kinds of riding. I had made a trip to Hopton to see what track we was going to be using so I could prepare myself. I noticed it was rather a jumpy course - lots of tabletops and a couple of doubles. So I went up to 'The Edge' 4X track to get to grips with jumping. At least this was going to help me gain more confidence. I found myself jumping tabletops on a bike I've never ridden before, and this proved to be a very interesting experience! I loved it though - all I need to do is learn the technique - which will come in time and practice.

It had rained hard on the Friday night. I felt a cold coming on and it didn't help matters when I put the tent up a little incorrectly - which made the tent wet Friday night! I woke up Saturday feeling rough as anything, the last thing I wanted to do was ride! We walked up the course and decided on lines. To be honest, when I walk the course, I usually have all the lines dialed that I want . I'm pretty good at learning lines so all I needed to do was to ride it and see if they work.

The practice was good. The first few runs were sketchy, the wet weather made it increasingly difficult to hold a line together in the top section that was very rooty in places. However, the weather soon cleared up, and the track slowly started to dry out. The last few runs were good, I felt confident and very eager. I got a total of 5-6 runs in! I was really gutted when the drop-out of my rear brake snapped! Rick did a grand job on bodging it together (actually, probably made it stronger than it was originally!) So I was set.

The practice on the Sunday morning was good. I was almost sick though after my first run, I was still not feeling good! The second run went average, but i thought that yesterday, my first two runs were the worst, then my fourth run being the best of the day. So I decided two practice runs were good enough.

It was exciting stuff - I was wearing my new national champs jersey, so looked the part! I felt a little 'look at me' but that soon went as I was concentrated on my race run. My first race run was ok, I felt really rugged and sketchy, missed lines and had my foot down in places, I pedaled like f**k though everywhere as I panicked after stopping so many places. I got down with a time of 3:10 - that put me 7 seconds clear overall. This felt really good, although I couldn't believe how far in front I was!The second run felt slower, but alot smoother. I didn't pedal quite as much and just tried to maintain my average speed, keeping speed through turns and nailing lines. I got down in 3:09. That put me 5 seconds clear of anyone else. There were a few nasty areas on the course that would have easily caught people out - especially in the top section. I tried my best to hold it together in the harder areas and just keep my feet on my pedals and let go of the brakes. This worked. Looking back, there were a few things I could have done to make up probably 4 seconds, so a big learning curve - I need to be more confident about taking scarier faster lines!

It was good to win the English championships. It felt amazing and was very stoked my great friends won too. Lisa, Lynda and Emma got the title in the other categories. Go girls!