Pearce Cycles Midlands Series Round 1 - 1&2 March

After weeks of super dry weather, the day before this race at Bringewood the heavens opened and the big question was which tyres should I pack?? I went for everything! Both days stayed dry and pleasant and the choice of tyres for me was Maxxis Minions - despite the rain on Friday the track had stayed more or less completely dry by virtue of the good tree cover and was running super fast.

This was my first race of the season and I hadn't ridden downhill or a downhill bike since December, so it was going to be pretty interesting, especially as my Yeti had not yet hit UK shores so I was borrowing a friend's bike which I'd never ridden before - cheers Chris!! Fortunately after one run I was pretty into it and quickly got up to speed. The track was really good fun with some nice fast flowing berms and a rhythmy pumpy section at the bottom.

I wasn't the only one waiting for a new bike - Monet Adams was riding a borrowed Intense and Aimee Dix had an Orange 5 on loan from new sponsor Mojo whilst she waited for her 224 to be painted. Unfortunately she had so much trouble with the chain falling off that she decided not to race on Sunday leaving just me in the Elite field.

Sunday came around and it was time to get on it for the race. There were about 16 girls racing all together which was super cool – probably one of the best turn outs at a regional for quite a while! I had some good strong runs to take the win overall with junior rider Jessica Stone in second place and Monet Adams in third.

As always with the Pearce races, it was a wicked weekend, well organised and a great atmosphere. The uplift ran smoothly too, with barely any wait each time you went up for a run. It's also great for not wrecking your bike, quite a bonus if you're borrowing someone else's one month old pride and joy and you don't want to wreck it!