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. :)