The Scottish Champs.

Glencoe........

What more can I say, this track is HARD. Hrd in the dry and near on impossible in the wet. The weekend of the Champs...we had it all, glorious sunshine, heat and no midges on the saturday and full bown torrential rain on the sabbeth.

Personally, I don't think it is a nice track to ride full stop and certainly not a track I like going against the clock on. But it was the venue for the weekend and the course was the same for every single rider.....there was certainly plenty on track to sperate the men from the boys! Check out these nasty crashes. Pics taken from Ian Linton.com.

I was pretty excited about the Champs none the less, after winning the title for the past few years I wasn't really up for letting it go without a fight. There are some really good up and coming young riders in Scotland at the moment and the SCU have an excellent development programme for them which is just wicked. I only wish I had that when I was younger.

I stopped to see the riders and give them some nutritional products to aid recovery on the Wednesday before the race as they were on a training camp in the village. I spoke to one of the devo girls who said tongue in cheek that at the weekend I was 'going down'. Up until that point, I was fairly nonchalant about the weekend, but she did me a massive favour and fuelled my jets!

Practice on Saturday was top trump, I hit my lines, shook some monkeys off my back from last year and left the track in the afternoon knowing I could do okay.

By Sunday, I have to admit to being a little fearful, the rain morphed the course into a giant swamp which could take anyone out at any moment. The lines had changed and the traction in some areas was almost zero. I stuck with my tyre choice of swamp things and lifted my head up.

My old teamie Neil sorted my head out as usual and said one sentance that got me focused just before I hopped on the chairlift. I knew that as the rain was falling hard our first run would be the run that counted....track conditions were just getting worse.

I did what I had to do......got a steady one in the bag, rode safe with a number of mistakes, it was by no means super fast or smooth, but it got me the win.

2009 Scottish Womens Champ......and the trophy is home to roost for another year. Thanks to all at the SDA for organising a terrific event and getting some extra curricular activities on the go to keep everyone out of trouble after practice!

Job done.

J.x