Brazil

Brazil is wicked so far! We have been out checking out the town every spare moment we have. The locals are great to party with and it seems that everywhere we go we stumble across something even cooler than before. I could spend days just exploring this place!

Riding so far has been going well. We had a few hours of DH practice today which I was hoping to spend riding with my good buddy Nathan Rennie, but his bikes have not yet turned up so I was stuck riding by myself. It was fun anyway. 4X practice however was a little more interesting. After DH I slipped back to the hotel to grab Trina and some food and from there things got exciting. First, we had quite a difficult time finding food, after we threw Trina's bike together as quickly as we could. Then we jumped in the car and headed to the race site. We were already cutting it close for time. To make matters worse I hit one of those reflectors in the center of the road! Who would have guessed that those little reflectors are more like painted BRICKS down here. Since we were already super late for 4X we had to drive the last 10km to the race with a flat. oopps. Oh well, we made it in time for about 4 practice runs before qualifying. Things turned out well in the end though. I qualified 5th and Trina pulled out 8th. I think we are both looking forward to some exciting racing this weekend!

Mont Ste Anne

Wow, quite the weekend. DH did not go exactly as planned but hey that's racing. Qualifying went pretty rough. I had a crash that cost me a bit of time and I finished qualifying in 7th place. I was pretty happy though cause I figured I had got my horrible run out of the way. Boy was I wrong! My race run was going great: I was 4th fastest at the split and I was going for it. I came into the fastest section of the course with a death grip determined not to touch my brakes. I pushed into a berm and I am not sure what I hit, but the next thing I know I was stopped dead laying in fetal position on the side of the track! Everyone was screaming for me to get up, but I was too busy trying to breath! It was quite the crash. I eventually made it back on my bike, but I was barely able to see. I had never had double vision like that before ;) Anyway, I made it safely down the course from then on and pulled out an 11th place finish. I am still holding on to 9th overall in the Series.

4X was rather uneventful for me as well. In my first heat I had a rough gate and got stuck behind Anita Molcik and I just couldn't get past her. The 4X course here was very one-line and no matter how many times I bumped Anita, I couldn't get her out of the way. The small final was a touch better as I managed to hold of Sabrina Jonnier and keep 7th place for myself. All was not a total loss though as I was stoked to be at the finish watching my best buddy, Katrina Miller, win her 20th World Cup 4X! No small victory I might add and I was so happy for her. Congrats Trina!
It's off to Brazil now for World Cup #5. Time to get back on that podium.

Newfoundland

I had a great time out in Newfoundland teaching a riding clinic last weekend. The people were incredible and the place itself was gorgeous! I was impressed with all the talent and the great riding to be had out on the Coast. I will definately be back out there soon. Thanks again to Jon and Ken for all the hard work in planning such a wicked weekend!
I am out at Mont Ste Anne now practicing for the World Cup. Should be an exciting weekend and it is great to have the Norco Team Trailer out to this event. Should be fun!

World Cup #3: Germany

DH: This weekend I finally managed to pull things together and get myself on the elusive World Cup DH podium. It had evaded me for the last 2.5 years. Not anymore! The weekend did not start out as a great one for me. I had problems with my chain coming off and I had no idea how to fix it! I lost my chain in my qualifying run and I crashed, giving me a horrible qualifying time. However, when the final race came I pulled my head together and decided this was the race I was going to feel the podium again. I was having a great run until about half way down the course when once again my chain came off! I wasn’t going to let this nagging mechanical ruin another run of mine so I put all my pumping practice into play and had a go at it anyway. I managed to keep most of my speed along the course and I even found the courage to jump a huge road gap at the bottom that I normally had to pedal like mad to clear! As I was coming to the bottom it was frustrating to watch my time tick away knowing that I couldn’t pedal to speed myself up! However, my smooth run was enough to keep me in 5th place and get myself on the podium with a time of 2:23:47. Too bad about that chain problem…I was only 4 seconds off the top step.

4X: Once again my lower qualification result gave me a rough 1st heat. I drew Joey Gough and Tara Llanes. I came out of the gate in 3rd, but this time I was able to cut some inside corners and pass both of these fast girls. I was in the lead for most of the course until I made an error in one of the last turns that let Tara catch me. We came at the last jump, which is a difficult road gap with a small take off, at exactly the same time and I was suddenly aware that if we both took off at the same time, we were both going to crash hard. I pulled back and let Tara clear the jump: a split second decision that cost me dearly as I finished the heat in 3rd place, not enough to advance to the semi finals. My overall result was 9th.

Next up now is a trip to Canada’s East Coast to teach a riding clinic in Newfoundland. I have seen photos of the area and the trails and I am excited to have a chance to check it all out. Both courses sold out months ago, so I expect everyone is excited to have me out there and it will be a great opportunity to work with some up and coming riders. You can check out the Newfoundland scene at www.newfoundlandmountainsports.com
After that it is off to Mont Ste Anne, Canada. I am glad that the Norco Team will be there for a bit of extra support and hopefully we can sort out this mechanical issue.

new Helmet

Here are some photos of the wicked new helmet that Rich painted me. I love it! Check out some more of his work (or get him to paint your helmet!) at www.richartconcepts.co.uk

Fort William

This past weekend in Fort William was a good one, despite the weather! Although racing didn't go according to plan, it was awesome spending time with everyone (we had about a million people in our accomodation, including the Canadian DH girls who are always a fun time).

4X: I qualified only in 8th place, which gave me a very difficult first heat, drawing both Sabrina Jonnier and Jill Kintner. I came out of the gate in 3rd and I was able to get passed Sabrina by jumping some of the stuff she wasn't. Unfortunately Sabrina put her pedal power down and overtook me again knocking me out 1st heat. That kind of sucked, but watching the rest of the racing was great. I always enjoy cheering on Katrina Miller anyway who pulled out 3rd place.

DH: My qualifying run didn't go very well. I crashed in the woods and just had a rough run, placing me 11th after the 1st run. My race run was better though. I had a rough start at the top and missed quite a few lines, but I pulled it together about half way down and I was starting to have some fun pushing it. My legs were shot by the end and I was able to crack the Top 10, finishing 9th...still about 5 seconds off the podium. Fort William evades me again!!

We left Scotland Monday wtih Jaymie Mart, Katrina Miller, Melissa Buhl and a huge amount of bikes. I still don't know how we fit in my parent's van! The lady at the airport charged us a FORTUNE for travelling with all our stuff but we managed to make the trip fairly pain free. We are all in Germany now getting ready for the 3rd World Cup. I am starting to get into the swing of things now, so I think Germany will be a good place to pull back into the top 5! We'll see what happens!