World Cup #2
Fort Williams, Scotland
May 31-June 1, 2003

After my less than stellar performance in St. Wendel I was starting in the second row for the race in Ft. Williams. Kind of depressing considering I haven’t started anywhere but the front row except for my very first world cup in 1997 when I had no points. Oh well.

The start was painfully fast as always and I didn’t have any snap in my legs. Trying to avoid the girls that were flying into the ditch on my left, and the bumping handlebars of the out of control women on my right I ended up going into the first climb back in the mid teens. Not good. The first climb wasn’t long, but it was hard enough that I somehow got passed by probably another twenty riders. I started into the first descent back in the forties I think. I’ve never been so far back and it was an experience I hope to never repeat. When you are riding that far back you end up dealing with the log jam of riders trying to go down these technical descents. Riders go too slow and crash causing those of us behind to have to walk down the descents. I walked almost the entire first descent because of all the chaos. I can’t tell you how frustrated I was.

After the first lap things started to spread apart. At this point my head was a mess because I wasn’t feeling good and I had walked all the technical sections. Not good for my confidence. My legs eventually started to come around and I began to gain back the places I had lost. My last lap was almost as fast as the leaders and I was able to claw my way back to 17th place. Normally I would be disappointed with that kind of finish, but trying to find something positive out of the day I was psyched I passed about 25 women from the end of the first lap to the finish of the race.

We are flying home tomorrow and I get to sit down with my coach and figure out just what happened in Europe this time. It wasn’t good and things need to improve if I’m going to be competitive again. I’m looking forward to sleeping on the plane.

Until next time…

Alison