The last two weeks have been up and down for me, let’s start
with the Andorra world cup. I headed back to Europe after SA champs and I was
really excited to race a world cup again as it had been over a year since Val D
Isere. We got there on the Tuesday just in time for a huge surprise on
Wednesday, track walk!
After walking the track I was excited and tense at the same
time. The track was so steep and gnarly, it was crazy! It was definitely the
steepest / roughest track I had ever seen besides maybe Champery / Val Di Sole.
Anyway I was looking forward to smashing some runs the next day! Before I knew
it, I was in the start hut and out of the gate, the first run I really cruised
down and just chilled as the track was really tough to remember with so many
turns. After a huge eye opener first run I picked up the pace the pace a bit
for the second run and hit some better lines. Now there is not much practice at
a world cup which means getting up to speed really quickly. I knew I had to get
going so in run three I picked it up just a bit more and heading into a rocky
section I lost the front wheel and slid out. At first I thought I was fine as
the impact was not too hard. However next thing I knew my left glove was full of
blood and I realised that I sliced my palm open. I needed to get five stitches
to close it up and due to its position I was unable to carry on riding. I was
pretty disappointed but unfortunately these things happen.
I was forced to be a spectator for the weekend and turned my
focus to the next race, the third round of the IXS European DH series in Pila,
Italy.
On the Monday after Andorra we made the 10 hour trek to
Pila. We woke up on Tuesday morning to awesome sunny weather and had an awesome
couple of days riding before the race started on Friday. Pila is definitely my
favourite place to ride in Europe!
Soon it was back to business and practicing on the race track.
It was craziness as there were so many riders (+- 400) on track at the same
time. I felt really good on this track, I really enjoy it and felt that I had a good result in me for the weekend. The track
has a bit of everything, fast corners, steep sections, jumps and tricky rock
sections. I got in about 5 runs on Friday and 3 on Saturday before seeding. It
was bone dry and so loose however right before seeding on Saturday the weather
absolutely lashed out and conditions were turned on their head. It stormed and
hailed, it was madness and we almost lost out gazebo J
They ended up postponing the seeding for the elite men until
Sunday morning before racing. That meant an earlier start for me on Sunday to
get in two runs prior to seeding. The track was quite slick after the rain but
it was hot again so I knew it would dry out for racing later on in the day. I
wanted to give it a good go in seeding to see where I ended up. I had a fairly
good run with a few mistakes and was sitting in 17th spot after
seeding with a time of 4:21. The leader was on a 4:14 so I was not too far off.
For race run I was ready to go and wanted to have a mistake
free run. I left the start and got a big surprise as to how dry the track was,
it was dusty and loose again! I pinned it all the way down and hit all my
lines, I crossed the line and was stoked that I had a good one, I looked up and
saw 4:12 on the board but unfortunately it was only good enough for 19th
spot. The winner had a 4:06 which meant I was only 6 sec off the win, racing is
just so tight these days. Anyway it was a huge step in the right direction and
a confidence boost. I feel really good on the bike and I know my speed is there
again, I just need to find a bit more to get to the top step J
Thanks soooooo much to everyone who is supporting, it means
so much. Also a massive thank you to my main sponsor, INVESTEC, and my other
sponsors who keep me out there, morewood, Seattle Coffee co, Science 2 Sport, John
wakefield, Virgin Active, Red Bull SA , Cycles Africa, Odi, Manitou, Sun
Ringle, Hayes, Csixx, Spank, Bell helmets, Leatt protectives, Adidas eyewear and Faithwear!
I could not do this without you J
Now we are off to Ilmenau for the German IXS cup!
Until next time….
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