Over the weekend it was the start of the Ladies British Championships and Carrie Dickinson’s second season in the Ladies Intermediate Championship with rounds 1 and 2 taking place over the opening weekend.
Round 1 took place on Saturday at Nene Valley MCC, where Carrie arrived confident for the new season ahead. Carrie made a strong start in the opening sections of the course as the forecast rain hadn’t fell, making the course slightly easier than anticipated. After this strong start, Carrie had an incident in section 11 of the first lap causing her pain but managing to battle through the rest of the trial. Carrie dropped 23 points in total, 15 of which came when the incident occurred. This left Carrie in joint 6th for the trail but a big improvement from last year.
This is what Carrie made of round 1: “It was nice to turn up to this first round not consumed by anxiety and pressure like I did at the start of last season, which I think shows a lot of personal development.”
“I battled through the pain from the incident in section 11 for the rest of the trial, dropping a mere 23 points total.”
“I really can’t be upset with that performance as I believe I dropped more points last year on the first lap, than I did this year over the 3 laps. It just spurred me on to push even harder for Round 2 the next day”.
On Sunday it was time for round 2, this time at North Berks MCC, with a much tougher course ahead for Carrie. The sections of the course were challenging, tight and technical which Carrie enjoyed. The injury from the previous day didn’t seem to bother Carrie either as she put in some really strong rides, collecting some perfect scores on tough sections.
After finishing the trial with time to spare and no more injuries, Carrie finished the round in 5th place but only 11 points off of a podium finish.
This is what Carrie had to say on round 2: “The sections were challenging but really enjoyable. I was coping well with my injury and not letting that hold me back either. I felt so much better in my riding compared to last year’s round which was great to see that my countless hours have paid off”.
“I was proud of myself to have only been a mere 11 points off 3rd place and a podium finish. It was a huge confidence boost to me to see the podium is in reach”.
Next up for Carrie is the Bemrose Trophy in Derbyshire which takes place on 31st March an a SMCC Club Trial the day after on the 1st April.