Jess Stone reports from pearce Cycles Round 1....

 

"I had decided that I was going to be missing out on the World Cup Round 1 in South Africa due to University commitments. A tough call to make, however, being my final year at University, the work load is huge and with having to juggle the demands of both racing to a high standard whilst completing my coursework on time also to a high standard is certainly a challenge and takes a great deal of time management organisation! Instead, I opted to race the Pearce Cycles Series Round 1 at Bringewood, Ludlow. The Pearce Cycles rounds are very local to me and are a series in which I most look forward to out of all the races I compete in. The atmosphere and organisation of the race and uplifting is just phenomenal; furthermore, the tracks (developed by Pearce Cycles themselves) are incredibly fun and addictive...

 Saturday’s practice went amazingly; I had so much fun it was unreal. It had taken me a while to get into the course; the course was fast and it all looked the same! I was so excited to be riding I blitzed out 11 runs and even when the uplift stopped I really wanted to keep going. I was very interested to see how different the new session was in comparison to last year’s bike on a course that I was familiar with. The 9.9 is much more responsive and the acceleration out of the corners is impressive...!

Even after the 11 runs during practice on the Saturday I did not feel tired at all, and on race day, I still felt pretty fresh. It had rained slightly over night and it was still showering, which made the course a little slick for practice, however by race runs the course had dried out and the sun had graced us with is presence.

My first race run was pretty good, it was certainly smooth, however I didn’t pedal as much as I should have! I came down with a time of 2mins 32 seconds, 11 seconds ahead of the next Elite woman in 2^nd place.

I was absolutely determined for the second run I could make up a good few seconds and get well under 2min30s. The second run didn’t quite start off as intended – with a snapped chain which got jammed in my chain device off the start, I knew I would have to work hard! Being unable to pedal, I pumped off everything and tried to carry as much speed as possible. I was riding so well, until the chain came loose and flipped me over the bars half way down. I pulled the chain off and carried on, still riding really well. I crossed the line and was only 10 seconds off my first race run with a time of 2min42.

The race runs count on your best time of the two runs, so I won the Elite Women’s Category by 4 seconds.

Great start to the season."

 

We're all psyched on Jess's new team and wish her all the best for 2012...