Jess Stone'S BLOG
July 11th, 2011
UCI Mountain Bike World Cup #4 Mont Saint Anne, CAN and #5 Windham, NY
After missing out on Leogang World Cup through my injury, I was certainly hungry for some good racing. Fort William was a good race and I thoroughly enjoyed being back on a DH bike but I failed to qualify and ended up in 23rd place. I struggled to hold on after 4 weeks previous having a grade 3 separation of my shoulder at the South African World Cup (which my doctor said can take 8 weeks to heal and 18 months to be back to normalish). I decided to stay home, train and rest instead of racing #3 instead. My intentions at Mont Saint Anne and Windham were to go in and get good solid results from where I could then build on throughout the remainder of the season. My confidence had definitely taken a hit too, so getting solid results would be good for me. MSA is one of my favourite race tracks and was looking forward to riding here as I had not been here since 2009. Windham I wasn’t so keen on but I was sure to work hard none the less.
Mont Saint Anne
The first day of practice went good and I was really enjoying myself. It had rained and the track was pretty ruined so it was physically tough and I had to work pretty hard to get the lines right otherwise you ended up in a big bog and losing tons of speed.
Come qualifying morning I went to do my practice run only for it to be so ridiculously foggy – visibility was only 5 metres which was eerie on the chairlift not being able to see anything but the three wires above your head and then having to ride blind into stuff! Not ideal! I was pretty nervous for the race. I managed to come down in 14th place, but with the most horrendous race run I have done yet…! I totally underestimated how physical this track was in the weather conditions; it made the race more challenging and demanding than ever.
Practice went pretty good on race day and I was happy with the way I was riding. I was still on the brakes too much which was frustrating me. The race run went good and actually I didn’t make any big mistakes. I could have improved it but the way I was riding stuff I was happy with. I just needed to let go of the brakes. I finished in 13th place. I was frustrated but it was good solid points for the board.
Windham
Last year, i finished in 13th place, which was the best world cup finish I’ve achieved. After walking the track, some of the features was made a little easier and it looked much faster than it was last year. I was feeling confident I could do well here but there were a few things that daunted me a little.
Practice day went slowly, it took me a while to get into the flow of the track, it’s hard to explain but at first it’s a very weird track. After doing a run with Tracy Moseley and getting towed down the track, I soon discovered the secret to riding good here – pinned and flat out !!! It required precise riding and line choices. I started to enjoy myself from here on.
Qualifying went well. I was incredibly nervous at the start but I finished in 11th place and was half a second off 10th place and 5 seconds off 7th. I didn’t do the road gap in my qualification so I knew I had that in the bag as that was an easy 6 second gain. But again, I had problems with riding rigid and I was not happy with the way I was riding.
Race day slowly came round and I was in such a great mood. I couldn’t sleep the night before and could hardly eat a thing but I was so looking forward to riding.
The race run went well and for the first time since Vigo, I felt like I was back on form. I wasn’t afraid to let go of the brakes, and I really tried my best. There were a few areas where I could have done loads better, and looking back, I should really have focused more on that in training, but I was chuffed to finish in 11th place and be 1 second off that top 10 and only 11 seconds off Tracy Moseley.
So I finished the USA World Cup trip on a high with some good solid points on the board and more importantly – the confidence is coming back!
A BIG thank you goes out to: All the guys at TREK (Ray, Monkdawg, Sander, Eli) and FOX for being such amazing fun and for all the help with making sure my bike was in the best possible condition for racing. 23 degrees, Fionn Griffiths, Emi R, Katy Curd, Tracy Moseley and to anyone else who has helped out in any way over the two weeks. I really appreciate it x
April 7th, 2011
Pearce Cycles #1 – Hopton Castle
This was the first Pearce cycles round of the season and I always look forward to their events; the atmosphere is so cool, the races are always well organised and everyone gets along really well.
The first practice day went well; it was very dusty and ironic that the weekend before this race was in Spain and there was more rain there than there was in the UK! The track was running fast and I was enjoying every moment. I normally do about 6 runs but this time, I did 8 runs and pushed up lots too. I made sure I made the most of it. (That evening I also went for a rally drive; my friend had brought their rally car down as I wanted to have a go and I did my very first handbrake turn!!)
The next day the weather was strange; it rained hard for about 10 minutes and then we had 20 minutes of sun and it was like that for the whole day. The track got very beat up with big holes and huge ruts all the way down and was very challenging to ride.
My first race run was awful; I came off the track a few times and had no flow to my riding at all. I came down with a time of 2 minutes 56 and I was so disappointed. My second run was much better. I had relatively good focus for the majority of the race and tried to keep as smooth as possible. I made a couple of big errors which cost me time so I finished with a time of 2 minutes 44. It was an awesome weekend though and I really enjoyed myself. Massive thanks to Steve Carry and Family for looking after me this weekend.
