Hi Wendy,
It is good to see you experiment with new ideas and it seems to be delivering some good results already. I like the compositional elements of the picture. As you've pointed out the highlights are problematic, but I'll come back to that in a minute. Back to the picture itself, then. I don't know what my feelings exactly are with this one. I think it is nice, but perhaps only that. Perhaps it is because I can't see the effort going into the climb by just looking at the body language of the biker. I don't know and I have to think this through. Mind you, the modern ATB bike in an old area such as this one is a nice contrast in itself.
Re. the high ISO and the highlights, I suggest you take a look at this
thread. Basically, it would have been better if you'd shoot with ISO 1600 and underexpose 1 stop, and then correct the exposure (+1) in the raw converter. That way you'd have no problems with the clipping of the highlights and have perhaps even less noise in total.
Cheers,
