Bikemagic is pleased to welcome Tracy Moseley as a regular contributor, as she embarks on a new season of racing under the banner of T-Mo Racing. Here’s her first blog:
- Tracy looks forward to an exciting season (photo: waughphotos.com)
Having always ridden on a team since I started back in 1996, doing my own program in 2012 and launching T-MO racing is going to make this year pretty eventful and interesting! Hence why I think Bikemagic.com have kindly said they would like me to blog for the website over the year to see how the year unfolds.
Throughout my career I have always enjoyed riding my bike in all disciplines and not just throwing myself down hills as fast as I can! I grew up in the sport when both downhill and cross country were much closer than they are now, and riders would even compete in both. Those times have definitely changed but my appreciation for cross country has not changed and in recent years I have found myself enjoying my own endurance riding more and more and enjoying the challenge of getting fit.
Winning the downhill World Champs in 2010 was the goal I had been chasing for 16 years and winning it gave me a sense of satisfaction and completion with the sport and allowed me to feel as though I could turn my attention to some other challenges. Alongside competing in the World Cup Downhill Series in 2011 I also took part in a variety of other events, Cape Epic stage race, World Cup XC race, Pro Sprint race, and a selection of enduro races. I really loved the variety and the feeling of not really knowing my craft and entering into a steep learning curve with every event I did.
These experiences and the growing interest in enduro downhill racing gave me the confidence to decide that 2011 would be my last year of racing downhill full time. It was a hard decision to make as I will miss the adrenaline buzz that you get having learnt a course inch by inch and then getting the chance to perfect that one race run. I’ll also miss the circuit and the people you have made friends with along the way, but my career in downhill could not last forever and whilst I am still young enough to be competitive in enduro I decided to make the move.
Setting up T-MO racing was very much an unknown quantity for me as I had no idea if sponsors would be keen to support me branching out to new events and disciplines. After many tiring weeks of emailing and making phone calls it all started to come together and I’m really grateful to all the sponsors that have either continued to support me or have become a new sponsor in 2012. T-MO racing has begun and who knows where it will go in the future…
The off-season was also challenging for me in another way as the week after the World Championships I returned home and went out for a little spin on my local trails and ended up slamming the ground so hard on my right shoulder that I pretty much knew that I had done something bad there and then. However after a few days it started to feel better and I ended up going back out to Europe to spend the next 4 weeks doing some of the most gruelling riding of the year.
The Transprovence seven day all-mountain race, the Roc D’Azur XC and Enduro, Maxiavalanche at Flims and the Superenduro at Finale Ligure, all awesome riding but all the time I knew my shoulder wasn’t quite right. When I returned home at the end of October I went for a scan which revealed I had torn one of my rotator cuff tendons in my shoulder. It would need surgery for it to repair fully so at the end of November I had surgery to re attach my Supraspinatus tendon to my humerus.
Fortunately I had great support from British Cycling and their medical scheme and was able to see the same surgeon that repaired my dislocated shoulder seven years ago ! Mr Potter is a renowned shoulder surgeon and promised me that he would do a good job and get me back on my bike as soon as possible!
Sadly as soon as possible would mean a pretty long time, two weeks of nothing then eight weeks before I could ride on the road again and at least 10 weeks before riding off road. I did manage to start riding on the turbo trainer after about 3 weeks so managed to keep a little fitness, but it’s not been a great winter for preparation for this season, but as I write this I am now at 12 weeks post op and about to take part in my first race of the year, so watch this space for the next blog to see how I get on!
Tracy Moseley
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