Emily Horridge

Sometime in September we were all supposed to be going to Fort William for the final round of the British Downhill Series, but forecast high winds and other nastiness prompted a decision to cancel the race rather than make everyone drive up only to find they couldn’t ride. It would’ve been like Glencoe all over again. Up to this point we’d only had 3 rounds of the series actually take place, so a replacement had to be found fast. In the end Caersws was the venue of choice.

The chosen track was the one that has a tunnel under the uplift road. It had about three places with actual line choice, which me and Manon Carpenter stood and discussed for a while and then decided we’d just have to try them out the next day. Apart from that it was just a short, high speed fun track.

Saturday practice got under way and the first few runs were really good fun, trying out different line alternatives to decide which was best and all that sort of thing. But then the last couple of runs I was just starting to find a bit boring. I knew where I was going, had everything nailed that I wanted to nail. So after 6 runs and at only about 3 o’clock I called it a day and went up the track to watch and have a look at a few things.

Sunday morning came around, I did a couple of practice runs and then it was time to get ready for my race run. I wanted to do well here, so I was mainly thinking about not braking between the high speed bus-stops. I got to the top with about 5 minutes to spare for seeding, and it wasn’t long before we were off. I had a pretty mint run at the top, managed not to brake between the bus-stops either, but despite this I remember thinking I was definitely going slower than the day before – massive headwind! After the tunnel there was one of the multi-line-choice corners, hit my lines all good but as I went into the corner I found myself going over the bars! I had no time to think about why and ran a couple of steps back up to my bike to jump back on and carry on down the hill. Either side of the crash my run was mint, so I was happy enough even though it put me into 4th with a 2.14, 7 seconds off Manon and Jess.

Next thing you know, the heavens have well and truly opened. It had rained on and off a fair bit over the weekend, but it was mostly nocturnal rain and the wind had dried the track out again pretty swiftly. But now it was heavy heavy rain pouring down on riders who were already up the hill on dry tyres, whilst those of us down in the pits were sending out a cry for spikes. This was going to be a pretty interesting affair, straight into a wet track with no warning. At the top someone warned me about a particular root which proved to be excellent knowledge as when I got to it I could see slide marks all over it and clearly it was taking everyone out. I stayed on the bike all the way down to the bottom section of woods before the mud-sliding shennanigans began! A new left-hander had been put in at the end of a high speed straight, so all that fresh dust was now just a load of slippery mud. At the exit of it there were a couple of roots which distracted me, thinking that they’d be slippery. I don’t think they were but the hesitation meant I fell off and rolled around on the floor for a bit. Someone shouted that everyone had fallen off there, so maybe all was not lost.. I jumped back on to negotiate the next crazy rooty corner, and somehow ended up sideways! Suddenly the roots I wanted to ride over were now on my right hand side. Sliding in a must-stay-on-bike manner past the roots and round the next left hander was brilliant fun, just drifting everywhere, but clearly not very fast! I got so much mud in my clip pedal that I couldn’t clip in again for the next three jumps so I had to roll them like a pansy. At this point you just had to hope that everyone else had fallen off too, otherwise any chance of a good position was right down the pan.

In the event I finished 3rd which I was pretty stoked about, and came 3rd overall in the series. So after a slightly fitful start to the year, things have all come good and I’ve exceeded all my goals and expectations. Really looking forward to next year now!

The weekend after Bucknell I found out there was a race on at Rheola. It doesn’t feel like it, but I haven’t been there for 4 or 5 years to race, so I decided to go at the last minute.

I found out that newly crowned Junior World Champ Manon Carpenter would also be there which I was pretty stoked about. I enjoy riding and checking out lines with her, and its interesting to see where she goes fast compared to where I do. I was also keen not to embarrass myself too much by being too far off her time come race day.

The whole weekend was just a bit of a muddy mess really. The track is the same yet way different to what it was when I last rode it, but that was good, I enjoyed the “new” bits (the bits that were in the National in 2010). It was fun sliding around and almost hitting trees til you let the brakes off at the last minute and regained some grip and steering ability! Visibility was pretty interesting with some drizzle on Saturday that just got all over your goggles, and more proper rain on Sunday.

First run on Sunday was interesting. I set off down the flat out fast open section, had a little sketchy moment and kinda breathed a sigh of relief that I didn’t fall off, but the thought process about not falling off distracted me and I went into a big bramble bush at high speed! Quite a soft if prickly landing! I got back out and let a few riders by and then carried on down the hill just having a fun run. In my second run everything went a lot better, I stayed aboard my bike and had fun getting some mud drifts on the go and what not. I also finished 7 seconds behind Manon which didn’t seem too bad on a 4 minute course. Mission accomplished basically.

Mid September saw the final round of the Pearce Cycles series at Bucknell. I’ve only ever been there once before, for an uplift day in the wet. So there was some track learning to do and the crazy rooty corner of doom to conquer. It’s a very short track, feels like its over before you know it. I had a funny weekend, not feel too well and not riding too well because of that. I did a mere 4 runs on Saturday with a massive crash in each one. Sunday’s first practice run wasn’t much better. It turned out my back brake was leaking so I couldn’t attack because I couldn’t rely on the brake to work. Fortunately I had a spare with me, so got that on and managed another practice run which was much better.

