There was a big 6 week gap spanning from Leogang to the Canada World Cup so I went home and trained for a couple weeks then travelled to Bromont, Quebec to base myself for a couple weeks before the World Cup. I trained and rode my downhill bike a lot at the bike park. At home we don’t have the luxury of chair lift accessible trails and it’s also winter so I wasn’t riding to much downhill at home.
As some of you might already know MSA didn’t go to plan at all. I had a infected graze that I got from crashing in Bromont a few days prior to the race. On the Thursday and Friday (practice day and qualifying day) I felt really tired and I wasn’t having fun on my bike. I had no idea why but I wasn’t riding well and I didn’t even want to ride. Turns out it was the start of the infection hitting me. To make things worse I got a flat tyre in qualifying so I acquired no points, although being a top 20 rider I was luckily auto qualified. I went to the doctor after qualifying because my elbow was slightly swollen and got a iv drip and anti-biotics.
I woke up on race day with the biggest swellbo ever. It was really sore to move and I felt really sick, dazed and had a headache. There was no way I could race and I was devastated. I was plate number 16 and my goal this year was to finish top 15, so missing a race definitely has made it a lot harder to reach the goal!
Luckily after 4 days of getting IV drips at 2 different hospitals and a course of oral antibiotics the infection had cleared and I was good to go for Windham. I have raced at Windham twice now in 2011 and 2012. Neither times I got a result worth remembering because I had rode off the track in the same infamous rock garden both times. The track is really short, rough and fast. The times are always really close so everyone pushes to the limit making it a very hard race.
I had so much fun riding the track and felt really good. I was slightly disappointed when I qualified 22nd though. I worked on a few things in practice to gain some time, although it all really comes down to just riding really fast because there’s not many lines to change. My race run was good I made a few little mistakes but it was hard not to because you have to push so hard. I ended up 17th, I wanted to be further up the ranks but not a bad result coming from the infection. Unfortunately after coming into wc #5 with the number 16 plate I moved back to 23 after missing Mont st Anne and despite finishing 17th at Windham I moved back to 25. It’s a little depressing working so hard and being back where I finished last year, I have one more World Cup to try to reel back some positions.
One thing worth mentioning is that I was fastest rider on a 26″ wheel. I can’t use it as an excuse but I think it is making it a little more difficult competing against everyone with the 650b wheels when there’s a small but obvious advantage. Things are in the works and I’m sure it won’t be to long before Kona have a 650b bike for me to race.
The last few weeks has made me realise in this sport nothing you can do will guarantee success. Weather you get sick, crash, get a mechanical, ride out of your ability or keep it to safe it all makes it hard to have a perfect race or season.
So right now I’m sitting in Montreal Airport about to fly to whistler. I’m really looking forward to riding the best tracks in the world and do some races that aren’t so serious and don’t come with all the pressure of a World Cup. Massive thanks to all the people that help me out especially Kona Bikes, SRAM, Rockshox, Stans No Tubes, Maxxis, Truvativ, Yakima Racks, Swift Supplements and Breese High Performance.
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