Being an avid XC fan I thought it would be a good chance to give my legs a spin on an awesome trail. Although it was a technical “downhill” event I thought that my downhill bike would be a bit overkill so the bike of choice was my XC beast, the Orange Five!

The day started pretty early as we had to set up the Mojo demo area but when all the nice new shiny forks and shocks were put on display, I fuelled up with Clif Shots and headed up the trail with fellow Mojo employee Tom ‘T-bag’ Wheeler and his brother Rhys. We had a steady climb (not my choice Tom was in front!) to the first technical timed section and filled up on free biscuits and bananas. I followed T-bag off the start line of the Black run and pretty much hit a wall of wind which hurt, but we took it easy and looked for ‘cutty’ lines, I found two beauties so I headed back up the hill to set a quick time. Unfortunately, I punctured just over half way down and had to run over the finish line. As I wasn’t the only person sat at the finish with a puncture I didn’t let it get me down and decided to get straight back to the top and fix it before trying another run. Setting off on my third attempt of Black run, I got the majority of the way down and the finish line was in sight when BOOOOOOM I got another puncture. I decided to pedal to the finish as the run had felt really good!

Black Run Results:1stAimee Dix 03:25 2ndRachel Vicary 03:31 3rd Jess Stone 03:41

I decided that the black run wasn’t going to be my friend today so I rode to the next timed section, Windy Point. Despite a lot of rain, the trails were still in excellent condition and were super fast, and after blasting this section I caught up with a few slower male riders who didn’t want to move over for me which was quite frustrating –TRAIL ETIQUETTE GUYS!!

Windy Point Results: 1st Aimee Dix 4.19 2nd Jess Stone 4.19 3rd Rachel Vicary 04.25

The first two stages went pretty well and I was feeling confident even though I had suffered with punctures, so I was planning on giving it all on the final descent called Darkside, which was the longest of the three timed sections. Planning is the appropriate word, ‘cos after doing the hard work and climbing the first couple of metres I had a puncture again (yes, I had checked my wheel and tyre for thorns!). Having no tubes left I opted for a good old run in the country and sprinted the whole dark side descent, but my running skills weren’t up to standard and I lost a lot of time. Being extremely frustrated at my final timed section I rode back to the car park in horrendous rain with a sad face.

Darkside Results: 1st Rachel Vicary 06:14 2nd Jess Stone 06:15 3rd Caroline Brighton 07:13 LAST 14

I don’t know why I haven’t done this event before, it was a brilliant day out riding and instead of sitting in an uplift queue you were actually out riding! There were a lot of people here just happy to be out riding and having fun with their friends. Definitely the future of racing!!

Aimee

For more details on the event and full results go to: www.konamashup.co.uk