UCI World Cup round 5 - Hafjell, Norway

Last weekend I headed up to Norway for the 5th round of the world cup series, here is how things went....

I flew up on the Monday evening due to getting a really cheap flight, BUT I landed at 23:30 which meant I had to sleep at the airport. This was not ideal so I checked out the local hotels but after finding out that one nights stay was +- 250 Euros I decided to stay in the airport :) I have to be honest, I slept really well on a soft bench, probably the best I have ever slept in an airport. Its amazing what ear plugs and an eye patch can do!

I had organised to travel and stay with the SC Intense team which was a massive help, so a big thanks to them for that! They were arriving at around 7pm the following day which meant I stayed in the aiport for around 20 hours..... anyway it had to be done.

We headed to the venue and the following day we set up the pit, sorted out registration and got the bikes ready for business on Thursday. The first practice session was on Thursday and I was ampd to get out there. I had been there in 2012 and had a bad weekend so I was hoping to smash it this time round. The track was bone dry and dusty and definately my favourite track of the season. It has everything, big jumps, high speed, steep technical and even some bike park. On thursday I just ried to get my lines dialled in and get comfy on track while having loads of fun. Qualification was on the Friday and I knew I had to step things up to get into the big show. I did some timed runs on Friday morning before qualifying and I felt strong going into my run. After waiting around and feeling the nerves I put my game face on and got into the gate, after hearing the beeps I was off! I pushed really hard at the top and nailed all my lines, my middel section was a bit sketchy and I lost some time which meant I needed to nail the bottom. I got threw it with no big mistakes and crossed the line with a time of 3:50..... I was not sure if it would be good enough but thankfully I made it into the final 80 in 78th spot!

I was over the moon to qualify in Europe for the first time and it was also my first start at a world cup in 2013 :) So after a nice evening it was back to business on the Saturday. I had heard that rain was on the way so I used Saturday to change up some lines and to be prepared for the wet :) Sure enough we woke up to rain on Sunday!

I headed up for my 2 practice runs and the track was slippery to say the least. I felt good in some sections and horrible in others,  was just hoping to get it right for the race run. After a few hours of waiting around and getting cold it was time to head up. I was really unsure of how the track would be in the final after all the riders had come down. I knew I would need to wing some sections!

It was'nt long before I was on track and hurtling down the hill. As I entered the first rock garden I blew off line and knew it would be a tough run but it had to be done! I didnt go as quick as I wanted to and made loads of mistakes but I managed to get down without crashing which I was pleased about. I ended in 69th spot, I was just happy to finally race a world cup in Europe and it was a massive building block for me going forward :D

Thanks so much to everyone for all the support this season, its been amazing so far! Also thanks to my awesome sponsors who keep me out here, INVESTEC, morewood, Seattle Coffee Co, Virgin Active, John Wakefield @ Science2Sport, Leatt, Bell helmets, Csixx, Spank, Cycles Africa, Odi, Sun Ringle, Hayes, Faithwear, Red Bull SA and Adidas eyewear!

Until next time....

UCI Word Championships - Pietermaritzburg 2013 & IXS European Cup #5 - Chatel, France

Wow its been quite a hectic couple of weeks! I have really battled to find the time to get a post done around all the travelling. I am currently sitting in Oslo airport waiting for my lift to Hafjell for the 5th round of the World Cup series 2013.

 Anyway lets get down to business, 2 weeks ago I was in Pietermaritzburg for my first ever UCI World Championships, to say I was excited was an understatement! Anyway after all the excitement of opening night it was time to race. Due to the hectic schedule of worlds there was not too much practice time. There was 3 hours on thursday, 3 hours on Friday, 1 hour on Saturday and 30 mins on Sunday which meant only doing about 9-10 runs before racing which was not ideal. Anyway it was the same for everyone. On the first day I focused on learning the new sections of the track and not pushing too hard. I felt good and just wanted to keep riding because the course is so much fun! The second day I picked it up a bit but still not race pace as the track was super loose and dusty. Making a mistake would be really easy.

On Friday night it rained and on Saturday the course was really good. There was an official timed run on the Saturday which did not count for anything, it was just an indicator for the riders. I did not want to waste my energy in the timed runs as the course is very physical so I tried to just stay smooth and hit my lines. I had a fairly good run with a few mistakes and not too much pedalling which put me into 42nd place with a 4:26. I was happy beacause I knew I had much more to give on the Sunday!

Finally it was race day I was ready to go! I had a solid runin the morning and soon we were at the start warming up. The tension was in the air....
Soon it was my slot and I was on track! I wanted to push at the top while still saving a bit of energy for the long pedal section in the middel. I have never ever heard so many people cheering for me all the way down a course, it was like being in a tunnel of people! I pushed as hard as I could and came down in 4:18 which I was not too happy about. I felt I could have gone quicker but thats racing :) I knew I pedalled hard when I tasted blood in my throat afterwards...I ended in 40th position. I was gunning for a top 20 which was definately possible but for my first ever worlds 40th is not too shabby. Hopefully I can bump myself up there next year!

Thats not the end of it though, on the tuesday afterwards I flew back to Europe on route to the 5th round of the European cup series in Chatel, France. It was a long 32 hours of travelling but I was happy to be back with the other SA boys. We first headed to Riders Refuge in Morzine for the best accomodation/ food in Europe! We had a 45min drive to Chatel everyday but it was worth it ;)

Anyway practice started on Friday as ussual and I felt so good on the track, its loads of fun although not being the longest track. I did 5 runs and had a blast in the sunny weather. The track is really technical up top with loads of roots and then it super fast at the bottom on a hard rocky surface making it a bit slippy. Friday night saw it rain a fair bit which made Saturday morning pretty slick but still loads of fun! the seeding run was also on Saturday and after finishing 15th there in 2012 I was looking for a decent result.
 There were also predictions of storms for the Sunday so I wanted to have a good seeding incase the race got cancelled on Sunday. I smashed out my run and came down with a 2:41 which put me into 12th place 5 seconds off the lead. I was very pleased as I knew where I could make up a few seconds the next day.
However that night and the next day saw it pour with rain making  the track insanely tough. I have only ridded those conditions once or twice before and it did not go too well. I did 2 runs in the morning and I managed to get through the track fairly well but it was just so unpredictable.

I could not wait to get the race run over with as we were freezing cold, muddy and wet. I was not too sure how it would go as the track would have changed so much after all the riders.

Anyway soon I was on track and as soon as I hit the first section I knew it was going to be really tough! Only about 45 seconds into the track I hit some slippery roots and got sideways losing my speed. This made the next section almost impossible as you need to enter with some speed. I managed to slip and slide my way through it but after another 50 meters I got sideways in a rut and hit the deck. I struggled to get up in the slippery mud and now my gloves were covered in mud making it impossible to hang on. I rode for about 10 meters and then had to stop to clean my gloves off. By this stage I had lost so much time I just wanted to get down and go home, so I just cruised down and staright to the car. I think I ended in 82nd or something but to be honest I wanted to forget about the big mess. It did not go according to plan but I know had speed as I had a good seeding and this is downhill, anything can happen :)

Thanks so much to everyone for the support this season and to all the amazing sponsors keeping me out here: INVESTEC, morewood, Seattle Coffee Co, Cycles Africa, Hayes, Sun Ringle, Spank, Odi, Csixx, Leatt, Bell helmets, Adidas eyewear, Faithwear, Virgin Active, Science 2 Sport and Red Bull SA!

I hope to end off the year with solid results!

Until next time....