There’d been rain overnight, making the track very greasy and it was difficult to know where you could hit stuff hard and where you couldn’t. I rode very steadily in my first race run, even rolling at a snail’s pace round a series of flat corners where I’d had a massive and very scary crash the day before. This put me in second place which I wasn’t very happy about, but you can’t expect much if you don’t actually go very fast! The heavens then opened and made the track a wet messy world of change. So with the memory of Danny Hart’s crazy run at Champéry in mind, I decided to pretend that 1. it was actually dry, 2. that I was Danny Hart and 3. hang it all out and see what happened. I was pretty sure I could whoop the ass of my first run time, put it like that! I set off pretty strongly, although I did miss all my lines in the opening “straight”, but still jumped the jumps after it and knew straight away I was faster. I made a couple of mistakes in the lower woods, but nothing too dire. Then for the final field charge, hip to left and sprint finish. Cue general fail on hip to left! I kinda jumped but didn’t turn in the air, landed, still needed to turn on wet muddy grass and realised I was going to be riding through something I wasn’t sure was actually rideable-through! So I crashed in a very big manner. Still, I had planned to push it and I knew what the consequences might be.. Doh! It was good fun though, good to push it a bit harder than usual, and I still finished second.

Just back from a few days of most excellent bicycle skiing on the steeper tracks of North Wales. The first was of course the track at Llangollen. So so much fun. I really like steep tech tracks, they are the best. Last time I rode there, I was on flats. Stuck with the clips this weekend just to make the start straight pedal a bit easier, but it had the added benefit of being able to corner harder, kinda with your legs and felt quite a lot like skiing. Though when I go skiing next I will probably think “what nonsense, it’s nothing like it!” . Either way it was damn good fun!

Friday night was a raining minging affair and I really wasn’t looking forward to the idea of yet another wet race. It had stopped by morning but just as I was about to set off for my first practice run, in came another bout of weather. Ok, hold that thought. I think at that point I decided to change my tyres or do some other useful task. The rain did stop and I got stuck into practice, immediately loving the course and the two or three new corners that in my view made it infinitely better than last year’s track.

Sunday came around and it was seeding time. I like how there’s such a short break between the end of practice and the women’s race nowadays. It does mean you’ve gotta get on with it to be ready in time, but at the same time you still retain that mental buzz even if not physical. I like that. I had a reasonable run in seeding, quite a few mistakes but I kept it upright, and was stoked to seed 2nd behind Manon Carpenter. I had set my sights pretty high this weekend because it was my kind of track, so things were looking good. I just needed not to let the pressure get to me come race runs – Katy Curd was only a second or so behind me, and one crash-inducing mistake would scupper everything.

I had a little nap after seeding to keep me feeling fresh and then got up the hill ready to go again. I was pretty nervous, but I knew I had to turn it to my advantage and just got super psyched about how much fun I was gonna have riding the track. Finally in the start gate, the beeps started going and I set off, remembering to breathe and look where I was going. Settled into my run with less mistakes this time, though there were a couple of scary moments, just pushing it that bit harder, and then some slowish bits! I went about 4 seconds quicker, and came down straight into the hot seat… awesome! That meant I was guaranteed second place with Manon still to come. I was so stoked, second place.. happy with that!

I’m off to Europe roadtripping all over the place for a couple of weeks now, so that should stand me in good stead for more radness when we go back to Llangollen on a new woods track of gnar (even steeper I heard!) for the National Champs in about a month’s time. Woo hoo!

After Fort William I gradually made my way back down the country via various friends’ houses and rad bicycle tracks until I ended up at Hopton on Saturday afternoon for Round 3 of the Pearce Cycles series.

Arriving under a big blue sky and a dry field, first task was a track walk. Everyone said it’d rained for about an hour that morning and then stopped. The track was ridiculously dusty and looked like it had been super cool fun. Word on the street was for rain on Sunday, but I hoped it wouldn’t be true.

Turns out it was true.. rain arrived around 7am and stayed set for the entire day. Early on, the track was a slippery nightmare, but as the day wore on the track got wetter and better. I set off in my first run not really expecting a great deal of grip, so took it a bit steady but still managed to come down the hill in first place. As it was still raining, I’d half thought I’d just do my first run, but now I had first place to defend, I would definitely be going back up for a second run. Somehow, despite two pretty good trackstands in corners, I managed to go a ridiculous 6 seconds quicker than my first run to post a 2.47 ahead of Jess Stone and Ellie Maxfield in second and third respectively.

I was more stoked about the awesome time than the winning, I just don’t know how you can go 6 seconds quicker with such a bad run! That said, I’ve always enjoyed riding in the actual rain, cos its really rather fun!

Next race is looking like Llangollen national, unless I nip up to Caersws this weekend for the Caersws cup.. we shall see! Anyway, the moral of this story is that you should go riding even if its raining, cos once you’re out there its dead good fun!