Norway World Cup

I just competed in the final world cup race in Norway, my last race in Europe. What an awesome race it was and the best way to finish my trip round Europe. I qualified for the first time at a World Cup! So stoked.

After a long trip, three days of driving in total, I arrived in Hafjell, Norway for the world cup. The weather was a huge change from what I've gotten used to in Europe, it was very cold, wet and windy! Wednesday was track walk, another new track to ride, I was so excited! The track was pretty insane, it was definitly going to be a good challenge for me. There were four big jumps at the very beginning of the track which I took one look at and thought 'woah!' they were huge! The rest of track was pretty technical with loads of rocks and roots and some really nice berms in between. There was a huge rock garden named the "rock jungle" and another further down, my first thoughts were how on earth am I going to ride over these rocks! There was no smooth, safe line through them, I was gonna have to ride right over the top of them all! This track was for sure the most technical track I'd ridden all season. Although in saying that there were also some real fast sections in between the technical bits.

I had one day and a half of practice, then qualifying on Friday afternoon. The first day of practice the weather was mint, it was super cold but the track was dry. After the first day of practice I had the track dialled. I amazed myself by hitting all four of the big jumps at the top, I was so stoked as I had originally thought there was no way I could do them. The rock gardens became less scary each time I rode them and got over them. By the end of the day I was feeling pretty good on the track a long as I didn't stop as think about what I was riding over!

The next day produced some challenges, it poured with rain overnight I was
pretty nervous about riding the rocks and roots after all the rain. I needn't have been worried though as it was all good and I managed to ride everything just fine, by the time we had qualifying the track had dried out a lot. I got a bit too excited for my run and got pretty wild through the rock gardens and over the jumps, but somehow I managed to stay on my bike and I come in 18th. I made the top 20 women so I qualified to race the world cup! I was so happy, as it was the first time I qualified to race a world cup! I knew for sure I could make up some time on my race run as in qualifying I missed a few of my lines with this in mind I did a few practice runs Saturday morning riding my lines trying to be as smooth and fast as I could. Race day was nice and sunny for a change although there was a chill in the air making warming up vital. I was pretty relaxed and feeling confident on the track come my race run. I put together a great run, kept it clean, smooth and gave it my all. I ended up 16th two spots up from qualifying so I was stoked! :) I am so happy to have ended my trip on such a high. I've learnt so much during these last two months and I'm so looking forward to coming over next year to keep chasing my dream of being a pro downhill rider. :)

2012 Austria World Champs

What an intense week! 2012 Downhill World Champs are done and dusted for another year. Last Tuesday after a long drive from Morzine, I arrived in Leogang, Austria for the biggest downhill race of the year, World Championships! I was so excited to be part of the NZ team again, and stoked
to be able race and represent NZ.

Wednesday was spent chilling and making sure all our bikes were good to go for practice on Thursday afternoon. The next morning we had 'track walk', I was excited to see what it would be like. The track was pretty mint, and had quite a few open pedally sections in the  middle with heaps of table top jumps. Then some rooty sections through trees and lots of berms in the top section. Overall it was a pretty cool track, which was going to be really fast. After track walk, I got to ride it. Practice went well, the track was pretty loose due to being so dry and gravelly, but heaps of fun! I loved it!

Come Friday the weather changed completely, I woke up in the morning to the sound of rain on the roof. Outside there was snow on the tips of the mountains! Definatly time for a change of tires. I was pleasantly surprised to find the the track much easier to ride than I expected and my dirty dan
Schwalbe tires hooked real well in the mud! Despite it being super muddy, because the track was quite gravelly, it wasn't so slippery. It rained throughout practice on Friday, and was so much fun! I love riding in the mud. By the end of the day I had the track almost dialled, I had hit most of the jumps and was feeling pretty good about the track despite the rain.

Saturday we had practice in the morning and timed runs in the afternoon. The track was still really muddy but luckily the rain had eased off with only a few showers throughout the day. I sussed out the last few jumps I wanted to hit on Saturday morning in time for my timed run. I didn't put together the best run in timed practice but all good I knew I could make up some time on my race run. 

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear with no sign of rain. I did a few runs in the morning to get the feel of the track riding all my lines. Because the rain had stopped the track got quite gluggy, I decided to keep my mud tires on because it was still pretty muddy. The sun decided to come
out mid morning and it got hot real quick, such a huge change from the weather on Friday and Saturday. Between my practice runs and race run I had about a four hour wait, so I chilled out and prepped for my race run. Due to the sun the track was drying out pretty fast so I decided to change my tires back to my dry tires, they would roll way faster on the gravelly section in the middle. It was lucky I did change them because come my race run the track had dried out so much from all the juniors riding it before us.

Then it was time for my race run, I couldn't wait to race it was finally the day I'd been preparing for, for so long. My run went really well I rode all my lines well, I only got a little out of control over a few jumps because I pushing myself extra hard but I stayed on the bike and got down with a clean
run so I was stoked! Ended up 24th in Elite Women, I was so stoked! :)

I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who's helped me get to where I am. A big thank you to Auckland Downhill Club for all the support you've given me. Thanks to everyone at Avanti Plus Waitakere for all the work you've done on my bike. Thanks to Craig at Hobsonville Physio for helping me out when needed. Thanks to the NZ team managers Vicki and Jeremey, for everything and Northern, our mechanic for looking after my bike. Thanks to my family for the continuos support your've given me over the years and thanks to everyone else who has helped me out along the way.

Now I'm in Hafjell, Norway to race the last World Cup round, tommorow I've got track walk can't wait to see what the tracks like! :)