Nikki Harris

Snow Joke.....! (21st, December 2009)

Snow Joke!

The last few days have been very hectic here in Belgium with snow and racing. My dad arrived here last Wednesday, just in time to encounter the real Belgium experience of racing over here at Christmas time and just before all of this snow fell, lucky for him he had no troubles getting over here.

On Friday we travelled to Antwerp for the Scheldecross, there would be a world cup class field here and I was looking forward to racing. Usually this would be just a 40 minute drive away but with heavy snow fall the previous night this was going to end up being a much longer drive. We left just before 10am and ended up getting to the race just an hour 15 before the start, luckily my dad now has a campervan which is a great help in these conditions. It was a bit of a mad rush to the sign on then to get the bikes out and have a lap of the course.

The circuit was a little different to last year with 2 new run ups, one which had around 20 steps followed by a tricky sandy decent. The course was full of snow and with no race before ours; the course hadn’t been worn in so it was a bit of luck in which line to take. I liked the course and even though there was a little too much running for my liking it was going to make for a fun day.

Next thing after the course inspection was to get on the rollers and do my usual warm up, by the time I had finished it was a mad dash to the start. I say mad dash because whilst I was riding there I heard my name called out up to the starting grid (I was late) this meant when I arrived I quickly had to squeeze through everyone to a decent position on the line.

After one or 2 minutes the race started. The first section of road was completely full of slushy snow which having to sprint up off the start was difficult to do with your back wheel slidding from left to right, I managed to pass a few people on the next section until I got up to 6^th place. I felt really strong and passed Hanka which put me in 5^th position, over the next few laps there were sections which I felt good on but on the long sections of running I was loosing a lot of time maybe 20 seconds every lap and with some little mistakes on that one section with a lap to go 3 riders came passed and I was now in 8^th which is where I finished. It was a good race, and apart from the running skills, was a step in the right direction.

Saturday was spent trying to recover, some rollers, stretching and a trip to the car wash to wash my bike…..this didn’t go to plan. The first car wash was frozen, we found another one but as soon as water hit my bike it was freezing and turning to icicles, by the time we got back home my whole bike had froze, and I had to bring the bike inside on a rag to let it defrost! With more snow due Saturday night, we packed the camper ready to leave for Kalmthout world cup the following day.

We woke to very heavy snow on Sunday morning and……it was still falling, we left at 9 am, again this race would usually only be a 45 minutes to get to but it turned out to be 2 hours by the time we arrived. There was just one lane open on the motorway; I had never seen snow like this before!

I had 2 laps of the course around 11.30, the snow had stopped falling by this point and the u23 guys had just finished racing, there was a good line round the course but hardly any passing places, about a million corners and 4 lots of run ups every lap…it was going to be another fun race.

I went back to the camper, got changed and ready to do my race warm up, with the awning on the camper frozen in, I had my dad on hand with the umbrella, since I had been in the camper the weather had taken another turn for the worse and it was snowing very heavy again! By the time I had finished the warm up the snow had just started to cover rubber bands on my rollers!

I arrived on the start and was called up on the 3rd row, with around 50 starters today and 300m before you entered the first one line technical track in the woods I prepared myself for another hectic start. I wasn’t disappointed, by the first corner there were body’s and bikes everywhere, girls going from left to right in the snow. I tried not to panic and focused on just getting round the first section without any crashes, when I entered the pit for the first time I was in 9^th place. I felt good but toward the end of the second lap I crashed on a slippy corner (the snow was now tuning to rutty ice) three girls went passed and I lost confidence, from there on every corner I was terrible on and felt I couldn’t get all my power out as I was braking to much into the corners and making silly mistakes i spent the rest of the race just trying to stay up right. I finished in 12^th place. I was happy with the result but also a little frustrated as I felt I couldn’t get everything out.

5 days now till the next world cup in Zolder. There is a lot of snow here still and I think more is expected Wednesday. Maybe it will be a white Christmas here!

Happy Christmas, thank you for everyone’s support this weekend and especially to my dad for running round in -10 conditions.

Photos will be up on the gallery soon !

Nikki x