Update from Denmark - Sarah
12 May 2008
This morning, we headed out to the track to check out the track and its condition. It was better than yesterday with some parts of the track changed and the some of the soft stuff managed to be fixed up.
The guys practice and time trials were run between 9am and 1pm before the girls got on the track for 1/2 an hour at 1.40pm. Racing started not long after that and it was all run through pretty quickly once it was underway.
First moto, I had first pick of lanes so I went right to the inside (lane 1). The fastest French chick had lane 2, then the others weren't really much to worry about. I got a pretty good gate and so did the French girl. She had her nose just in front which was enough to come over on me and considering it was the first of three moto's, I wanted to just be safe and know that I would make it through to the next round, so I sat behind her in second for the lap.
Second race lane choice went off the order you finished off in the first race so I had second pick. The French chick took lane 1 and I took lane 2. This time, I got a better gate and got in front to control the race from start to finish.
Third race, it was reverse lanes again and same thing happened again. It was ok though because we had already made it through no matter what but the time would depend on lane choice for the semi final. I ended up 2nd again and 4th fastest time for the semi.
For the semi, I had 4th pick which ended up being lane 4. I got out ok but was outside in the first corner and got pushed wide towards the guys section. I had to slam on my breaks and roll through a section which put me back to 5th (only top 4 make the final). I managed to catch up to the girl in 4th and get by her down the last straight but it was a nail biter till then.
Because of my semi not being so great, I got 6th pick for the final which ended up giving me lane 6. I got a pretty good gate and was sitting in about 2nd down the first straight but because lane 1-5 had a shorter distance to go around the first corner, I only managed to come out 4th. I held this position to the finish.
I was happy with my result and more importantly, my performance. I wasn't feeling 100% today and I still managed to ride really well and I didn't have to rely on an outside lane to stay out of trouble on the gate. My gates were consistently good and it was actually the first supercross I haven't been shut out by girls either side of me getting better gates.
I have taken a few things away from this weekend that I can work on and hopefully become an even better BMXer for the next race.
Off to Phoenix on Monday to train before heading to the World Champs in China at the end of the month.
Thanks,
Sarah
Back