Next Up: 9/10th April; British Downhill Series #2 – Moelfre, Wales
www.jessstone.com | www.twitter.com/jessstone
March 28th, 2011
I know when my alarm is set for 3:40am; I’m mostly going to be jetting off somewhere, usually somewhere nice! This was my first abroad trip of the 2011 season and I was so excited; I was looking forward to a change of scenery, riding in dust for a change and to get a decent dose of Vitamin D! My hotel was literally across the road from the beach and down the road from the track. The only thing was that I knew I wouldn’t get to spend much time at the beach – I had to do my Uni work while I was there! Gutted
The first day of practice went really well, the track was dusty and very fast; I had absolute awesome fun! It is a pretty rocky and rough track also, with some cool jumps, so after 5 runs I was pretty tired! They had made some changes to the track; the big north shore jumps had been taken out and a lot of smaller ones replaced them. Which were fun but I wanted bigger jumps to prepare for South Africa. However, this track required a lot of precision riding – precise line choices, which is similar to SA.
The next day of practice was great in the morning; my first two runs down were awesome. I had the lines dialled, now all I needed to do was let go and hang loose!! I had planned to do a couple of runs in the late afternoon – however – it rained really hard from 1.30pm onwards and didn’t stop until 4pm. Riders were coming down looking soaked and I heard it was going to be a nice day tomorrow. So I decided not to ride, to stop the course getting beat up and there was no point riding in the wet if it was going to be dry tomorrow.
The next morning I woke up only to see that it had rained all through the night and continued through until 9am. So my first practice run was pretty wild but was amazing fun! I only had time for one practice run and then I shortly went up for my qualifying run. The run itself was not the best, there were many sections I wasn’t happy with and I lost a lot time. I qualified in 3rd place with Myriam Nicole 1st and Manon Carpenter 2nd.
I went up a little earlier for my second run and had a look at a couple of lines at the very top where I lost a bit of time.
The race run went well, was smooth and I was happy with it. It was by no means a perfect run and there are areas I intend to work on this year. I finished in 1st place, with over a 3 second lead ahead of Myriam Nicole 2nd (who got 5 UCI World Cup podiums in 2010 and a 6th place at the UCI World Championships in 2010, and she didn’t crash in her race run!) and Manon Carpenter 3rd.
I was really happy with how I was riding and I felt strong on the bike. I am now looking forward to the next couple of weeks racing; next weekend Pearce Cycles Series #1 at Hopton and British Downhill Series #2 at Moelfre before I head off to South Africa for two weeks where I’ll be racing the SA National Series race and for the start of the UCI World Cup tour.
I would like to thank Trek Spain, 23 Degrees and Trek World Racing for looking after me this weekend.
February 21st, 2011
It has been an awesome week and one that has been packed full to the rafters!! Much of the start of the week started with some hard, tough training and diets in preparation for the BUCS University Championships during the weekend. I came away from the last training session of the week feeling absolutely shattered but hungry to retain my University U64Kg Championship title. The 2010 Championship was my first ever bout and I cannot begin to describe how terrified I was!! This year was no different; I was still scared/nervous but was confident that I could defend my title.
The finals contest was on the Thursday instead of the original day on the Sunday due to the reduced numbers in competitors. It was earlier than I had anticipated but it was good to get it out the way so I could play bikes at the weekend! We weighed in at 11am, I weighed in at 62.4kg and my competitor was over so she had to skip that off while I was chilling out!! We had our contest at 6:30pm so a good 7hrs later we god underway! The girl I was against was from Bradford University and she blatantly knew what she was doing, so it was a hard contest. It was of a better standard this year compared to the previous year, and it by far more technical. We both had similar styles so a lot of the match was a waiting game. After 3 rounds of 2 minutes, I won and became the 2011 U64kg Novice Boxing Champion for the 2nd time (not kick boxing!!). Just glad it’s over and done!
It took me a good couple of days to get my energy back, I think the amount of adrenaline and nerves for the contest took it out of me! I was really looking forward to the Mini DH race at FoD, and was looking forward to getting a clean sweep of wins! The track was good fun and more technical than in Jan. I really enjoyed the track and the racing, being on my bike is the best feeling in the world! My first race runs was ok until the bottom section – i came over a jump and as I landed my front wheel washed out so came down with a time of 1min31. Not ideal considering the FTD was 1:10… Fortunately I stayed on for the second run and came down with a time of 1:19. I was happy with the time but knew there was more in me and with a bit more focus could have got a 1:16 or 17..!
A big thank you goes out to Chris Roberts @nakedracing for organising the 661 Mini Downhill Series. I really enjoyed it and it was very well organised.
www.twitter.com/jessstone
February 10th, 2011
I did the Mini DH race organised by Chris Roberts (nakedracing) back in December and really enjoyed it. I find the Mini DH races quite challenging as they are only 1 minute long and finding places to make time up is tough. It’s all good practice however! It’s nice to see a rippers category and this sort of racing is what brings the fresh talents into the sport, gives the kids something to aspire to.I had spent much of the weekend pushing up at Hopton and doing some riding there having tons of fun. I was pretty tired come Sunday for the Jan Mini DH race but I was looking forward to it. The race day was great fun, the track was on corkscrew which the top section was very flat with some jumps before going flat out at the bottom section into the finish. The track was under 1 minute long and was very fast. I finished in 1st again 3 seconds ahead of Katy Curd in 2nd and Emma Wareham in 3rd.
The last few weeks I’ve spent a bit of time on my new road bike which Trek kindly provided for me – with custom Green for my Gravity Girls team colours! Put in some hours on the Madone 5.2! What a lushous bike!
I also been down to Hereford BMX track a few times!!
(apologies about the picture quality! Snapshot from a headcam!)