BMX World Champs - Sarah
3 June 2008
Came away with third today but personally would have liked a couple of places better.
There were only 10 girls entered for cruiser this year but not a lack of competition. I had the "easier" moto and won all three moto's easily and qualifying for the final with the fastest time.
By the time the final came around, my legs were starting to feel the negative effects of training and racing from the 2 days before. This was pretty much the only thing that stopped me from winning the final as I had nothing out of the start but had the same or better track speed. I came out of the start slow and got shut off straight away but I tried to hang in down the inside line of the track but the girl next to me knew I was there so moved over even more and that was enough to stop me from coming through. Luckily, because I had the inside, I got into the first corner in front of most of the other girls in third where I stayed for the entire lap.
Was happy that I got another podium spot but I knew I had it in me to win. I just wasn't the best for that lap. I have learnt a little bit more from what happened and will now work on making the right changes so it doesn't happen again.
Thanks for all your support this season so far.
Back in NZ for at least a month now where I will be getting in some training and PR work done before the final leg of my Beijing experience.
Thanks again,
Sarah
Report fromt he previous day:
Finished day 1 of racing ending up third in the Elite Women Class.
In my motos, I drew the current World Champion (Shenaze Reade) so I had some good competition from the first race right through to the final. In the first race, I got the best gate but Shenaze powered down the first straight into first with me following in second. I got the second straight pretty smooth and gained a bit of ground then into the third straight (most technical), but she breaked in front of me so I had to break too. Ended up coming in second.
In the second race, I was in second again to the first corner but Shenaze didn’t get the second straight smooth and I jumped passed her into first. Got the third straight smooth and gained a few bikes on the girls behind me, winning pretty easily.
The final moto, I got another good gate and was second from about the 5th pedal to the finish but posted the second fastest time for the quarter final which meant I got good lane choice.
My quarter final didn’t have any harder people than my moto so it was easy sailing through to the semi final in second.
I had third pick of lanes for the semi. Had the harder semi of the two with 6 of us with a top 8 result from last year’s Worlds in Canada.. Got a good gate but Shenaze pushed me out wide in the first corner so I came out in third behind Anne-Carro (top French rider) where I held my spot. Almost lost it down the third straight where I mucked up a bit but no one came past and I still managed to be the fourth fastest time for the final.
I got the best gate out of everyone in the final out of lane 4 but went elbow to elbow with Anne-Carro down the first straight which, unfortunately, caused me to have to pump the whole first straight (which isn’t exactly the fastest way). I was still up in about third or fourth to the first corner but got pushed wide and came out in fifth and not much speed. Pumped most of the second straight on top of the first but didn’t lose too much ground. Down the third straight, I went in with heaps of speed but the two girls just in front of me came down and I had to swerve around them, trying to miss their bodies and their bikes. I succeeded in missing the bodies but ran completely over the middle of one of the girls wheels and I thought I was going to fall off but leant over the back of my bike a bit and held on tight and came out still on my bike. While I was running over one of the bikes, Samantha Cools (my coach’s sister) got around the girls on the other side and went into third. It was down to the last straight and I got a good run around the last corner and came up next to Samantha and managed to just get past her for third place.
I was happy with my gates and my result and I know a few more things to train on for the Olympics.
Just heading off to bed now as I have cruiser tomorrow. Only have 9 girls in Cruiser this year so it should be pretty easy to make the final as I only have to beat one person to make it through. Pretty confident for tomorrow and will hopefully send through another good email.
Thanks,
Sarah
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