Katy Curd took the win at the first round of the 2013 4X Pro Tour and here’s her race report and a little video…

Poland Pro Tour

Poland holds some great memories for me, I won both my first World Cup win and the Euro champs there in 2012 so I was more than excited to be heading back there for the the first round of the Pro Tour. It felt like I’ve been waiting and training for this race all winter, with my last major race being World Champs back in September I was more than ready to get stuck in to racing at World level again.

Practice was meant to start Friday but the weather in Szczawno Zdroj soon put a stop to that. It had been raining pretty much non stop since we arrived which meant the track was pretty soft. Practice was delayed until saturday morning to allow time for the track to dry up a little. This just meant everything was down to one day, practice, qualifying and racing all on Saturday.

I was feeling good in practice, concentrating on trying to find the fastest lines for qualifying. Practice seem to come and go before I knew it and it was time to put a qualifying run together. I was feeling pretty confident but with it being the first major race of the season you never really know what level you are at, or even what level anyone else is at so the race nerves were kicking in a bit. The gate dropped for quali and that was it i was off, I had a strong first straight but then started to ride a little cautious just to try put together a steady mistake free run. I crossed the line and looked back at the times seeing a number 1 next to my name which gave me a big boost of confidence heading into the race.

With some stacked heats for racing I knew I had to give it anything. For the first heat I managed to get the snap and lead into the first corner and all the way to the finish line taking me in to the final. This was when the nerves really kicked in, I felt like I had a target on my back and just couldn’t focus when sat in the gate. With 100 things running round my head in came out the gate 2nd, as I dropped of the first jump on the start straight I gave it everything I had to try take back the lead. Just before the first corner I managed to cut back in front and take the lead, I could hear the girls on my rear wheel so I kept pushing hard and just didnt look back. With the finish line in sight I was smiling before I even hit the last jump! I crossed the line in first to take the win! So happy to get the first major win of the season and in a place with so many great memories.