My first race of the season was the first round of the mountain bike national series...
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| Malta MTB National Series Round 1 Photo courtesy of Kevin Mifsud |
The course was fun and challenging with some slippery rocky single trail. The rain the previous day made it a little bit more exciting... really enjoyed this race. Thumbs up to the organisers :-)
Steve came all the way from England to hit two birds with one stone...I think he only hit one in the end!... Bird 1: to enjoy the sunshine (which turned out to be a wet and chilly weekend!) and bird 2: to support me and watch me race.
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| Steve helping the race organisers and watching Mark Bonnici crossing the line in 2nd place |
Result : 1st place
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The time trial race...1, 2, 3/4 laps?!
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| The 20km (27km!) TT (Photo courtesy of Edward Enriquez) |
All geared up for the time trial race I went to meet my club members of Agones sfc. The race was held on the coast road, same course of the first stage of the Tour ta' Malta. This was a good opportunity to get some practice and check my time trial fitness. I worked hard to keep a good pace, hard enough to deplete all my sugars from my brain and do an extra lap! Oh well, counting was part of the game, and I lost but gained an extra lap training!
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On the MTB again...
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| Malta MTB National Series Round 2 (Photo courtesy of Edward Enriquez) |
The days leading up to the second mtb race were tortuous due to some complicated mechanical problems. Edward of local bike shop Wheel Wizard came to the rescue and fixed my bike just in time for race day.
Since Ruben had approximately 1km of single trail to tape before everyone shows up we decided to camp next to the race venue under the stars. We joined the race organiser Warren and his friend Daniel for this venture and pitched our tents in a sheltered area under some olive trees. It was a great relaxing evening with the brief company of two strangers who brought us some yammi jam doughnuts...Thanks Liana and Mark. Next time remember... a phone call prior to your arrival please...would have saved me from the fright of two strangers approaching my tent!!! :-) Grrrr!
Since Ruben had approximately 1km of single trail to tape before everyone shows up we decided to camp next to the race venue under the stars. We joined the race organiser Warren and his friend Daniel for this venture and pitched our tents in a sheltered area under some olive trees. It was a great relaxing evening with the brief company of two strangers who brought us some yammi jam doughnuts...Thanks Liana and Mark. Next time remember... a phone call prior to your arrival please...would have saved me from the fright of two strangers approaching my tent!!! :-) Grrrr!
It was great to roll off my semi deflated mattress and right on the start line! The course was a single trail heaven, my RDR italia 29er once again performed well round the bends and on the rocky section.
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| Group hug with Caroline and Lizzy :-) Photo courtesy of Edward Enriquez) |
Result: Won the race with a comfortable lead.
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My first Road Race of the season...
I woke up to a lovely sunny day; 13 degrees with a mild breeze ...anyone living up the northern hemisphere jealous yet?! :-)
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| Agones Pedal Power team mates |
After a skype chat the night before the race with Steve we decided that the race would probably come to a sprint finish and there might be no point in trying to get away. They set us off with the masters and juniors. It was a bunch of approximately 25 cyclists of which 7 were female riders. There were no attacks. It was a smooth constant pace throughout the 45km. On the last lap there were 4 of us left in the bunch. We all moved up and sprinted to be first across the line.
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| The start of the Road Race organised by Mosta AF Sign Studio (Photo courtesy of Edward Enriquez) |
Result: Won the sprint :-)
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| Receiving a giant trophy from John Magri :-) |
Steph :-)
