Back in April my race season kicked off with the first round of the British Enduro Series at the Golfie. I love riding at the Golfie.
I was pretty nervous as my winter had been spent mainly rehabing a knee issue, but it was really great to see a strong group of talented lassies racing and putting down some fab times! After a big day out and 5 stages I was a bit surprised and super happy to win!!
The following weekend I was back in the sunny tweed valley for Scottish Downhill at Innerleithen. Another cracking weekend and another top spot which again I was really happy with and felt a bit more confident knowing that i was holding my own as a first year junior.
The next few races had to be balanced with my exams at school but we made it work - sitting my maths exam in between track walk and practise at the IXS European Cup in Fort William 😆 Unfortunately I had a crash in my race run at IXS, hit my head and had some concussion symptoms.
In June I was excited to race the British Downhill at Glencoe’s infamous black track. This is when my season changed. During a practise lap, I took a heavy slam on one of the gnarly rock sections and had my first taste of entonox!! Thanks to the amazing crew I was safely stretchered off the hill and was off to hospital 🏥. Thankfully nothing was broken but I had a pretty massive haematoma on my hip.
More than the injury, I was upset because I was due to travel to La Thuile, Italy for my first Enduro World Cup experience. We decided as a family to still go (on crutches), have a holiday and experience the triple header World Cup.
Once I was there though I thought, I’ll just try a wee pedal and see how I go. Then I thought I’ll just try practise day and see if I could maybe possibly get round. Then I thought ach well maybe I’ll try and get round on race day - and I did! What an amazing experience!!!
Once back home it was National Champs for downhill and then enduro. I was still struggling with my hip but gave them my best shot and love all the time I spend between the tape.
In August I was back out to France for another 2 world cups. The first was the EDR in Morillon; two days practice and two days racing in scorching heat was something else 🥵 Super pleased to get a 3rd on stage 1 as well!! Then threw myself into my first DH World Cup in Les Gets - wow!!!! In hindsight, maybe that was a bit of a tough one for the first one but hey it’s all good fun.
Spent the next few weeks really working on my fitness and trying to sort out my hip which was now impacting on my nerve and causing back pain as I was super proud to have been selected for Team GB 🇬🇧 at enduro world champs in mid-October.
Champs was incredible; a great vibe and a huge 76km loop racing 6 stages. By stage 2 my back had seized and my goal became just to finish; and enjoy it all. Although the result wasn’t great, I learned so much and was really proud to get to the finish, still smiling 😊
My season is now finished and although it’s been full of ups and downs, I am so lucky to get to race my bikes with the best support and in some incredible places. ❤️🔥
Words: Katy McGowan