My Rollercoaster Year

By Alicia Robinson

In 2019 I had my personal best season. After having a rocky start to the year with a 6th in Portugal and 9th in France. This left me to play catch up at the last round in Spain. After a hard few months training I finally felt like the hard work had begun to pay off when I took my first career World Round victory. Taking the win not only finished my season off well, but it was a very proud moment for myself, my team and family. This left me in 5th position overall for 2019.

2020 has been a rollercoaster of a year already, with things not going as expected and Covid-19 creating a global pandemic, this meant all trials events were cancelled. For many athletes this was horrendous news because they were restricted during lockdown, meaning they were unable to train and consequently a lot of time has been lost not being able to ride. Therefore lockdown saw a lot of riders spending time at home, however this was not the case for myself – as I have a part time job at my local Tesco store so throughout the duration of lockdown I have been working to help keep the shelves stocked, and provide the essential items to those in need. As lockdown rules were eased and athletes were able to return to training, I spent as much time as I could within the gym and on my bike. I have been training tremendously hard and continuing my work to help the local community amidst the pandemic.

In August the FIM announced that they were going to run the 2020 TrialGP World Championships after a delayed start due to the Covid-19 pandemic, ensuring that safety precautions are in place, this would allow athletes to get back into action. The opening round to the series was held at Isola 2000, France, which would see a two day event followed consecutively by a weekend in Spain and Andorra. I finished fourth both days at the opening round and came away from France looking to get myself onto the podium in Spain and Andorra. In Spain I had a much better weekend as I managed to get myself onto the podium and claim some important championship points. I was riding very well, finishing in second position on day one and then taking the victory on Sunday, standing on the top spot. Onto Andorra, Saturday proved to be rather difficult as I suffered a puncture and weather conditions were imperfect but I was still able to bag myself two more second positions. This was enough for me to claim second overall in the Trial2 Women's World Championship 2020.