BMX Racing Begins! October 22, 2009

Tonight was the first proper night of BMX racing at the Dunedin BMX club, and I have to say I’m beginning to quite enjoy this 20″ high-intensity sprinty madness!

I’ll admit I spent some time in front of our brick wall at home during the week practising clipping in and standing up with the front wheel perpindicular to and against the wall – I must’ve looked a bit strange to the neighbours who could look over the fence! After a wee bit of practise however, I was feeling more confident that I could clip both feet in at the start gate and not fall over sideways.

The weather wasn’t as nice today with patches of rain and sun, along with a chilly breeze, but there was still quite a good turnout at the BMX track come 6pm. I went and enquired about signing up and was pleasantly surprised that I get to try the first three club nights for free! Woohoo!

After a few practises at the gate (success! I think I’ve almost mastered it!) and a few times around the track, it was time for the racing to begin. There were five motos (apparently that’s the right word!) tonight, with 8 people called up for each grade. With each moto, the top two moved up to a higher grade and the bottom two moved down to a lower grade (at least, that’s what I think was going on! – there’s a lot to learn eh).

As a newbie, I started off in the lowest grade (D I think) for the first moto and came third (not surprisingly, Justin Leov kicked my arse..). The next two were more successful, with a first in the second one (and got moved up to C grade), and first in the third one also (and got moved up to B). I stayed in B grade for the final two, where I came 6th (I think) both times.

Leading D grade in the second moto

Woohoo! In first place! (yes, really I was. Although with no-one else in the photo, it’s hard to tell..)

So all in all, it was a pretty good night! I really enjoyed myself and it’s looking very likely that I’ll keep this up for the season. My weeks are looking busy now with the weekly womens ride on Monday nights, Mountainbiking Otago club nights on Tuesday nights, and BMX club nights on Thursday nights. Add in two gym sessions (knee rehab stuff) and my spare time during the weekdays are pretty limited. Thank goodness things are a bit quieter at work now so I have more time to spend out on the bikes!