UPLIFTS AND DOWNHILLS - KATEY CURD'S 2008 SEASON REPORT
2008 - What a season, second year riding downhill, first year in elite. For me, this year’s been more of a learning curve rather than a year of results. I’ve definitely had my ups and downs but overall I’ve had fun and brought in some fairly good results along the way.
I began having a pretty bad start to the year, as I just couldn’t seem to stay on the bike when it came down to it. The first two rounds of the NPS both saw me washing out within sight of the finish line which was gutting, so I ended up with a 5th and 3rd place to start off the season. My luck seemed to change though for the third round at Fort William. I was stoked with my result at Fort William as I took the win, which was my first national win in the Elite category. For the last two rounds I was able to keep it together and finished with a 2nd and 3rd place, leaving me 2nd in the overall National Points Series.
This year I also raced in the European rounds of the World Cups. The first round was at Maribor, Slovenia and it was the first World Cup I had raced at so I was pretty nervous to say the least! I was getting along with the track fairly well but ended up crashing pretty hard on the morning of the race. Despite this I managed to qualify 14th and finished 13th in the final, which I was pretty happy with for my first World Cup. My aim for the next rounds of the World Cup were to make it into the top ten, but this never happened as I crashed out at both the next two rounds, finishing a disappointing 21st and 17th. For the last round I was feeling pretty confident and I was loving the track, but I crashed out during practice, which landed me in a cast for the rest of the week.
On top of racing downhill I tried my luck at a few 4X races. I only managed to enter the National Championships and rounds 2, 6 and 7 of the National Points Series. The National Champs along with round 2 of the NPS were held at Bridgenorth, which was a short but fun track and I managed to finish in 2nd place at both races. Rounds 6 and 7 were held at Blandford, which turned out to be a pretty wet and muddy weekend but despite the weather I ended up 1st and 2nd, which left me 3rd in the overall series.
Racing this year has given me a lot of well-needed experience which will hopefully help to bring in some better results for 2009. I am now looking forward to next year and can’t wait to start racing again!
Katey
2008 Results -
NPSDH
Round 1 - 5th
Round 2 - 3rd
Round 3 - 1st
Round 4 - 2nd
Round 5 - 3rd
Overall - 2nd
NPS4X
Round 2 - 2nd
Round 6 - 1st
Round 7 - 2nd
Overall - 3rd
World Cups
Round 1 - 13th
Round 2 - 21st
Round 3 - 17th
National champs DH
3rd