DAY ONE

Day 1 

Hey!

Firstly I wanted to say a quick thank you for all of you’re amazing support, messages and lovely comments. The reaction has been totally overwhelming and it’s been really humbling to see how many of you love ‘cross as much as we do! 

Secondly Happy New Year, I hope you all enjoyed your holidays and are looking forward to a great 2018. Christmas is always such a busy time for us 'cross riders with so many races crammed into (your) holidays :-) - but this year has been even more intense with the launch of Mudiiita. The days I wasn’t racing weren’t the typical sofa days but days in the garage, building bikes and sorting kit and other bits and bobs. I think the racing was the easy part actually :). Come December 31st I had already done over a weeks worth of day on day off racing. New Year’s Eve was particularly busy, changing over equipment, logos, clothing etc in just a few hours ready for Baal was an achievement in itself. Big thanks to my trusty sidekick Matt for spending numerous hours between training to help me get everything ready for the first race in my new team colours.

I always look forward to racing Baal, it’s such a fun course. It’s heavy even when it’s dry, with the amount of rain we had in the days before the race I knew it would be a more than tough race. I rode my new Canyon Inflites for the first time just the day before the race and after a few tweaks here and there they felt super smooth and ready to race the following day.

After some last minute messing around and a cheeky glass of wine to celebrate everything we both achieved over the last 12 months I was tucked up in bed well before midnight with the earplugs in and ready to get stuck into the next days racing.

The race started well, no major dramas or last minute hiccups. I was riding right at the head of the race and heading into the final 100m with a possible podium place up for grabs. I was racing hard with Sanne Cant for 3rd spot, for everyone that knows Sanne she isn’t the easiest to outmanoeuvre or outfox but I gave it a good go. Coming into the final set of barriers I took control through the final technical section, the move threw me out wide in the corner and right into a deep rut. I stopped dead in my tracks and the podium was gone in the blink of an eye! 

It was a bit of a disappointing end to a great day but I was proud of how I’d raced and I also managed to secure some extra time holding my 2nd place overall in the DVV Trofee with just one round left in Lille. I was also really happy with how I was feeling physically after a really busy few weeks both on and off the bike! 

Now time for a quick trip south to my Girona home for some short R&R and a final chance to get stuck into a good block of work before the last big ramp to the World Champs in Valkenburg.

Thanks again for all your support.

See you all soon 

Nikki