Mel Spath, in her first year as an elite Mountain Biker, has shown she means business – with top results in Ireland and Britain. Read her story so far below, and check out her blog in our weblinks to the right.

The racing season this year could not have started much better: I won the last 2 K Capital Cups by a comfortable margin and placed 2nd in both of my first two races in the UK last weekend, in the British XC NPS Round 1, just 3minutes after multiple British Champion Jenny Copnall, and in the 100km UK Marathon NPS Round 1, beating many sponsored riders on the way.

So, how did I get there, so seemingly out of nowhere? People who know me know that I have been on the racing scene for a little while, about 2 years now. In fact, I took part on my first mountain bike race ever 2 years ago after having been on a mountain bike only about 5 times!

In the first 2 years I only went out on the bike for fun and due to other priorities (college) I didn’t really do any training – but I loved going to the races even though I was slow. I also didn’t really know what I wanted to do at the time and tried lots of other things as well, like hill running, orienteering and adventure racing.

At the end of last year however I decided to take mountain biking a little more serious as I found I was doing well at it and started on a structured training program, changed my diet and lost 10kg. I trained hard all winter in the dark and freezing cold, rain and snow, fighting through the wind on top of Three Rock, coming home drenched wet and with my toes falling off.

And it wasn’t easy – many a times I was about to give up, my coach is my proof, but as a result I transformed my chubby body into an athlete’s one in only 4 months. And if I can do it, you can do it too, it’s all about your priorities, if you want to get better, there is no shortcut – you have to get out and train, simple as that.

So, although I knew that I was getting faster, I had no idea of how much I would have improved over the winter until my first race this year – K Capital Cup 2 in Moneyscalp in which I was able to hang on to the fast people for the first time. My good form was confirmed in K Capital Cup 3 where I won the battle ahead of Tarja Owens, for me a small personal success.

Unfortunately, the positions in most Irish races that I have ridden are decided early in the race due to the small number of ladies in each category, and then one just rides the rest of the race by oneself. So I thought I might give the NPS Round 1 race in the UK a go, against a much bigger field of competitors. Of course I was intimidated and feared that I would make a fool out of myself racing against all these professional looking ladies wearing sponsored gear on shiny bikes.

But all my winter hardship paid off in that race – I was feeling good, had a good start and I was able to keep up with the fast ladies. Not only that, but the whole race it was a great battle and I worked myself up from about 5th position to 2nd which I kept to the finish.

Wow! The race was so much fun – you always had a target to chase in front of you and were being chased yourself. The 100km Marathon race the day after was more of a one to one battle with Sally Bigham who eventually proved to have the stronger legs that day, but I didn’t give her much time to breathe as I was close on her wheel for all of the race. The whole weekend was a great experience – and in hindsight I shouldn’t have feared – they now fear me!!