Over the weekend I was fortunate enough to attend one of Jay Williamson's impromptu coaching sessions. Following Jay's unfortunate training injury I jumped at the chance as usually he is completely booked and wouldn't be offering any more until end of the world cup season. The coaching session was aimed at xc and trail riders. Knowing Jay though I knew it wasn't going to be all tame.
The night before I had fitted a new shock on my bike but threw in the rough guide psi for my weight and got going. I was really pleased that The coaching also coincided with my first time riding at Gawton not on a downhill bike. It took my mind off over analysing that I was on less travel than I am used too. As usual though the Altitude took it all in it's stride.
We got started warming up on the first few berms looking at line choice, body movement and pumping. Already within the first 10 minutes he had us thinking differently about how we view entry and exit speed. Moving on to some small steps I was noticing how I didn't have to actively jump anything like I used to as we already had far more speed and our body weight in the correct position to simply ride off and carry more speed into the next section. Watching other riders we could see how over exaggerated their movements were requiring more energy and effort but causing them to stall and loose speed and flow.
As the course progresses the hill gets steeper and the features get bigger. Hitting the biggest rock garden Jay encouraged us to actively pump through to generate more speed. Although hitting it faster than ever before after a couple of goes I did start to feel the timing coming together to know when to pump. It was scary to ride so aggressive but also remain loose enough to allow the bike to work underneath me. I really felt like I was ridding on the edge. Such a shame we hadn't bought the camera out yet!
Waking up to torrential downpour racing my bike seemed so unappealing but after faffing for a good couple of hours I decided if I didn't race my bike then what else would I do?
I got there later than usual, then a surprising turn of event distracted my attention. Before I knew it I had 40 minutes to get in my practice runs?
First run from the top I had too much pressure in my tires and my saddle way too high. Having never ridden the Altitude on downhill I was glad these were small trail side changes I could make.
Normally for a downhill race I would practice the course and have my lines in my head even before I turn up so choosing lines on the fly was stressful and not allowing me to really find the limits of the bike.
Second run was only half the track and although I still had trouble with line choices I had that small moment of joy where you let the bike go and it just handled every steep sniper root and drop in my path.
Even after practice I was still contemplating if my head was in the right place to do race runs. I considered that half the girls entered never turned up due to the weather, I'd made the journey to get there, I had also not raced the bike yet and knew it was great experience for racing enduro next month so decided I had nothing to lose.
Laura Griffiths Rocky mountains Altitude woodland riders round 3
My first run I made a really bad line choice so got stalled on some roots. After that I went off a jump into a tree stump and went over the bars still clipped in so ended up wriggling around on the floor trying to unclip… At least when I race I always give a good show!
So last run left to go and I was really trying to get podium. I was in a personal battle with my friend Juliet to steal third place from her!
My entire run was great apart from one of my lines had been taped off by between runs one and two so came to halt faced by race tape now completely in the wrong part of the modified track! Such a shame as I was 2 seconds off podium and would have loved to have given the Rocky mountain Altitude the podium spot it deserved!
Not one to let an off day get the better of me I still came away so stoked and happy that I had raced. The track was hard and although I didn't push the bike or myself as much as I should have I had those moments where I felt completely in unison with the bike.
Check back next month to see how I get on at Triscombe UK Enduro
This event is one I've wanted to do since I heard about it so this year I secured a lift way in advance of sign up.
It was well worth the wait!
Driving up took 9 hours so we arrived on the Friday and headed in to Edinburgh to explore.
On Saturday we were all warmly welcomed by the red bull team And our host Rachel Atherton.
Uplifts were provided by Jeep, lush brand new Jeeps too!
The first run of the course was awesome. Starting off at the top riding down steep heathers we then head into flat out fast rough rocky clumpy grass, then over some climb and into the kids for A lines and B lines. The technical lines were so fun with a rock garden and sizable jumps. The dual slalom was brilliant. In the evening was yoga and beers. With more yoga from lululemon we a were refreshed and ready for a practice run. Having qualified in 43/126 I was happy and enjoyed an empty course one last time. Up top waiting for the race to start I was in the 5th row back. I was really nervous having never done a mass start race before.
Once the horn blew I stayed in the pack to suss out how it all worked, soon as I had chance I started seeing overtaking opportunity's opening up. I over took more than I expected, especially as I am normally am pants at overtakes. The whole race was a rush and felt amazing! Rachel over took me towards the end of the course and I finished in 38th place! 5 places up from qualifying. The weekend was amazing but the race was the most fun race I've ever done. I met so many nice girls too and was great to catch up with friends too. I would highly recommend the weekend to anyone no matter their ability or experience.
So we've moved and it seem like nobody who lives where we do rides a mountain bike!
