After a battling performance last time out in Cumbria, Carrie was back again, this time in one of the toughest one-day trials there is. Taking place in North Yorkshire, the Scott trail is one of the crown jewels of the sport, going back over 100 years since it originated. Despite this, the trial is still as brutal as ever, with 76 sections to complete spanning over 80 miles of Yorkshire terrain.

This is Carrie’s 2nd time at the Scott trial, and she was determined to improve on last year’s finish, as a chaotic start and an early injury ruled her out of the remaining trial.

Carrie was 15th off this year with an early start time of 9:04.40. She got off to a good start with no early drama compared to last year. After the initial adrenaline rush at the start, Carrie found a more maintainable pace and carried on ticking sections off. Carrie finished the first area off strongly with two near-perfect sections and was confident going into area two.

Carrie reached Reels Head, which is where she made it to last year, and was hoping to put things right from last time out. Not only did she just complete the section, but it was also her first perfect section of the trial. The only problem left for Carrie was that the rest of the trial was unknown to her, having not made it this far previously. Carrie kept chipping away at the section and managed to complete 21 sections and 26 miles before heading back to the starting field.

This is what Carrie had to say about her time at the Scott trail:

“I know I have more in me, as I did have a few more rest stops than needed, I got stuck behind some other riders, helped some fellow competitors, busted my lip and had to stem the bleeding, and I helped another rider who had a puncture by giving him some zip ties to try to help keep his wheel on the rim. But that is the Scott trial – absolute chaos. It’s very much a race where everyone is in it for themselves and every single second matters and can make a world of difference, especially for the top boys. But for myself, who is in it for personal development and to hopefully encourage more girls to give it a shot, I couldn’t not spare a few of my precious seconds and help others when I had the opportunity to do so.

I was 1 of only 4 girls taking part out of 190 riders. I had so much support and encouragement given to me by so many very talented riders, as well as friends, spectators and more, and for that I am so grateful.”

We’ll see Carrie next week at the Jack Wood trial in Sheffield.