Final European race of 2012

After last weeks disaster, it continued into the final IXS European cup in Todtnau, Germany, as my bike was taken away from me after the race….

That’s right, I headed back to Germany with no dh bike, however the team did say that they would bring it to Todtnau for the final round of the IXS cup series. In the mean time I headed to Christian Textor’s (TEAM MOUNTAINBIKE RIDER) house who invited me to come and stay J

It was really cool there and I got to do some dirt jumping, pump track and endure riding which was a nice change. However there was still one race left and I was looking for another good result; I had arranged to go to the race on Thursday evening with another friend, Arie Schindler. On Thursday morning I finally got hold of my team manager after an email, facebook message and a whatsapp message. She just said that she was not bringing the bike and my season was done, this left me in a panic because I had already arranged to go and now I had no bike. Luckily for me my friend Christian was able to lend me his Nuke Proof Scalp for the weekend and I was able to stay with Arie J Thanks a lot boys!

Anyway, we finally got there and I was excited to end the season well even though I had the flu and I was riding a bike I had never ridden before. We set up camp, registered and walked the track, it all looked good, pretty fast, long and physical.

Friday practice came around and I was having fun in the sun, I was also loving the bike even though the setup was pretty soft for me, it was still good and tracked like a beast! I got in 5 runs and felt pretty good for the weekend. However this is Europe and it couldn’t let me leave without some rain, so on Saturday morning I woke up to thundering rain and a very wet track. I was a little disappointed but still excited to have some fun playing in the mud! I was not too bothered about Saturday as I knew that it was just seeding and nothing more; I just used the seeding as further training for Sunday and I ended up 54^th. I knew I had way more in the tank for Sunday and the weather was supposed to change so I was feeling confident.

Sunday was upon us and it was time to get it done; I got some new lines in the morning practice session and was ready to let it hang out! We had a long wait until the final just to get the nerves going, but that’s all part of it J Finally I heard those beeps and I was off, starting off really well, carrying good speed and letting off the brakes. I was feeling really good until about one and a half minutes into the track where I popped into a fast, flat root section and landed a bit off the main line; I got bounced right out of the track into a boggy hole. I almost came to a stop and lost all my speed, I knew then that I had blown it but I thought just keep pushing to see how you do.

I got to the bottom 10 sec faster than seeding even after the mistake, I ended up 37^th for the day which was not too bad considering what happened. Looking at the splits, I would’ve been in the top 20 again for sure. All this while on a strange bike and being sick; I’ll take that J

So the European season has come to an end for me and I could not have done it without all the support from sponsors, friends and family!

Thanks to the great companies behind me, Seattle Coffee Co, Virgin active, Leatt, Adidas eyewear, Csixx, Evoc, Red Bull SA, Flexfit and my trainer John Wakefield @science2sport

Thanks in particular to Christian Textor, Arie Schindler and Lars Peyer for making this last race possible!