One day one photo - 5

This is me with World Downhill Mountain Bike Champion Rachel Atherton. I should have also been making the victory sign because I was feeling very happy that I had conquered my first ever downhill mountain bike race and was still in one piece!

It was quite a unique event, Red Bull Foxhunt - 150 women in a mass start racing down Caerketton Hill in the Pentland Hills just outside Edinburgh. I had never done an event like this before. In fact the last time I'd ridden a mountain bike had been more than a year ago at Brighton Big Dog, a cross-country mountain biking event in a park - quite a different proposition. And even then, I was by no means an expert mountain biker!

Red Bull Foxhunt, organised by the eponymous energy drinks company and Atherton Racing with sponsorship by Jeep was very convivial, with the staff and the other competitors being friendly and welcoming.
I had only organised to go to the event one week before, in a flight of fancy and adventure, and once there I wondered if I had bitten off more than I could chew. Luckily, it all went smoothly, I met a number of nice people, even the weather played ball as we were bathed in sunshine most of the weekend - quite handy when you are camping in Scotland in late September! I definitely recommend Foxhunt and hope to do it again next year. You can read more about how I got on in my article about it on Sportsister.


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One day one photo - 5

Sunday 14th September

Penshurst Off-Road Cycling (PORC) centre was quite busy on Sunday, what with a large charity downhill race taking place as well as round 2 of the London Cyclo cross league. It was great news for Mike, the owner of the site, who will have received bumper takings on the day. It was also nice for us to race somewhere that had a lively atmosphere, thanks to the music, the extra cheering (even if it wasn't always for us!) and the rather entertaining costumes that the downhillers were sporting. From mankinis to Kenny Everett-style comedy breasts anything seemed to go! I'm not sure that we "crossers" would have provided much of a spectacle for the mountainbikers. They probably looked at us rather bemused that we, wearing our conservative shorts, jerseys or skinsuits would want to do a race that involves stuggling up hills and carrying our bikes for fifty minutes, when all they needed to do was to get an effortless gravity-induced adrenaline rush for twenty seconds! I also wondered why I was taking the tougher less travelled road, and was tempted to even join them. (If only my cross bike had a bit of suspension!) Still, I enjoyed my afternoon out. I didn't ride too badly, and it made a nice change to do this race in dry sunny conditions rather than on a chilly afternoon through a muddy mess! If it had been muddy I would have been thankful to have not been attempting downhilling.