Sunday 30 August 2009

2009 Season

Back in January I was going to set up my own website, but never quite got around to it for various reasons! So this blog is something of a substitute where I shall aim to post training, results from races, and a calendar of the 2010 MTBO World Cup races.
The 2009 season for MTBO has been a mixture of success and disaster. It started with a training camp in Denmark in April, before World C
up races in Hungary, Switzerland and Italy. I was also in Portugal sleeping on a table in a huge basement type room with a concrete floor on my 20th birthday! But the hot sunny weather, and four 1st places more than made up for the accommodation.

A training camp with the Austrians and Swiss between the Switzerland and Italy World Cup races taught me how to ride a bike properly downhill, as well as a trip to a chocolate factory....I shan't say how many Euro's were spent on chocolate!

The Junior World Champs in Denmark at the end of June saw me miss my goal of winning, and instead I was 4th, 5th and 6th. A huge disappointment for my e
fforts in the year. A quick trip post-Denmark back to Sheffield to move house, before heading out to Pilsen, Czech Republic. This was an awesome week, and I had a lot of fun :-)

I lived in Sheffield in the run up to the World Champs in
Israel, and put in some hardcore quality training. Four weeks later Team GBR were off to Tel Aviv and 40+ degree heat. After the rain in England, the hot weather was an absolute delight! I finished in 8th place in both the Sprint and Middle distance wh
ich were both less than 30seconds to a top 6 result. Something to work on over the next few years. The banquet at the end of the week, was a particular highlight, with several GB team members being thrown fully clothed in rather nice dresses, into the swimming pool (high heeled shoes included!).

That sums up the 2009 season for me. Many thanks to my sponsors: Craft.se and Ultrasport.co.uk as well as Sarum, SCOA, SWOA and TASS for their financial support.