Trek: Jess Stone Takes National Champions Jersey!

On a rain soaked, blustery mountainside in Scotland, former Junior National Downhill Champion, Jess Stone, (Trek Gravity Girls/Extreme Medics), won the Elite title in only her second year in the category.

The course at Ae Forest near Dumfries in Scotland, was short but brutal with some technical, rooted sections made treacherous by the mud and a final chute into the arena catching a few riders off-guard with its ruts and bumps hidden by the mud.

In final practise on the Sunday morning, Jess came back with a huge grin appearing through the mask of dirt. She obviously felt quite at home in the conditions on the hillside, so much so that in the seeding run, which she took very carefully, she still posted the quickest time.

‘My seeding run went well,’ said Jess, ‘the run itself was chilled out for me, I unclipped at the bottom and lost all speed to do the step down and had to cruise down the chicken run. I got to the bottom only to find I was in the lead by 2 seconds! Everyone else had a good run too, I think I’d have easily lost 10 seconds there; it was a shock but I knew I was riding well.’

With her custom Gravity Girls Trek Session 88 prepped and ready to go, Jess was full of quiet confidence heading to the uplift for the most important run of the day. In these conditions, it could be anyone’s race but the three favourites, of Katy Curd, Helen Gaskill and Jess, had the top three seeding runs and, come race day, posted the fastest times with Katy edging Helen out for second. Jess, last down the hill, took the win by over a second from Katy.

'I treated the finals similar to how I treated my seeding,’ said an excited Jess, ‘except with more pedalling! The conditions were hard and the track was drying up in places yet in some parts it was like riding in a stream; it was not very predictable but I soldiered on and entered the finish arena. It was a solid run but I still made some big mistakes which lost me time, I had to make this up.  At first I didn’t think I got it, everyone seemed so quiet, but then as the results were read out and my name was in 1^st place everyone cheered! Words could not have expressed how happy I was!’

Overall, it was a great weekend for Trek Gravity Girls, with Jess taking her first senior National title and Steffi Marth winning her second(?) German National 4X title.