Wiriehorn Swiss Cup

What a weekend! Travelled from Morzine, France to Wiriehorn, Switzerland
last Thursday for a Swiss cup race. It was quite a long drive because we got
a bit lost along the way... But eventually we got there! :) The weather was
crazy there it was so hot about 40 degrees!! It was pretty hard to ride and
race in that heat but luckily there was a river right next to the track so
when it got to hot I just jumped into the river.

Friday we walked the track, it was very different to tracks I've seen over
here it wasn't as steep and mostly single track with about a 200m slight
uphill sprint in the middle! On first glance I thought the track would be
pretty straight forward to ride and I would just be trying to keep up the
speed ad keep off the brakes. I was mistaken, after a run I realised this
track was going to be a challenge to race. Even though it wasn't so
technical the track didn't flow so well and felt a bit awkward in some
places. It was a good challenge for me to try get flow to put together a
smooth and fast race run.

I had a few hiccups over the weekend two flat tires and a broken seat after
I took a rag but luckily nothing major! I had a blowout in my seeding run so
didn't seed very well. Race day came sunny and so hot!! Unfortunately I
didn't get in as many practice runs before my race as I would have liked as
I got a flat tire.

I put together a pretty good run though and was pretty happy with it,
followed all my lines and kept it clean. Ended up in 7th place so yeah
stoked.

On another note so happy to say that I have made the 2012 NZ downhill team
to race at the world championships in Leogang, Austria. Next weekend I'll be
travelling from Morzine to Austria to meet up with the rest of the team.
Can't wait to race and represent NZ at the worlds!! :D

Europe Update

It's been so long since I posted, each time I go to post the internet keepsfailing on me! So here's a recap on how my trip's going so far in Europe.
It is so exciting to be back here in Morzine, France, again!! I arrived afew weeks ago to beautiful sunny weather. So excited to be able to getquality training time on some of the world's best downhill tracks. There areover 40 chairlifts open in this area so there are a lot of different tracksfor me to explore. Since I got here I've been out riding almost every dayand I'm loving it! The tracks are all different with some being really fastand flowy, fast and rough and others are more technical and challenging.There are lots of rocks, roots and jumps so there's lots of differentterrain for me to practice on. So stoked with my brand new set of Schwalbetyres, they are running so mint, hooking the berms and rolling super fast.Thanks a lot Schwalbe!
On July 25th I traveled with a bunch of kiwis to Val d'Isere, France tocompete in round 6 of the World Cup. The track was pretty cool, open, fastand rocky with lots of jumps! It was a challenge for me to ride this onebecause I'm not so confident on fast, open tracks however I overcame thisfear and come qualifying I felt really good about the track. Despite notqualifying (I came in 30th) I felt that I put together a pretty good run andwith a bit more practice I'm sure I would be able to qualify as I was onlyabout 7 seconds off. Pretty stoked with my effort though considering its mysecond world cup race ever! And even more stoked that I hit a huge jump atthe end, which I thought I could never do. Just goes to show that anythingis possible!
So stoked for kiwi rider Brook who won his first World Cup in Elite men!
Last weekend I was at Pila, Italy for an IXS European race. I was realexcited  to ride another new track. Once again I tripped to Pila with a group ofNew Zealanders. We arrived to rain and a huge thunderstorm which luckilycleared off by Friday for track walk. Friday afternoon we walked the trackand after did a few practice runs. The track was pretty long with somerocky, rooty technical sections, sick berms, tight corners and a big jump atthe end. I loved it! I did a couple of runs after track walk and found thetrack to be pretty tiring but so much fun! Practice on Saturday went welland I qualified 10th. I was feeling pretty good come race day. On Sunday itlooked like we were in for a nice sunny day for the race, but all of asudden as I was doing a run down some big clouds came across. It was crazy Icould only see about 40metres in front of me! And then the rain came pouringdown along with thunder and lightening! Luckily it cleared up quite quicklyand the sun came out but the conditions of the track had completely changed.I went into my  race run not really sure what to expect, I was surprised tosee that the track had actually dried out quite a lot from all the ridersbefore me. I put together a pretty good run and ended up in 10th place.Pretty stoked with my result!
This week I'm off to Wiriehorn in Switzerland to race a Swiss cup, can't wait to race! :)

Here's a couple of photo's from the IXS European Cup race at Pila, Italy.