In our sleepy little sea side village I have never seen more runners in my life, even if you went out in the middle of the night you would see someone out for a jog!
We've searched high and low in every bit of damp soggy woodland so heading a 10 minute drive to the next town we found prime building ground.
Round 2 was on Gnarkill. I had never ridden the track since it had a new start but I have to say it's one of my new favourites. Much more enjoyable than Scotsman used in round one.
For the first time I choose to ride my new On One codeine, a 29er enduro bike. It suited the course perfectly over the Demo.
The codeine came into its own on the flat turns and sailed over the roots and through tight techy sections. Honestly that bike can jump! whoever said 29er can't jump was obviously on the wrong 29er!
Being my second race back after over a year off I was much more settled and calm.
With a fresh perspective I put down a solid, safe first run putting me in 3rd place. Feeling confident that all of the girls were only a couple of seconds apart I really went for it on my second run. Unfortunately I clipped a tree and my cleat came out and I couldn't get it back in before the big drop. Even though I lost lots of time in the middle section I got a 1:29 again so must have flown through the start and end sections to have made up all the time.
I finished in 4th but was really happy as I was 2 seconds off 3rd place so felt Im getting back on my game with a competitive time.
From this race I learnt new shoes with different position cleats take more time to get used to than I thought!
I've been really happy with my progress doing all of the jumps in both rounds. It's one less advantage that all the 4x girls have.
When I started riding about 3 years ago I loved it and couldn't get enough of it. I read about it in magazines, and the internet and watched videos and visited bike shops. I was made up to find something I loved. Then even better I found other people that loved it too and there was the biking 'community'. I started off riding with my husband and his two dirty ratty sidekicks Jim and Si. They had crappy old bike and threw themselves off anything and I loved it, we all wore jeans and hoodies and no one expected us to be any good even though the boys were rad and not many women rode so soon I felt pretty good about being faster than boys we saw. we started to meet more people and our riding circle increased which was fine at first But then it all got complicated like the good things always do and riding became more than me and my band of boys, we'd joined the riding community.
Lately I haven't blogged much because quite frankly I'd had enough of the world of mountain biking. being bombarded by the pinkbike experts who always know best and meeting people all day who had the 'best' bike and knew everything about the latest equipment. And girls downhill in the southwest is having it's moment with the 661 mini downhill so facebook is bombarded with which girls shorts should we buy, and what bikes can girls ride, where can all the girls be next and we should all read women's Wednesday. YUCK! just cos were girls we are no different, stop separating us!
I'd had enough I went into hermit mode, my life of riding bikes with the boys had been slowly invaded over years and at first I welcomed it but now all I ever seem to think is shut up and ride, how did it become this?
Giving myself some distance from riding in general, my avoidance of all things social media and running I can now ride my bike again with the boys and love it :D I still get annoyed with the same things but I choose to ignore them and block it out. So I miss racing and that but isn't it really all just about you and your bike?
Last years Southwest Champs was my first ever race.
When I first ever went to Gawton it was to ride downhill for the first time on 'HSD' track.
After riding for a year I decided to race on the new track 'Proper Job' which was quite a step up and this year they upped the game even more holding the race on 'SuperTavi'. SuperTavi is the old dirt 1:04 track and the track that had said to me when I started downhill "If I can ever ride that, then I will be a downhill rider" in my mind it was unobtainable... at the time!
In no way was I expecting it to be easy, I was nervous! I first rolled down it and with the new sections built in they had made the track harder. There was one section I just could not get around at first but got more confident with practice. I had a couple of really hard crashes but nothing could stop me with that feeling that every clean run was taming the beast. I was loving the challenge!
When it came to race day I was tired and now know that 3 days practice before was too much but every race I learn something new.
The pressure was off in someways because so many people had entered but didn't race because the track was so hard. By Sunday there weren't many girls left.
I had one clean super safe run and one terrible pushing it run. I came off twice my second run. I wish I had pushed it more on my first run but without more competition it was hard to risk such big crashes on so many nervous sleeps before!
Still I tamed the beast and raced SuperTavi and that is an achievement I never thought I would have, that and a Silver Southwest champs medal!
So my first downhill race I was super nervous and had a couple of average runs but really enjoyed it so as soon as I had chance to do another race I couldn't wait.
Second time round I was no where near as nervous.
It was round 3 at Tavi woodlands winter series so not as much pressure as southwest champs but still almost as many entrants.
My husband and I arrived on the saturday and It was wet! As usual when I race its so muddy and the course was man made but built into the hillside with not much texturing so there was a lot of getting side ways. The course was so much fun with roots, drops and jumps. On the saturday there was hailstone so practice was really different to race day. Riding on hailstones was like riding on ball bearings it was so hard to keep control and even harder to push back up!
