First up was the 2nd round of the Italin Cup, in Prali near Torino, back on the 26th of June
After driving on a windey mountain road for a few hours we finally arrived in the super small town of Prali which seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere, usually pretty common for an Italian cup!
Luckily tho the track was awesome,it was super wide and fast up top with some natural doubles, then tightened up in the bottom before a bit of a pedal to the finish, so it was super fun to ride but pretty hard on the brakes!
Race day rolled around and my main aim was just to have some fun as i was off to Canada the next day for the world cup there. I ended up taking the win by 7 seconds...
Next up was the 4th round of the UCI World Cup in Mont Saint-Anne Canada
I was lucky enough to get helped out by the guys at Elka Suspension, which is based in Montreal Canada, I flew in on Moday and Patrick from Elka was there to pick me up, and also Matej Charvat and Adam Brayton who are also getting helped out by Elka.Tuesday we all woke up super early, due to the time difference, so after Pat cooked us up a beauty of a Canadian breakfast it was off to the Elka factory for a bit of a look around, meet the guys and pack up the trailer ready for Mont Saint-Anne which was about a 4 hour drive away.
Wednesday was track walk and rego and the weather was average!It was my first time there so i was pretty keen to get up the track and have a look at it as i had heard it was a goodie! After walking it i was super excited to ride it the next day! The track had a bit of everything, from some fast open turns up top, awesome flowing sections in the trees, a super fast section in the middle with some sweet jumps, then into some technical rocky sections in the bottom tree section.
Thursday was practice day and the weather was still pretty average with heaps of low cloud hanging around at the top of the hill and the odd shower of rain, so it was on with the mud tires!Practice was heaps of fun in the mud though, until we had to clean and dry everything afterwards!!Friday was Qualifying day, i still wasnt feeling super fast on the track and the lines were always changing with massive ruts and holes appearing, so i just wanted to have a clean qualy run, but that didnt quite go to plan,i was my own mechanic at these two races and after checking pretty much everything on my bike except the pedals...I lost one in my run and had a big crash.So that wasnt ideal! But luckily i am in the top 20 in the overall standings which meant i went through to the finals on Sunday anyway.
Race day came around and the weather had finally cleared up and warmed up and the track had dryed out alot,i was feeling pretty good on the track and had all my lines sorted, so i was feeling pretty confident for the finals! My run went reasonably well, i made some big mistake up top but when i got into it i rode some sections the best i had all weekend,i ended up in 19th, a little bit off were i wanted to be, but its always good to have a bike and body in one peice after a track like that!
Next up was Windham in the US of A,
After some big river fishing on our way we arrived in the little township of Windham which consisted of a petrol station a couple of shops and a handful of hotels,The hill in Windham was looking pretty small so I didnt really know what to expect,but after walking it, it was looking sweet, it was super fast and flowing with some steep rocky sections and some fun looking jumps!
Next up was practice, It took me a while to work the track out but when i got into it, it was wideopen most of the way and heaps of fun,
Qualifying was on friday and after some good practice in the morning I qualified in 17th place, so i was pretty happy with that as i knew i had alot more to give in the finals on Sunday,
Saturday was an extra day of practice and i was having heaps of fun so i decide to go up for "1 last run"... never a good idea... I ended up having a stupid crash on probably the easiest turn on the track and tweaked up my hand pretty bad.
Sunday rolled around and i was hoping to wake up to a new hand, but it wasnt looking/feeling to good and it was swollen up pretty bad...We headed to the track and i decided to try do a practice run, but after riding around the carpark and hardly being able to grip the bars i wasnt feeling too confident!
I got about 50 metres down the track and had to pull off and ride down the ski slope, as i couldnt hold on to the bars,
I was feeling pretty gutted after that as i thought i might have to miss the race, but after convincing myself the pain was all in my head i went and got my hand/wrist strapped up and found some painkillers and we were back in the game...kind of.
My race run soon came around and after not doing any practice in the morning i wasnt to sure wat to expect, but i had heard i was alot dryer and faster. My goal for the race was just to get to the finish line and try not to loose my top 20 placing in the overall.
My run went better than i thought it would(I guess the adrenaline cancels out some of the pain), although my hand almost blew off the bars a few times in the rough sections and i held back a bit too much, which you cant afford to do on a short track like that...I ended up in 30th, and droped back to 19th in the overall, not the best result,but i was happy just to be able to finish the race!
After getting back to Italy i went and got my hand checked out and turns out i broke my 4th and 5th metacarpal,so im all casted up now so hopefully it will be healed up enough before the next world cup in France!
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