Caroline Buchanan's Race Report - Olympic Test Event London

Aug 23, 2011

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 6397 times

The clock counts down with less than a year till the London 2012 Olympics! Last weekend round 3 of the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup series was held in London as part of the London Prepares Series. The London Prepares Series is the official London 2012 sports testing program which allows organising committees to test all aspects of an event one year ahead of the Games.

Leading into the event I had 2 weeks off my bike after my fall at BMX World Championships to try recover as much as possible. I also missed a special test session the week before on the Olympic track that many riders and some of my team mates attended. I was feeling confident but a little worried at the same time as to how my knee would pull up with racing.

It was an incredible feeling to be in the Olympic Village, the vibe, the track and the procedures. I was amazed with the amount of security to get into the village…sniffer dogs, passport accreditation checks, car bomb searches, metal detectors and multiple security checkpoints.

Our first practice session on the track was cancelled due to rain which meant I had to learn the track in about an hour on Friday before qualification time trials. Rachel Bracken had a bad fall in this practice session which put her out of racing. There was a new element added to the track which added a lot of excitement for the girls and the spectators, "the Oakley underground tunnel" which is on the 2nd straight where the landing of the double drops about 5 metres into the 14 metre long tunnel with a step up jump out of it into the 2nd corner. It was quite scary jumping in and out of the tunnel the 1st few times.

In the time trial superfinal I was on a good lap time until the last corner where my front wheel started to slide and I unclipped loosing a little speed. I ended up placing 6th, qualifying me in a good position for racing on Saturday.

Wind, rain, a long day, lots of drama, and new racing format of dropping two motos was adopted to make up time so racing could finish before it got dark The rain cleared and elimination rounds started straight into a quarter final for the girls where the top 4 progressed into the semi final. In my quarter final Shanaze Reade won and I crossed the line in 2nd progressing into the semi final.

In the semi final I got squeezed down the ramp and came up short on the first jump not progressing through into the final.

Shanaze Reade GRB won with Sarah Walker NZ 2nd and Lauren Reynolds AUS 3rd.

I didn't feel 100% myself this weekend so I am looking forward to going home, getting fully rehabbed and recovered and being ready the next world cup in America in 5 weeks time :)