OK, so perhaps it’s not officially the first race of the season, but in my mind it’s from now on that they really counts. The TORQ riders will have noticed that I have added a little injection of speed into their training over the past week or so. And there’s no better way of achieving this than by getting them to race. Usually the first few races of the season are regrettable experiences due to lack of form and speed, but Theresa Jordan didn’t do too badly with a 2nd place at the London Cross League at the weekend. I asked Theresa for a brief account of her conquest, so she obligingly wrote a few paragraphs for us.

“Here we go again! It seemed like only yesterday since I’d last raced at Eastway. Funny then, that winter training seems to have gone on forever too?

Predictably the wind blew, but we were blessed with sunshine (not quite the tropical type though). I wasn’t to expect too much from my first race of the season, but if you didn’t care you wouldn’t race, so of course it was important to me. Organisational reminders to sign on early and get a practice lap in were highlighted and ignored and I only left time for half a practice lap. Alas, one of the lessons re-learnt every year!

After the initial feeling of ‘I can’t keep this up for an hour’ (Ed. In true Carry-on style ‘ooohh Matron’), I settled into my pace not far behind Chloe Henderson – for the first 3 laps anyway. The following laps demonstrated who had a cross bike and a full cross season in their legs. I wasn’t disappointed with 2nd though and am now fired up and looking forward to the races I am really focusing on”.

Photo from London Cross League web site.

Written by Theresa Jordan/Matt Hart. TORQ 2002