Tuesday 24 August 2010

Champery and Val de Sole World Cups

Champery, Switzerland

World Cups Round 4 and 5 where back to back weekend starting with Champery in Switzerland. This track was raced a few years back for the first time and I would say this is one of the most talked about World Cup. Mainly because of how steep the track is and also the amazing run of Sam Hill the fastest qualifier by 15 seconds, coming down the heavy rain to nearly win and taking 2nd behind Matti who came down on a dry course.


I was really looking forward to this race mainly because of the track. I knew that the steep terrain would suite me and couldn’t wait to ride it.

After first practice the track was more amazing than I ever thought it could be. Every section was amazing and there was not a bad bit on the track. The rain moved in for the second day of practice and it was like a completely different track, I thought that it was more fun as it made it so much more wild to ride.


I had a good qualifying run that put me in 13th place so I was stoked with that. This has been my best qualifying result yet. For the finals the track was getting really rough so I was aiming to get down with a sold run. I ended up 25th which is my best result ever.

Hear is a link to my race run on Freecaster.tv.

http://freecaster.tv/uci-mtb-world-cup-dhi-2010/1011052/uci-mtb-world-cup-dhi-4-champery-replay

I’m run is around 2 hours 28 minutes.

Hear are some Dirt Videos I am in form the race.

http://dirt.mpora.com/news/dirt-tv-champery-qualifying.html (Small clip at about 3 mins)

http://dirt.mpora.com/news/dirttvchampery-qualifying-chit-chat.html (at 2 mins 20 ish)


Val de Sole, Italy

Next was the Italy World Cup, I was looking forward to this race as well because I had seen a lot of videos of it from when they had the World Champs there a few years back.



The track was supper rough and rocky. It was really dusty as well, we had a little bit of rain during practice and that didn’t change anything it was still the dustiest track I had ever ridden.

I had a solid quailing run which put me in 73rd, I maybe held back a bit too much, but there was plenty left in the tank for the finals.



Finals went well, I had good run and felt fast but in control. I finished in 54th which was another good result.

My results after the last 2 races has put me back up in the top 80 World Cup standings. I’m now sitting in 62nd coming in to the final round in Windham USA.



Hear is a link to my race run on Freecaster.tv.

http://freecaster.tv/uci-mtb-world-cup-dhi-2010/1011054/uci-mtb-world-cup-dhi-5-val-di-sole-replay

I’m on at around 57 minutes.