Somewhere along the line, you have to discover what it means to fight for something. My race this past weekend at the Mont-Saint-Anne World Cup was just such an experience.

I snapped my chain on the first lap, forcing me to abandon my original strategy and create a whole new game plan to make this the work best it could… a valuable lesson in racing as much as in the bigger picture that is life.

As much as I’d like to dump all the blame on bad luck, it wouldn’t be fair. After some post-race evaluation it became clear to me that I had failed to prepare myself 100 per cent. I hadn’t ticked all the boxes and it came back to bite me. On a large scale, my preparation was close to perfect, but it wasn’t immaculate. Training-wise I had never been more confident in my form, but its those small details that often make the world of difference.

Never again will I start an important race without having accounted for all the possibilities of mechanicals and having 100 per cent back up in the tech zone. I am incredibly grateful to James (Reid) who took the chain off his own bike and got it to the tech zone before I arrived after a long run. Also for encouraging me to keep fighting. Even though I was in last place after the first lap, I had a bike that I could pedal, with the chain that had been pedaled to an amazing fifth place in the u/23 men’s race.

From then on, it became a mental game something I enjoy playing. I think it’s more the satisfaction that I get from seeing how close I can come to cracking a seemingly impossible challenge. The pressure of winning was lifted, but I wanted to see how close I could get, and I loved every minute of it!

I was surprised at my seventh place finish despite the drama. This result gives me a much needed confidence boost going into the World Cup round in Windham this weekend. It sounds clichéd, but I now know that if I fail to plan, I plan to faiI. I’m excited to give this race the bash Mont-Saint-Anne deserved. Sometimes it’s only a matter of time…

Thanks also to Line from Biosport for making sure my muscles were firing before the time, to James for that chain and to my sponsor BMC for allowing me to experience true racing pleasure on my TE01 steed.