Archive for the 'race report' Category

This week I have been in Mont Sainte Anne preparing for the world mountain bike championships that kick off next Wednesday with the team relay. My race will be on Thursday morning at 10am – 2am NZ time. The weather here is starting to scorch up over 30 degrease so it looks like we will be racing in the heat once more.

I am staying with Richard, Dirk, Alexa and their Families at a great location only 500m from the course. The Belguium team is staying just across the road too, so it has been fun catching up with my friends there, going for rides and testing out the swimming at the pool! (The photo is of Elise and I when we were out riding the track).

The world champs course has been designed really well; it is super spectator friendly and incorporates a bit of everything so the most well rounded mountain bikers will do well. The course is quite technical with out being impossible to ride, all the roots and rocks you need to traverse over is physically demanding and the busy course always keeps you thinking. I think it will be a really tough race but provided I can keep the air in my tires it will be great!

Tonight we move into the NZ team’s accommodation, the majority of the team will be arriving in the early hours tomorrow. It will be cool to see a few more kiwis around, check out on what they have been up to and catch the latest gossip from the last world cup in Windham! Heaps of Kiwis racing there, congrats to Brad Hudson for getting 3^rd in Junior Men!

In the weekend Mario took me to Grindelwald (Switzerland) – a cool little town in the Alps where the Eiger bike-challenge was taking place.

Marathon XC racing in Switzerland is huge and the Eiger bike series is the national series here that draws big fields and crowds. Thanks to the Organisers and Mario I was given an entry into the race!

 We arrived in Grindlewald on Saturday afternoon in time for a celebration for Esther Suess. Mario presented Esther her World Marathon Champions jersey and I was given the honor of handing over to Esther a giant Koala bear wearing another copy of the jersey – that was pretty cool.

Afterwards, I was invited to dinner with the Wheeler team, Bixs team and all associated Intercycles members that were in Grindelwald. A very nice dinner and an opportunity to meet some more great people – thank you!

On Sunday morning Mario and I had to wake up at 4:45am to be ready in time for the race. The 88km started at 7am! I chose to do the 55km event that started later – 7:45am… I definitely prefer XCO race start times.

For me the race was a good solid training ride which was fun! The course was wicked, heaps of climbing and tacky muddy descents. It was wet and freezing at the top of the mountains, I had plenty of layers in my camel pack so was fine, not too sure how some dudes survived in just t-shirt and shorts though!

Erica (Team Wheeler) won the 88km event, Esther in second. For the Men Thomas (Team BIXS) placed 2^nd in the same race distance, so it was a successful weekend for Intercycles. Top three place getters won a massive cow bell – I want one too so I will return to Grindelwald for it.

This week I have been trying out Sponser’s nutrition products and I love it! Their drink mix is acid free so really easy to stomach under presure – perfect for me as I was having issues with this at the beginning of the year. The photo is of my friend Sergio who was working for Sponsor.

Now I am at Esther’s house relaxing wile it continues to poor down outside. Esther’s partner Erich is great too and I am having a lot of fun here. Thought I would show you just one more pic we took today… This is Esther in her full world champs kit and me in the Wheeler team skin suit. Thanks to Daniel and Intercycles for kitting me out :) it is always fun to dress up!

What a great way to end a top week! I am really happy with my race today, it was tough and there are definitely areas I can improve on but for the first time ever I actually feel like I am good enough to be racing at a world cup level. May the progress continue! I finished in 45th place overall, 11th U23 rider and was just under 11min behind the winner § Maya Wloszczowska.

The start was furious like normal, but the course was slighty more forgiving with passing room on all the climbs… seeing as there were lots of climbs I managed to make my way up the field and into a better position. All I really remember about the race is being in the hurt box the entire time, having so many riders around me made it easy to keep focused and always pushing, under all the pain it was a fun course to be riding on and it made for a perfect racing track.

Thanks to the Belgium team for looking after me this week! Shorty for feeding me and Elise and her family for the photos (I must have been in need of some air because in all the shots my mouth is wide open, ha!).

This was my first ever world cup and it was wild! Tapped out off the line and then BOOM! It was just nuts, fighting for position the rest of the way. I loved it – this is how racing is meant to be.  Tough as! All the thick mud forced everyone on and off their bikes, for the first two laps it was a running with bike race. People were just crashing everywhere, pushing others off the track and causing pileups it was mad.

I was quite far back in the starting grid so was caught up in this chaos from the start. After the short start loop, laps were just over 4km long. After a couple of laps I was able to start making my way through the field but since the race format was a short start loop + just over 4km length laps I didn’t have much time. I had one big crash when I lost it down a rutted shoot, head and shoulder into a tree and cracked my helmet – bugger! In the end I was lapped out in 65th place (18^th U23), only 46 riders finished from the 100 + starters.

This race was a really good experience and I learnt a lot. Definitely I can think of things to improve on, mainly to do with the start as it is so crucial. I hope to learn and learn fast as this Saturday is another WC round in Val di Sole, Italy. I think I am capable of riding further up the field I just need to make it happen, mtb racing here is not a TT.

 Meanwhile I have been adopted by the Belgium team – they are the best! I was stuck for a ride to Italy from Champery and they said I could go with them! Now I am staying with them too and have been training with their riders. I am stoked – how lucky am I??!! The amount of support laid on to the Belgium riders covers everything they could ever need, the environment is perfect for getting top results which is of course their focus. Les Belges sont tres bien!

Just like everyone says the tour is fricken awesome! We were lucky enough to watch today’s stage as it climbed up the final hill – Avoriaz. It was a full on entertaining experience… Even just being amongst the spectators was funny. To pump up the crowed as if we weren’t excited enough already! A sweet parade came through before the riders, all the supporting sponsors of teams and the event had floats etc and they were throwing away free gears! Then, shortly after all the big named riders were right there, busting their guts in front of us – live!!! It was the coolest experience! Tomorrow they have a rest day in Morzine, I have found out where Lance is staying so I might go say hello? On Tuesday they begin there next stage from the towns centre. It is all pretty exciting stuff! Dan took 200 great photos of it all happening today; here are a few to check out…