Tash, Steph and Liz at Southern XC Mudfest!

It was the third round of the Southern XC Series today at Crow Hill, New Forest.

Heavy rain turned what is usually a fast and flowing course into a total mud fest.  There was thick mud, watery mud, sticky mud - all types of mud really!  It was really tough riding - very slippy and energy sapping.

The boys from Ride had designed the course.  They had done a great job.  Although I've ridden at Crow Hill many times before, they had managed to design the course so it had lots of great new bits from previous occasions but had kept the best of the feature from previously like the double bomb holes - rooty and off camber but rideable even in the mud if you get the right line.

Tash and Steph were brave enough to opt for Elite which was 4 laps (about 2hrs 30 in total) whereas I chickened out and decided to stick with the Vets race which was 3 laps - but, boy was I glad I had in view of the state the course.

Tash had a great ride and took 3rd place and was even smiling when she finished despite being badly in need of a bath!!

 Steph got a good 5th place although she said  the last lap was really awful.  She wasn't really in the mood for my photos at the end but I was mean and took one anyway!

As for my race, despite the mud, I really enjoyed it and won the Vets cat. The race was 1hr 50mins long.

It took me about 2hrs 30 to wash myself, my bike and my clothes afterwards! Mad? Maybe. But it comforts me to know I'm not the only one!!

My, probably mad, but lovely friends, looking considerably cleaner

About the Race

The Race is a mountain bike stage race in the 'Beskids' mountains in  Poland.  It takes place on 19 to 22 June.

Here is the website: http://www.mtbtrophy.com/.

We will be doing between 61km to 74km per day with climbing of between 2400 and 3000m per day.

There is quite a 'posse' of us going.  The girls include my good mountain bike buddies Natasha Barry, Iwona Syzmd, Stephania Magri and Emila Zielinska - we all met through racing in the UK and have had lots of great mountain bike adventures together.

Here we are (plus Emily) a few weekends ago when we got together at Natasha's for a couple of rides:

Epic Big Country Ride, Galloway Scotland, 18th April

It's now almost exactly 2 months to go until the Beskidy Stage Race, so feeling the need to get some serious miles in, I planned an epic 70 mile adventure in Galloway, Southern Scotland where we holidaying with the family.

I couldn't believe my luck when the day I had chosen turned out to be perfect blue skies and sunshine.

It was probably the most stunningly beautiful ride I have ever done.  Fantastic barren mountains, brilliant blue lochs, stunning waterfalls and wide open glacial plains going on and on and on....

We were based at Rusko farmhouse which is tucked up the the valley,  nestling in the hills above Gatehouse of  Fleet.  From there, there are two of the 7 Stanes  Trail Centres in reach - Kiroughtree and Glentrool.  I decided to plan my ride so that I could take in and ride both trail centres and cover lots of open country on fire road in between.  The great thing was that there is a sustrans waymarked route (route 7) that takes you from Rusko through the hills to Glentrool.  From Glentrool, there is a link route linking Kiroughtree to Glentrool so navigation was easy and I didn't have to keep stopping to get the map out.  I did, however keep having to stop to get my camera out because the scenery was so stunning that I didn't want to forget it.