Mid Season Break

So a fair bit has gone on for the past 8 weeks, mainly 3 MTB world cups, and a few other races thrown in for good measure, now a bit of a mid season break back at home.

Rounds 2-4 of the 4X world cup have treated me well, Firstly with the Maribor mud fest. SO much fun, im beginning to like racing in the mud, no so much the cleaning afterwards, but the racing is always good times. Unlike last year at Maribor I felt really good about things, I was enjoying myself and was riding well, I qualified 1st over Dan Atherton, who to be honest, I thought was going to out qualify me for sure, he was owning practice, and I had a good 2 seconds back to 3rd.

Come race time and I felt good, got a good holeshot but should have covered the inside in turn 2, I dont think a pass could be stuck in that turn, and as it turns out, it couldnt, but I still should have covered it. All the RSP boys (Marosi, Wichman, Slavik) are always tough to race against, they aren't afraid to try whatever they need to in a final, but they race fair as well, so it was a really good final. I was happy to get 2nd, and keep Joost and Slavik behind me (biggest threats for the overall points)

After that we had Winterberg for round 3 of the European 4X series, always a good event there, TONS of people and nice weather. I had a perfect day, qualifying 1st and winning the race, even though our final wasn't on until after Midnight!

Then on to Fort William for World cup #3 Track was unchanged again, but I hear it will be all new for next year, so that will be cool. Despite this track always hating on me from 2003-2007 with Mechanical issues that have put me out every year, I had turned things around and won the last 2 years here and was looking to make it 3 in a row. I had my best qualifyer of the year, coming in almost a full second faster than Joost Wichman in 2nd. Racing was going well, except for a few things coming unclipped out of the start in the round of 32, flat tire in the quarter final, and again in the semi, it wasnt making things easy. But I managed to get through, and the final was probably my cleanest lap of the day, apart from some pretty solid elbow smashes with Joost out of the start. I took win #2 for the season, ahead of Wichman and Prokop, with Romain Saladini in his first race of the year after a broken arm in 4th.

The latest race I did was Leogang, Austria for World Cup #4. Personally I loved the track, big gaps, a really long straight (that I have always wanted to see)and other things we havn't seen before... but there are always haters....some people weren't handling it very well, and instead of thinking there was a problem with either their riding, or that they were outside their comfort zone for the first time of the season, they decided the track was too much... Anyways, It looked cool to watch, there were some epic battles going down on the main long straight, and it was a step in the right direction... Well done to course designer Guido Tschugg (who was injured after a crash in Willingen at the Wheels of speed/euro 4X champs the weekend before)

Only problem was maybe the split 3rd straight. Not having a 4X team mate on the team can be a problem, I haven nobody to practice with to work out exactly what lines are faster, so most of the time I have to guess, or spend more time than I want to watching others. I took the far riskier, and what should have been much faster 'PRO' doubles line (Which only Dan Atherton and Johannes Fischbach also took) It was hard just to get through, but I thought that it HAD to be the fastest line, and with the 1st straight being mega short I really wanted to qualify 1st) turns out the Pro line was much slower than the much easier alternative line. A big slap in the face really, especially since it was super risky to hit it, as you had to nail it just to get through it. I still qualified 2nd though, so it wasnt too bad.

Come racing and I had my lines dialled and knew what I needed to do, I saw this race as being super important, as a good result would give me a near unbeatable lead in the series, but a bad day would open the series right up again.

The rain was pouring down, but everything went to plan. I had great help from my team, who were there at the bottom with a bike to spin around on while Shaun washed my bike, and Damion was up top with plenty of spare dry clothes to change into between rounds to stay warm and clean. No other team had that help and it was a big mental advantage for me by the final. And with this help I took my 3rd win from 4 rounds of the world cup series!

The best part after Leogang was that it was time for me to head home for a Month. Being home rules, you can get into a good routine with riding and training again, see your loved ones and just freshen up a bit. Im enjoyng it a lot! Nothing much interesting goes on at home and thats just the way I like it! You don't have to think too much.

Oh, I was hoping to do the BMX world champs in South Africa, but that isnt going to happen, as round 5 of the MTB world cup is on the same weekend. Major bummer. I guess not to much of a bummer as Round 5 is in Val Di Sole, Italy, where the 2008 world champs were, and I have some unfinished business with that place!

More soon

Gravey!