After Mont Saint Anne World Cup there was about a month gap until the Norway World Cup. In this time I went to Whistler and raced in Crankworx where I scored a 2nd place in dual slalom and 10th in the Canadian open. After the event was open I stayed there for a couple weeks riding with my friends from home. This was refreshing to take time off from the world cups and racing in general to just have fun and hang out.
Last year for some reason I didna��t really like the track. There are a few good bike park turns which I like but all the technical sections were awkward slippery rock gardens. This year it was really dry and therefore I liked it a lot better. I was feeling really good in practice straight away. Ia��ve been changing my shock setup a lot recently between a 350 and 400 spring. Sometimes Ia��ll swap back and forwards a few times at a race but here I felt comfortable on the 400 in my first run so it stayed like that.
I was really excited for qualifying and was confident and not too nervous. Unluckily for me I got caught off my line less than a minute into my run and hit my derailleur into a rock which got my chain jammed. This meant I had to coast the rest of the track and actually having to scoot some sections I thought I wouldna��t even qualify. I ended up 55th and I was left pretty sad thinking of how I could have qualified.
When it came to race day it started to rain heavily. This was not to my discretion and I was a little disappointed as I know Ia��d be stronger in the dusty conditions then in the wet. My practice runs in the morning were pretty good. I didna��t push it too much and tried to keep the same lines I was riding in the dry. In conditions like this every rider is faced with a decision to attack really hard at a high risk of crashing or just try to stay on the bike because a lot of people will crash. I think I opted for the latter but maybe took it too easy. After a couple of bad choices to pull tear offs and a costly mistake in the main rock garden my hopes of a good result here were gone. I ended up 39th which is a disappointing result. Luckily Ia��m still in the top 30 overall and will try to improve it as much as possible in Leogang.