After a comfy night in our van we had 3 or 4 practice runs but the course was getting really cut up so our tyres were clogging really bad and it was hard to get enough speed for the jumps.
THe only thing I would have changed over the weekend was my tyres, I had spikes on but wasn't sure what else to change too, I think next time I will just have the same as my husband because he has a lot more experience.
My first race run I aimed for a safe time and went around a jump which was getting hard to get speed for and then also came off on a tight bend after a really steep stepped section so my first run was less than impressive but I was no where near as nervous as last time I raced so new I could focous and improve on my second run,
My second run was near perfect everything was so clear, calm and methodical, I pedalled in all the right places and hit every line I wanted to, the only thing that could have gone better was if my tyres could have got up to speed and maintained less resistance but they were so clogged and sluggish. Despite that what felt like an slow time was smooth and fast and landed me in a very unexpected second place.
For a change me and my husband decided to do what normal people do for a holiday and catch a plane to somewhere sunny for a winter break. But we thought... that's too normal so we still needed our bikes to come too!
We decided on 10 days staying in a relatives apartment as our base in Benalmadena. In Benal there's a cable car which is bike friendly with the front wheel off and with the help of you tube videos we were convinced there's good downhill riding to be had and were stoked on exploring.
Our Friends came with us too so we decided to try some uplift days and found roost was the best company for getting back to us. They were really flexible and offered us one day to start and more if we wanted too.
On our first days riding we rode with roost who took us to SRAM test track which is probably the most famous track out there, it's really sandy and rocky, it's a baptism of fire intro to Malaga riding.
The rocks are not so much the problem but the sand is if your not used to it. Honestly I was just sliding around all over the place at certain points but its great fun and the roost boys were really supportive and willing to help give advice on line choice and technique.
To get into to town for lunch rather than driving into town we drove further up the mountain to the telecommunication towers and rode a 15 minute downhill trail down with the longest biggest boulder rock garden I've ever seen it was totally amazing! The trail starts off fairly tame and not so much downhill style as it is a walking trail too but once it got going it was amazing with steep long rock slabs to negotiate, super tight steep sandy switch backs and loose off camber exposed sections. I'm not sure how anyone would walk some of it! clearly Spanish hikers like to go big or go home too! One thing i find funny about Spanish trails is they are all unofficial so a lot of them end near peoples back gardens and just pass through residential streets. It was the best trail I've ridden and think it will take something really special to beat it!
After a delicious dirty tasting kebab it was off to ride the trail from the Danny hart winter training in Spain video and to end the day back to the telecoms trail again. I have never rode so much in one day. The SRAM test track and Danny hart trail we rode about 7 times each and with the miles put in on the 15 minute telecoms tower trail twice by the end of the day we were exhausted but had huge beaming smiles on our faces and well and truly made up with riding in Spanish sand.
We enjoyed our first day day so much that we went with roost again for day two. This time it was a long hour and half drive out to Mijas to ride Motril race track. Driving there it was getting
mistier and mistier and once we headed up the foot hills of the sierra Nevada it was pretty bad visibility and the Spanish weather was not the warm sun it was at Benal. The track was amazing though, much more English style building and the ground was mud rather than sand so instantly felt much more at home. It still had the Spanish steepness, length and difficulty tho that we were loving so much. It started with a wooded steep top section with lots of root steps and drops, followed by swooping deep gullies , then into rock gullies and off camber rock sections to negotiate with an excellent middle section with difficult drops which saw us all at some point going over the bars landing on top of each other in the gorse bushes. We decided on four runs before stopping for lunch and on the fourth run coming through the trees it really started to rain and the gully were flowing and when we came out in to the open it turned into a really heavy hail thunder storm. the ride down was amazing sliding around, soaked and covered in mud squinting through the rain and hail to see. Again the trail ends through residential streets where we met trail doggie who sat in the bus shelter with us in the pouring rain while we ate sandwiches filled with grit and mud. The boys went out for more runs but most of us were happy to finish the day after amazing runs on an amazing course which wasn't spoilt by the weather at all.
After a days rest it was time to explore the cable car opportunities. A pass for the week was only €60. By then the weather was back to being warm and sunny. On our first day at the cable car we were lucky to meet an English couple who showed us the two main run although it is actually easy to find the runs it really helped us to work out the knack of getting the bikes in the cable car and quickest way back to the cable car station! The main run we rode was rockadillo which is in the video. It's super sandy again which us girls found a tad easier than the boys with our more gentle gliding approach. It's got everything you could possibly want from a trail with steep technical rocky single track, tight berms, drops and jumps. Each section is great in its own way and so much fun to ride over and over.
