Helen kicked off the weekend with style in Switzerland at the Radquer Wädenswil.  Unusual as this race is run at night under floodlight, the course was very much to Helen’s liking with its tough grassy banks and the heavy rain during the day made the course hard going all the way.

Helen pushed right from the start and strung out the field passed the first pit area, and kept pushing all the way on the first lap.  This put her 20-seconds in front of the battle for second between Linda van Rijen (Ned) and Alexandra Bähler (Sui).  Helen continued to push over the next laps, building a lead of over 3 minutes by the finish.

‘I wanted to start my season in style this year, and I think that does it’ commented Helen after the race.  ‘Fingers crossed I can do the same tomorrow’.

Sunday morning started for the team in the UK with Gabby Day looking to defend her lead in the National Trophy Series in the UK.  After her impressive victory in round one, it was more of the same for Gabby who powered away from the line and left the others fighting it out for 2nd. Young Ruby Miller, impressive in the first round was the real competition here again, but once Gabby had moved away, there was no looking back as she extended her lead in the series.

‘Every win feels good and I really liked it here on this course.  It really suited me I think.  It’s going to be great to put my form to the test against the other in the World Cup in couple of week.’  Said Gabby

Meanwhile back over in Switzerland Helen was starting in the Badiquer Schmerikon around 40km’s away from Saturday’s race.  The course here was designed by one of the worlds leading riders, Christian Heule, and was a fast but technical course in the most beautiful area you could place a cyclo-cross. 

It looked like being a very tight battle over the first lap as Linda van Rijen was again hot on the heels of Helen.  However it wasn’t too long until Helen opened up a small gap that she proceeded to increase very quickly.  Helen finished 2 minutes up in Linda, who again took a comfortable 2nd.

‘This weekend was about getting some ranking points nice and early.  It’s a long season and these could help me lot when we get to December and January with my gridding.’ Commented Helen

Swift Racing is still looking to find new sponsors for its team for 2009.  This year Swift Racing has had great success with 24 race wins, in both road and cyclo-cross.  We are in talks with several interest parties and are keen to hear from anyone else that may be interested in getting involved with the team.

Please contact the team via Stefan Wyman: stefan@teamswiftracing.com