Tuesday, July 3, 2012

UCI World Cup Windham, U.S.A

After last weekends result at Mont Sainte Anne I was feeling pretty confident about nailing a solid result in the final race of the trip before heading home.
We got our first look at the track on Tuesday and it was almost identical to the same course we had 2 years ago as an Under 19.  This was all good and I was excited about this track as it is a similar sort of course to our race track at home Living Springs.   A nice steady climb to the top with a couple of blasts through the trees and then all the way back down to the bottom for another round!  With this sort of course in mind I got my race plan sorted quick smart and I was feeling confident for race day, just had to make sure I had a good first lap in!
The race start was at 9am and I decided to do a pre race lap with Mat to get the body and mind into the groove of what was about to come.  Just as I had started my down hill at the top of the course I was about to enter the second set of trees and out of nowhere to my suprise I slipped my hand off the bars and had a huge crash only 30 odd minutes out from the start!  This certainly was not ideal and I got a bit winded from the impact at first.  Anyway I brought myself around and dusted myself down and checked over the bike, only a slightly bent Hope brake lever but at least I was still mostly in one piece!
Quickly after all the drama it was off down town to the start and a few minutes pedalling around took us to the start line and right on the hour we were off!
I started off well and was feeling happy with where I was sitting to begin with.  As we came onto the course and lap 1 the intensity got taken up a level and the legs were screaming out!  Unfortunately like last weekend I just didnt quite have the sting in the legs to hold my position up the first climb but after that I pressed on and  passed a couple of groups of riders and tried to get into a bit of a rhythm.  The rest of race was a bit of grind in the hot sunny conditions but I finished up 38th in the U23 field.
The rest of the day saw a nice relaxing afternoon and night with the lads and it was a neat ending to a superb trip.
Right now I am just across the ditch from NZ and am looking forward to seeing everyone back home again. It has been an awesome trip this year and our Canadian friend Julien Petit has been an huge help to us and both Mat and I can't thank him enough!  Also a few people I would like to thank - Mat and the boys from Cycleways, Jeremy Murphy, Brad Williams, Dave Plew, Andrea Murray, Mum and Dad and of course to all my support out there and everyone who is helping me out along the way!  Cheers to the Swaghorn to for another good trip overseas!