RedBull FoxHunt

It's been a quieter and more relaxing couple of months since The Cycle Show ended, but suddenly some filming was upon me. The Red Bull FoxHunt was too good an opportunity for us to miss and it sounded right up my street!

Mongoose rushed through the delivery of my new Slayton trail bike, Hope sent some custom coloured parts, Continental set me up with some ideal tyres and Oakley hooked up my 2013 googles and suddenly most of my year's sponsorship was with me in the space of a week! I panicked. How to set up my new bike?! Well, when I got home after watching Twilight 3 with Rebecca (Bella should have picked Jacob, but then again he could do sooo much better) The Elves* had been in and my bike was pretty much set and ready to go!! Magic!

I set my alarm for 3 am Sat morning and flew to Belfast. I hate flying, but as I was working I had to stay off the wine and the valium. On such a short flight the upness and downess of the plane is sickening. I heard my cousin's words of wisdom in my head "It has to go down, or else it'd stay up, then what'd you do? Stay in the sky forever?!" She's clever my cousin. It helped.

I remembered how much I love the TV crew as soon as I arrived, bear hugs, hair ruffling and instant belly laughing, it's really the dream team!

By @Adamheayberd

First up was my interview with MTB heart-throb Gee The Fox Atherton, who is even more lovely in real life. Foxes aren't quite as impressive as warewolves, or vampires for that matter, but if Gee had supernatural powers he'd be right up there in the human/creature sexiest Top 10.
OK I stumbled over my words a couple of times, but I swear to god it wasn't because the camera man was making suggestive eye-contact over Gee's shoulder at me when I was trying so hard to act cool, I just forgot my questions a bit as there were loads of them!

My slayton got put straight to use after that cycling around Belfast City. (The new titanic centre has had over 500,000 visitors since it opened in April!) It was a long but fun day, ruined only by staying in Faulty fucking Towers. Yes, I'll name and shame. The Lansdowne Court was so bad I demanded a taxi and new hotel at 11pm. (Bear in mind, I live in a basement with no heating, no hot water and woodlice for company, I am NOT a diva....imagine how bad it was!)

So feeling pretty tired it was Race Day Sunday...and it was Ace of Spades. It's going to be a really cool feature so I won't give too much away, other than that it was a mudfest. A few things to note:
- Gee started mid field, so I don't really understand why it was called a Foxhunt where the game was to try and not get caught by the Fox. The Fox didn't catch me, nor did I finish ahead...?!...However EVERYONE bloody loved it, and I'm not a stickler for rules, so I'm gonna let it go (ish) and just love the fact that I raced, en-masse, down a super greasy, muddy hill in Northern Ireland. Happy days.

By @Adamheayberd

Also, I was cold at the end but we had more filming to do. Then, as we were scrambling up a hill in the undergrowth the guy ahead of me kicked a wasps nest!!! I freaked the fuck out, squealed and ran back down the hill, tripping on a bramble and tumbling over. Convinced the wasps had swarmed and followed me I threw my hands over my head and waited. They hadn't. This wasn't caught on camera and not only that, No-one believed me as they hadn't seen the wasps. But here's the evidence: I warmed right up. If there hadn't been a wasps nest how would I have had such an adrenaline spike to make me really warm? Huh? Yeah....Exactly.




*Elves = Amazing Big Brother

Learning BMX, week 5

Getting Air....take 2

After thinking I got a little bit of air out the miniramp at corby I went to Bay66 and realised I was still terrified and not really doing it right. I've got to a nice point in the skatepark now where some people know who I am and are friendly and encouraging and understand what I'm trying to do and give tips and advice. I was still struggling and got frustrated.

