Regional BMX Champs February 1, 2010

The great thing about this time of year is that there are so many events to choose from. Unfortunately, sometimes there are clashes and last weekend was one of those weekends, with the Otago Peninsula Challenge, the Timaru X-Scenic MTB race, and the third round of the Mainland South Regional BMX Champs all on.

After a bit of indecisiveness, I decided that one XC race was enough for me this month, and I may as well make use of the BMX race license I bought. So we loaded up the car on Saturday morning and headed to Alexandra for the BMX Champs.

Only two days prior, I had my first crash on BMX on the Dunedin track – I screwed up the landing off a step-up into the face of the next roller during the first race of the evening. I ended up bruising and grazing my right side, with a bit of a bump to the head, and doing a bit of damage to my rear brake. I rode the rest of the races that evening but took it considerably quieter!

Since we were in Alex a day earlier, I decided to check out the track before Sunday’s race. I’d never ridden my BMX on tracks other than the Dunedin one, so the Alex one was pretty daunting at first – a steeper start gate, and lots and lots of rollers and step-ups – a little bit frightening given my new-found aversion to them. I spent about an hour out there rolling around the track, trying to get the body used to moving around on the bike, which had to move quite precisely over the terrain. By the end of the hour, my legs were getting quite tired from the constant bending (something I’m not used to doing so much) so I called it a day.

Sunday morning rolled around, and true to Alex form, it was going to be a hot day. My choice of predominantly black race kit turns out to be not particularly practical when it’s super-hot outside! Ah well. I registered and picked up the programme, then went and sat in the shade for a while. I took a look at the programme and found that my grade (17-29 girls) had been amalgamated, so I was racing in the 15 years + mixed category – 6 guys, and me.

Similar to club nights, there were five motos for each grade. Before we’d even hit the first tabletop in my first moto, I was already trailing behind. From that point, I decided to treat the day as a good skills/practice session, working on my technique and body position on the bike instead of speed. And without the pressure of competition as such (since I was the slowest rider in the group), I was having fun getting a feel for how my bike rode on the track. I also learnt how to start from a steeper gate than the one on my home track (turns out it’s slightly easier to balance on a steeper slope.. go figure), and how to use my arms and legs more.

Me on the far left

On the first tabletop

In the end, I came 7th out of 7 riders, but the position wasn’t something I cared too much about.  It was a great learning experience and it was good seeing how the other Dunedin riders stacked up against the others in the region – pretty quick it turns out! I’m looking forward to heading back to my local BMX track this evening to practice the skills I picked up this weekend. Hopefully, by the end of the month, I will have gained a bit more speed and skill for the South Island BMX titles.