Never say never!

This time last year, Imogen was adamant that she would never ride cyclo cross  - twelve months and many muddy fields later she has won the South East & Eastern Regional Championship; was unbeaten in the Eastern League with 8 wins from 8 races and has finished 10th in the National Trophy series despite only riding 4 of the 6 counting races.

 

So, what prompted the change of heart? Maybe the fact that after 30 minutes of fun, sliding around on tree roots; negotiating off camber muddy banks; running over improbably high hurdles and wishing that someone would invent a cyclo cross brake that actually works, you get to hang out (is that what young people do these days?) with your friends, drink tea and eat home made cake. And the motivation for winning? If you don't win you have to buy the cake!

 

Imo's races have been largely uneventful - a couple of self inflicted crashes; one 'I've been taken out by a numpty on a mountain bike' resulting in a wrecked tubular and, a mechanical at the last National Trophy round which left Imo way off the back of the field. But it's been a good learning curve - the bike changeovers in the pits have been faultless, Imo has learnt that you can ride on punctured tubs although it feels awful and that a 2 or 3 minute loss on lap 1 can be turned into a tidy result if you keep focussed and keep racing.

 

With the postponed National Championships rounding off the season on 6th and 7th February and Imo's hard and lonely sessions on the turbe trainer begining to pay off it could be a great end to a very good first season!