Mongoose fixed me up a little meeting with my new teamie, James Ivett. I was a bit like "woah, I'm gonna have to ride in front of a proper rider" But when he turned up with a big grin and even bigger high-5 I was chilled. James is very cool, fun and funny and took me away from the little quarter to the big section of the bowl "yeah, its scarier, but it's easier" He gave me some tips, and, keen to reward my new tutor I tried to absorb what he said and put it into action. When I head little "yay"'s coming from the boys on either side of the bowl I knew I was getting it. I grinned whilst I was riding. Here's what he said:

- don't jump with both wheels at the same time, it's like a vertical bunny hop, front then back
- don't jump too early, wait to feel the bump of the coping with your front wheel and bounce off it
- don't jump too late or you'll travel forward onto the deck and that's when bad things happen
- Muscle memory will eventually kick in so you won't have to think of these things in the future

Here's what I thought of myself:

- if I did it about twice in a row I would suddenly remember what I was doing, panic and put my foot down the next time
- I looked at the coping to make sure my front wheel went over it, and as soon as it did, turned my head back down looking at the ramp. That meant I didn't see how high (or in my case not high) I went. This is weird, it's good because you don't get to be scared but it's strange because you don't feel that you go in the air so you have to rely on people telling you.
- Once I'd had a few good and bad go's I didn't want anyone giving me more advice, I just wanted to be left alone to practice

Little metal bar....I hate you!

I've got this brand new, LUSSSSSHHHHH BMX from Mongoose.
I ride bikes, but I'm not super into them really, as in, as items. I've had an old BMX for ages, but I rarely get it out and for something so small I found it heavy and cumbersome. So when the new one arrived I wasn't sure what it would be like, I couldn't see how something with no gears, no suspension and minimal other variables could feel much different. But it so badly did!!! It felt amazing, it was like, responsive and happy and free.

I was itching to go and went to the skatepark with some guys a couple of times. Even though the bike felt right, something was wrong. Normally when I'm on a bike I'm super playful, confident and don't stop moving, but at the skateparks I was not my normal self, I was shy and needed constant reassurance from my mates. If you have never been to a skatepark, let me explain. They are the most intimidating places In.The.World. Only one person can ride at a time and so everyone who isn't riding is stood around watching and waiting for you to finish so that they can go. Combine an automatic stage with being a beginner and then with being the only girl in the place, it's a recipe for self-conscious overload. I was riding stiffly and way below what I knew I should be capable of.

So, when a friend Juliet invited me to Corby for a session I jumped at the chance. She's a relative beginner too, but competent and keen. Arriving with her and watching her just plough on in and get stuck in gave me sooo much confidence. When a few more girls arrived later I couldn't have been more stoked, I felt I deserved to be there, I wanted to learn, I was inspired and the Old-Anna came back. I rode solidly for 4 hours, I took loads of tumbles, but I could feel myself learning and came up smiling every time.

What did I want to learn? I had a long list that I'd discussed on the train, I wanted to do the rhythm section, the spine, and ultimately....air out of a quarter.
The Rhythm Section
I rode it several times, yeah, I cased every single jump, but fuck it, I rode it and was in control, just need to get a bit better.
The Spine
I had a massive crash on a spine about a year ago, it resulted in me landing on my coccyx, losing my vision for 2 minutes and being terrified, and going to hospital in an ambulance to have my back checked out. I have a big fear of spines, and to be fair, lots of people do, they're very scarey. But I looked at this one and had a stern word inside my head, it's something I know how to do, I went through the motions and told myself to go for it. I crashed a few times, mostly half on purpose as I was too scared to commit and then...I did it!!! and then I did it again and a couple of times more. And it felt so cool. I don't feel like I "own it" yet, but, I will do.
Airing

If you can't air out of stuff in a skatepark you're screwed as you're trapped below the build of it, you can't get speed to link stuff together, you can't do tricks, it's fundamental. I've talked about it a lot, and had a good long chat with Juliet about it too. It was good being with someone who is capable of the thing, but new enough to remember what it felt like to not be able to so it. She could really break it down for me, she watched me, I watched her and then in the end there was nothing else to do but practice. I slowed myself down, took control of my speed and my timing, I could feel the technique coming. So, a few times I looked right at that coping and heard Juliet in my head saying "just go with it" I let my front wheel feel the tiny bump of the metal bar and turned my bike in the air back into the transition. I can't have ever been more than an inch over, and I never felt like "wow, that was a lovely, smooth feeling" I felt awkward, but the barrier is broken and I can't wait to keep going back and trying to get a bit bigger and then a bit bigger again.


So, I had the best day ever, I was broken and battered on the train home but happy as Larry. I feel like it's OK to be in the skatepark now, I wanna spend all the grotty winter days riding my BMX. I think this will give me such good base skills that when it's Summer again it will put me in good stead for bike handling on my MTB. I'm actually really excited about the coming Winter months.....