Apart from the riding we had great nights in the local Irish bar and meals out in restaurants with friendly Spanish owners telling us their stories and plenty other stuff to do with a lush beach, marina and dolphinarium. Its so English friendly with all the ex-pats running bars and a much more relaxed way of life.
This interview by DIRT just makes me love her even more!
Angus sure is one lucky pooch!
Best quotes-
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever given? Get a dog. Get a bike. What one thing would you change about yourself? My inability to house a straight set of teeth in my mouth.
The latest jump I've been working up to is over cafe side at Haldon.
its a respectable 4ft2.
Been watching the boys doing it for a while and practicing away at getting faster and landing further on other smaller jumps.
On sunday I had the opportunity to ride there and knew the time had come and I was finally ready to do it.
I followed my husband in for speed and everything was so perfect, the take off, the land, all of it.
So I did it again but our friend paul filmed, I was so over excited by the first one that I messed up a little on my second not concentrating and did come off the land at the edge so yes i do scream "fcuk" in the video!
Two great films by the mixed boys and girls riding group sheGNARnigans. these two are dedicated to the girls. They are totally amazing and I love all of their videos
Last sunday we had another great day at Gawton as usual. We enjoyed the usual mud, slipping and sliding and falling over just pushing up. In practice next season we all rode something new or jumped something higher than we've ever jumped before. For me and my friend Emma we both rode Super tavi. My first ever double black rated track. It was a struggle down in places but nothing that soon we wont be conquering.
Like all of the other tracks we used to not be able to ride. Its always hard to go down the track that has been built up in your mind. It was so exciting to see whats beyond the first jump, it was nothing like how easy the pro's make it look in videos but it was new and exciting. We also rode more of the jumps on old tracks where we would have never dreamed of doing them before. Its amazing to think in the past two years I have developed so much more skill without realising doing something that I love. In downhill I really have found my place to progress and anything I cant do yet I realise now that one day I will succeed in riding it and will have enjoyed the journey so much it won't have felt like a journey at all.
another great memory that I have shared with my best friends at my favourite place
Below is the video of the ladies setting their times on the track for dirt 1:04
In a previous post I reviewed "women of dirt" by awsomeland. Seems they've been at it again and the same group of ladyees have been making more lovely videos for us girls to watch and get jealous of their great skills.
And this time its going to be shown on my favourite website pinkbike!
Follow the link above to see the trailer and pink bike showing date
For my first downhill race I ended up doing southwest champs because I rode for the bike shed team and it was their first race. The track used was proper job, Gawtons newest trail. This was to make the race accessible to every rider. We got there on the saturday and set up the stand and waited for the track to open and uplift to begin.
I had a surprise when the uplift started and was a tractor pulling those big bucket trailers that hay bales are transported in. All that stopped the last person falling out was a strap. It was my first uplift non gondola style. It was pretty scary but fun. It was a steep bumpy ride with people and bikes bumping all over and it was a good idea to keep your helmet on to avoid the low branches from taking you out! My bike survived the whole weekend with my pedals in a lot of spokes and my gear cable being pulled out, glad I've got my battle bike.
On saturday we had practice runs, it was good weather but where it had rained so much at the start of the week it was pretty messy on parts but most of the track held up well. with over 125 riders it was busy but a great supportive atmosphere.
On Race day I was nervous but after a couple of practice runs was loosened up. Waiting by the start I was really nervous, there were 10 girls in the category and most had more race experience than I did and had been ridding a lot longer. Because of differences in speed we were all given plenty of time to get down before the next person started which was great for those of us that it was their first race. When I waited on the start ramp I felt pretty calm but as soon as I started pedalling my arms went limp like jelly and I was all over the place. I was so nervous and distracted by the people cheering I nearly fell off on every berm and jump. It wasn't till after the rock garden where there were less people that I started to relax. I wasn't that relaxed tho! I was finding it really hard to pedal because I managed to go through all of my gears and was pedalling with the breaks on, which I'm sure I have never done before! Soon as I went past the timing tent I was so relieved to have finished that I stopped concentrating and feel off over the bank into the fire road.
Once at the top it was a lot more tense between the riders because a lot had fallen off on their first run so the pressure was on for them to improve their times. I tried too stay calm and and just hear the positives. On my second run I knew I had to concentrate on the trail and not the crowd. I started a lot calmer and smoother. It felt slower but more enjoyable. I was 8 seconds up on my first run, so calmness defiantly paid off.
I enjoyed the whole weekend so much and met some great new girls to ride with and will defiantly do more races in the future. Unlike the cross country race I entered I felt like I belonged in the downhill race and could see so many ways to improve. The pressure of the race made me confidently jump sections I would have rolled in the past and ride harder and faster than usual.
