Adelaide Supercross - Sarah
22 April 2008
I raced the Adelaide Supercross on the 13th of April. There are only two Supercross events before the Olympics (which is also a Supercross), so they are fairly important races. Nearly all the girls who are going to the Olympics came down from the Northern Hemisphere to race at the Adelaide Show Grounds. It was the first, and probably the only indoor Supercross held.
Practice (Friday) was going really well until I attempted a jump that no one else had yet done. The track wasn't perfected yet and I hit a bump wrong and went sideways in the air, so I fell off after trying to land. I got a few scrapes and bruises from that but got back up and carried on with the practice after a short break. Then came the start hill. A supercross start hill is 8m high, and at the bottom of the hill is a 10m jump with no middle (so it's pretty scary). I have a thing where I really don't like walking up all the stairs to roll down a hill with my brakes on so when I was one of the first girls up the top, all the girls kept back to watch me (the first girl) do the first jump. I did it pretty easily and had a huge cheer from the crowd but missed the brakes and went over the back of my bike on the second, landing flat on my bum. It was pretty funny but it also hurt a lot. These crashes took a little toll on the rest of the practice but I pushed through with the help of some massage and pain killers.
Time trials were on Saturday and things went pretty well. I didn't get the best laps possible but managed to post the third fastest time.
Sunday was racing and in the first moto, I got squeezed out of the gate. This meant I didn't have enough speed for the first jump, but because of the run up you have from 8m high, I had too much speed to roll through a jump with no middle. So as I was rolling down the start hill, there was only one thing that was going through my head and that was that this crash was going to hurt. I took off the front of the jump and clipped out of my pedals as soon as I could. I then through my bike downwards and carried on towards the wrong side of the landing with my feet and arms leading me. I didn't think I would walk away from it but I managed to land right and come out unscathed. No one (including me) could really believe it.
Second race, I got squeezed again but made sure I didn't make the same mistake twice and got enough speed down the ramp to jump the first jump (pretty high). But because I jumped it, I was still up there with the other girls and managed to get into 3rd by the first corner and passing into second by the finish.
In the last race, I chose the most outside lane to make sure I wouldn't get squeezed again. I knew I had the track sorted, it was just the gate that was kind of letting me down. So with no one to shut me out, I came round the outside to slot into the top 3 out of the first corner. Once there, I made my way to the front, winning the last race before the final.
Finals came around real fast and I went for the most outside lane again. Got an average gate but was sitting about 4th around the first corner. Down the second straight, I passed two girls to come into 2nd and down the 3rd straight I managed to catch up to the girl in 1st. Around the last corner, I took a good line and took over first place and crossed the finish line.
It was an awesome feeling and I feel more confident of how everything is going.
I look forward to the next Supercross (Denmark - 2nd weekend of May) and hope that I can learn as much from that as what I have from this one.
Thanks,
Sarah
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