27/10/2017
When I went to the first round of the HSBC cyclocross national trophy series at the Moorways centre in derby we went up the day before to see what the course was like. The first lap I did was on my non grippy tyres because in previous years the course had been dry. I found out very quickly that my tyres weren't grippy enough so I went and found my dad and we changed my wheels so I had grippyer tyres on so on the next lap I didn't slip over so much. On the next lap I stayed at the technical sections like the planks and the steps and practiced them. There was a sand pit but that was quite easy because it was compacted down. On one of my first try's of the hurdles I tripped over them as I was running over them. I didn't hurt my self at all because it was quite a soft landing. The steps were really awkward because they had clearly been designed for adults and were too long to do 3 in a normal length stride and were too short to do 2 at a time so I ended up doing 3 at a time. After that I kept doing whips off the bridge because it was fun. Then we went home.
The next day I woke up at about 6:30 and we left at around 6:45 I had my breakfast of shreddies on the way because my race was at 12:06 and if I ate them too early I wouldn't have had enough energy also on the way there I got my helmet shoes gloves and glasses onwhen we got there we parked up and I got my spare bike out of the van and went to speak to a couple of my friends of my friends after that I put my bike back in the van and took our pressure and water out of the boot I then tried to take the two full aqua rolls on my own and it didn't work at all so I switched with my dad who was taking the pressure washer because he is better at taking two aqua rolls then I am so he took them and I took the pressure washer. When we got into the tarmac section I stopped to talk to one of my friends and then had to run with the pressure washer to keep up with my dad. We then set up our pressure washer in the pits and started it and sprayed the grass to make sure it was working properly. We then walked back and I changed my shoes and got my bike.
After a small while the course was finally open for practice and it was at least 2 times as muddy as the night before I did a lap and then waited for 2 of my friends and then
went for another lap. After that it was the junior men's race and the course was so slippery for them they had to get of and run a few sections. I then went back to the van and ate a cheese sandwich and an apple, I went and watched the girls race that had just started. During the girls race I ate my banana and cereal bar and had a drink. After that I started my warm up. I then waited at the back with everyone else while the called the u16 through I then made my way to get gridded I got gridded 19th so I was on the 3rd row which was good.
My start went well, acording to my dad I was in 9th by the end of the start straight. Although I did quite well in the start the first row was mostly gone by the time I got going. the sand pit had got rotaveted before my race so the compacted lines that had been there in practice had disappeared. The bridge had gotten really slippery so when I was on it my wheels were spinning a lot and on the second lap I was in between two groups completely on my own going into the wind . The final corner had also got really slippery and there were a few crashes in the previous races. At the end I was in a sprint for 10th place and I lost however I got 11th and gained 8 places on my gridding position of 19th so I was happy about that, also I got top15 which was one of my goals.
Overall I think I had a good race not my best but it was good.
Sulli Berry
