Get Well Soon Kevin

Big hugs for Kevin! This young guy and his little brother Sean, as well as the rest of the family have been great friends of ours for a few years now. I have had the pleasure of riding with these speedy little guys many times now and I just heard the other day that Kevin (who absolutely rips it up in Whistler) just had his first DH related injury. Hit a drop and broke his collar bone. Just wanted to say get well soon!

World Champs Final Results

Photo by: Graeme Murray www.filteredvision.co.nz
World Champs Racing is over again now for another year. I could hardly wait for the race and in the start gate I was already going NUTS. I think it was the jelly beans on the way up the lift. I was so ready to give 'er on the course. I was having a pretty decent run doing parts of the top section absolutely mint and keeping fairly smooth. Then, coming into the technical section I hit something that blew both of my feet off the pedals and threw my chest on my handle bars. I was coming up to a 7 foot drop like this and there was really not much I could do so as a survival technique I managed to get my right foot back on, jammed my left foot on the ground and used it to take off!! In the air I forced my chest off my bars and somehow I managed to land like that...one foot and all! I was so surprised I wasn't dead!!! I had to ride the technical section with one foot on but I made it. The only thing that went seriously wrong from there was that my seat was sideways from the impact of my landing, so I could not sit down and pedal through the long pedally section, which cost me quite a bit of time. I managed to get a hand on my seat and yank it a bit straighter further down the course making riding a bit easier then and I came across the line with the fastest time at that point. I was in 1st for a few riders until Racheal Atherton came down with a clean run 4 seconds faster and pushed me to 2nd where I stayed for quite a while. However a few other ladies managed to get clean runs in and I soon found myself just outside the top 5 (I finished 6th). Check out the full results here
ROTO_DH_Elite_Women_Final_Analysis.pdf

I was pretty happy with my result and I am on my way to party. It is my birthday tomorrow, so I am celebrating it all tonight!

World Champs Update

So far things down here have been intense. The 4X track here is HUGE and unforgiving, intimidating for most riders. Renne Junga had a huge crash early in practice that put her out of the Women's 4X. With her left almost half of the women's class, including legendary rider Katrina Miller. All of our thoughts have been with Renne this week and we were all happy to see her mum at the 4X finals cheering on the rest of the ladies and taping the event for Renne. Jill Kintner was crowned champ again, with the closest UK girl being Joey Gough in 5th. I did not race the event as the DH is tough and I need all my energy.
DH has been going fairly well. The track is muddy, which is awesome for us Brits. Hopefully the rain will kick up again tomorrow and it will be even muddier. The more mud the more difficult this track will be to ride. Qualifying was an eye opener for me. It was my 1st complete run on the track and it turned out to be more exhausting than I expected. I made some big mistakes early and was exhausted when I came to the pedal section. I qualified in 13th place. I can't wait to get out there for my race run now. I can hear that podium calling my name.

Rotorua

We made it! Despite all the stressing about flights from Heathrow, the whole team made it safely. We are now just kicking back and relaxing before the real show begins Monday. The town here is really small and the fact that it is all volcanic rock and sulfur flats makes it look pretty cool but smell so bad. We have been riding as a team everyday so far at the local BMX track (which is pretty wicked) and on the road, but we decided to explore some of the toursit attractions in our down time. Tracy, Martin and myself went to a "sheep show"...that's right a tourist attraction where we get to watch sheep do all sorts of interesting things! It was an eye opener, to say the least. After that we took a wicked Jet Boat ride. That thing was COOL. It went from 0-100mph in 4 sec!! I could hardly believe it! Not to mention that we went about that fast around corners as well. It was such a wicked ride, I need to get myself a BOAT! I am going to try and get up the island a bit this weekend and do a touch of the tourist thing before I get focused on Worlds. This place is pretty cool so far.

Jeep Series #2

This weekend was round two of the Jeep King of the Mountain Series. This event is held in Elkhart Lake, WI at the same time as "Camp Jeep" so there are loads of people here showing off their Jeeps and watching us race. Tony Hawk even makes it out to this event and the Blues Brothers are performing tonight as part of the whole weekend. For added entertainment the Fender USA guys thought they would take a stab at teaching us mountain bike folk how to play a little guitar. Although I am sure it pained any descent guitar player to listen to us, it was great fun and everyone seemed to get a kick out of us. I think there will even be a taste of some guitar action when this event airs on CBS Sports September 24th. To check out the TV coverage from the 1st round of the Jeep, tune into CBS Sports Sunday, Aug 13 at 1pm (EST). Should be a great show!
After all the fun in the pits racing came and went rather quickly. I was lined up to race Melissa Buhl again in the first round and after trying to get around her, I ended up in the dirt again. You know, I think I might have a shot at winning one of these 4X heats if I could just keep my rubber side down! Either way it was just great being a part of the atmosphere. I still finished the event in 6th place, so I can't complain about that.
Off now to check out the Blues Brothers and then get some sleep before I start travelling tomorrow back to Canada to catch a flight out to NZ. I can't wait for World's now...only 9 more days.