The first week

Lauren Smith is the British number two BMX biker. In this blog she tells of her experiences travelling to China to compete.

I set off from Manchester airport on Sunday to fly to the BMX world championships in Taiyuan - China and was lucky enough to travel with 4 other guys: Dan, Flem, Dave and Russ - safety in numbers!
Our first flight was a short one going over to Paris. This was followed by the longest leg going to Guangzhou, China - 11 hours on this. The journey went well and I even managed to get a couple of hours' sleep.
Due to the eight-hour time difference, we landed at 1800 Monday evening. We then had the last part flying to Tiayuan, this proved a little tricky as we then had to check our bags and bikes in again, Flem sorted this out while we chilled with a drink and some food!
We arrived in Taiyuan at 12:15am tired and hungry. The taxi journey to the hotel was crazy, there seems to be no laws on the roads out here! We got to the hotel, had some spag bol then straight to bed ready for an early rise in the morning for some bike building and practise.

Tuesday
We got up pretty early, built the bikes up, ate breakfast and rode to the track, nearly getting killed by hundreds of bikes and cars! We in the UK think it is dangerous to ride on the roads -HA!
Practise went OK but I had some slight mechanical failures which was saved by another UK rider so I could continue practise. The track is technical and fast so is taking a while to get used to but will make of some good racing.
The air is horrible out here, very hazy and nothing like I imagined so after practise we headed straight back to the hotel to get out of it. Two of the guys had a full body massage for 3 pounds so we may be heading there after racing.
I have a few things I need to do on the track before race day so tomorrow's practise will give me time to do this!

Wednesday
We had our second block of practise today which went well, I now feel a lot more comfortable on the track but the weather was extremely hot which did make it very hard.
After practise we headed back to the hotel then out to see Tiayuan. It's a very big city with a lot of industrial work but has a lot to offer. They have stopped all building work that was going on near the track to help with the smog and it has seemed to have cleared.
We actually saw the sun today!
Tomorrow is a chill day watching the 15 and under riders race, then race day on Friday!

Thursday
Watched the racing today. A lot of the age groups were pretty weak with the amount of riders in the class but it was still amazing to see how fast a 14-year-old kid can go! We had some GB riders in the mains picking up some 6th and 7th positions which was good to see. The rider listing for our racing went up, I have 32 riders which is the second biggest age group so it is going to be tough.

Friday
Up at 6.30am today to get ready, take a nice slow ride to the track and have some breakfast. The weather again was very hot and sticky, lots of water and energy drink helped keep us all hydrated.
I have 8 in my race and had to get top 4, in my first moto I had gate 7 (an outside gate) had a good start but got caught up in the first turn managed to get back up to 4th so a good start to the day! Second race again had an outside gate but managed a 4th again.
My final qualifier, I had gate one, the inside gate. A good start and a nice tight line in the berm saw me come out in 3rd. I had a good lap this time and took second place...a place in the semi final!
My semi looked pretty hard but so did both of them, I drew gate 1 so was pretty happy about this and did feel confident. I had another great start leading up to the first jump!
Not sure what went wrong after this but I seemed to get caught in the first turn having to ride round the bottom, I lost most of my speed and dropped in the 6th.
I tried lots of different lines but none seemed to work and I ended 6th. This meant I was out of the competition. Very disappointed and gutted about this so I headed back to the stands to cheer on the other few riders that made it.
We had a 2nd off Flem and a 5th from Dave, which was great, so we went for a few celebration drinks to finish the day off.

Saturday
This was time for the elite and junior rider to race (the race everyone is there to watch). They are all trying to qualify for the Olympics in Beiljing so a lot to ride for! Shanaze Reade and Joey Gough were riding in the women's elite class with Kevin Batey and Liam Phillips in Elite men. Shanaze made the main event with the rest of them going out in the qualifiers. Shanaze is favorite to win the Olympics and proved why today by winning by half a straight!
The racing was fast with plenty of crashes hopefully they are all ok! Tomorrow is another chill day, then off to Beijing to see the wall!