Monet turned up at Fort William without any plans to race … before she knew it though, she was in the start gate for the 4X World Tour!
Here’s the short story of her surprise 4X experience!
Words by Monet Adams
I was roped into a 4X race about ten years ago and since then I’ve never done it again … until now.
I got to Fort William yesterday and Chris Roberts and Scott Beaumont cornered me and asked me to race – because they couldn’t run the event if they didn’t have 6 girls. There were girls who had driven all the way to Scotland to compete so I thought I’d make up the numbers!
Luckily, it’s a downhill race so good old Charlie Hatton lent me his helmet, a kid called Dan Wagstaff leant me a bike which we put my bars from my enduro bike on to so it felt like mine – I rode in jeans in teeshirt all weekend, and I managed to find some knee pads for finals!
I enjoy riding pump tracks back in Bristol and I know about pumping and carrying speed – but this wasn’t what I expected! The track is really rough – and there’s a big rock garden in the middle of it! I didn’t feel massively overwhelmed, but the gates were pretty tough. You’re pretty close to to all the other riders which is pretty scary.
“We went out the gate and two of the other girls got a better gate than me so I was like “Pedal! Pedal!”
Qualifying went well – I just rode down. I didn’t know how fast the others well so I just had some fun doing some of the jumps. I came down into second.
I won B final which put me into the A final against Steffi Marth. She got the first gate choice and I was next to her in the final elbow to elbow. We went out the gate and two of the other girls got a better gate than me so I was like “Pedal! Pedal!”.
I pedalled, I did the first jump and I just went as hard as I could. I tried to hold on to Steffi – she’s amazing though and pulled away. The effort of trying to keep up with her was enough to help me pull away from the other girls and I came in 2nd!
If I was in the right place at the right time, I’d definitely do it again! I’m going to go to Crankworx next week and race the slalom, which will be awesome. Oh – and I sent the big double on my last run so I’m pretty happy!
Thanks to Chris Roberts and Scott Beaumont for giving me a chance to race!
