Noob

So, I decided I would start a blog to track my biking from the very beginning, never know might be an interesting read one day.

So unlike most bikers I know,  I do not have any family involved in the sport and have not started with cross country or trails, I simply decided that I needed to dive straight into the deep end and go for the discipline I wanted... Downhill.

My first bike (exluding £30 Tesco bikes and pink Barbie bikes from when I was a child) is a Specialized Big Hit I, he's pretty damn handsome and I am completely in love.

So in my usual "no time to be sensible" impatient style instead of starting on local easy trails with friends I jumped straight into an all girls downhill racing weekend in Harrogate run by Cycopath Cycles. I was not put off by the fact the girls had all been biking (although more cross country than downhill) for an average of 3-4 years and had ridden many trails all over the country, they were mostly pretty shocked I was jumping straight in to Downhill but they all respected my choice and were incredibly supportive throughout the weekend.

The Saturday we started pushing out bikes up the race track, inspecting the features and deciding how to approach them. To say I was out of my depth is an understatement. I totally underestimated how difficult it was to negotiate with the bumpy and steep terrain. After the first part of the course I started taking on each feature one by one with the help of Dot McCarthy who explained how best to approach them.

My first fall was on a berm, no pain but a pretty big bump. After that my fear disappeared and I started rolling off nearly every feature, taking my friends motto of "no brain no pain", eventually building up speed to get some air. The girls were impressed with the speed I learning at and so was I after a shaky start.

Sunday was my first race. After going over all the features in the morning except the wall ride, I decided I was going to wing that one, we pushed up to the top to start the first run. I was third to start, watching the other girls head off the hill there were no nerves, my only goal was get to the bottom in one piece.

This did not happen. After rolling over the wall gap and over the tabletop I came to the gap jump which I had no problem with, or so I thought. I lost control, came over it at an angle causing my  bike to fall down the side digging my front wheel into the mud, sending me flying into a rock garden elbow first, followed by my bike who decided to jump on top of me.

I was not brave and cried like a little girl. Once I had brushed off the fall I rolled down the rest of the course after the other girls raced. So on my first race weekend, I did not complete any races.

Before heading home we had the podiums and prize giving where I received the "Crash Carnage" Award along with an inner tube, so for a beginner I'd say it was a pretty successful weekend. I am definitely in the right sport.