Wheels of Speed - Willingen - Germany - 14-17/06/12

From Fort William we brought both George and Vero with us. Bringing Vero with us has made things a lot easier for us all once we got to Germany as she can speak German pretty fluently. Because of this we were able to get some pretty sick and decent accommodation for not too much. It also made our washing our clothes experience a hell of a lot easier as the lady was not happy to see us at first with all our washing. But once Vero got talking she came around and was happy to do it for us. Once we picked it up once we were done riding we found that she had not only washed it, but also dried and folded it for us. This was choice and more than we were expecting especially at 5-6 Euros each (especially considering last year I paid 2 Euros just to go a self service Laundromat to wash them only).

 Thursday was registration day with some practice in the afternoon. For me this was just a day spent on getting used to the track and checking out lines and not going fast. Friday rolled around and Vero and I did some runs with Tracey discussing lines and following one another. By the end of the day I was feeling pretty comfortable on the track and hitting all the jumps that I wanted to do; now I just needed to go faster. Overnight it must have rained quite a bit and continued to rain on and off throughout Saturday, our qualifying day. The track rode well in the wet apart from a corner on the off camber grass at the bottom which was a bit hit and miss if you got off line. Qualifying came up and I was feeling good and confident. My aim was at least a top 5. The run didn’t start off too good. Went through a puddle at the very top of the run which seriously limited my vision causing me to around the gap jump. By half way down the track all I could see was mud (wish I had taken a photo of my goggles at the bottom of the track). By this point I was wishing that I had some tear offs. Once I got out of the trees I whipped my goggles off but it made no difference as I ended up with so much mud and water in my eyes that they were pretty much shut and remained shut till I got to the finish line and found some clean clothes under my jacket to get the worst of the mud out of my eyes. I qualified 4^th which I was happy about since I didn’t hit any jumps and the other girls ahead of me did.

Race day the next day was the complete opposite. It hadn’t rained over night and was windy which dried the track considerably. Going up for 1^st practice run I thought the track would still be wet and muddy but it wasn’t. There was about one puddle on the track and I came down pretty much spotless. Did another few runs trying to get the run into one of the jumps I hadn’t done but called it quits after nearly crashing twice as it wasn’t worth it for me. Race run came around and for the first time in my life I did a warm up. I spent around 20-30 minutes warming up with Tracey and Vero before it was time to head to the start gate for my run. Between my last practice run and my race run the track had dried out heaps which I was not expecting. Between that and the warm up I came into things a lot faster that I had prepared for. Ended up overshooting to flat two of the top jumps which was pretty scary and clip a rock while pedalling but somehow managed to hold it all together and had a good run. Came down into 1^st place with 3 riders after me. Not sure what happened to the rider right behind (think she might have flatted?), but the lady behind her came down and bet me by around 0.2 of a second which looking back now I’m pretty guttered about as I know where I lost this time (over shooting the jumps and also clipping a rock while pedalling). But at the time I didn’t realise that I was this close to her and was stoked to get third, (Still am, but 2^nd would have been even cooler). Tracey came down into 1^st by about 7 or 8 seconds, and Vero ended up 5^th. Being up on the podium was pretty cool, got to do the whole Champagne shower thing which was pretty choice and fun. Ended up leaving the race with a box of chocolates and a 250 Euro check. Now I just have to work out how to turn the check into cash without losing any of it in the transaction...  

WC Round 3 - Fort William - Scottland - 07-10/06/12

The drive to Fort William was a long one. The boys did about 27 hours of solid driving right after we had finished watching the racing in Val Di Sole. After that we still had some driving to do but took our time. Once again we arrived at our destination early. Once again the boys opted to get another nights accommodation, except this time I decided to save some money and sleep in the Van. The place we were staying at was the Corran Inn which is in Onich right by the Corran Ferry. We were about a 10-15 min drive from the track. Thursday rolled around and we headed over to the track to register and do our track walk. During this time I caught up with Gabriela Williams from Cedric Garcia’s team (met her in Val Di Sole after Qualifying), and Vero as well. Once we were done with our track walk we headed back to our accommodation. Friday came round and I headed up the hill from some practice runs, bumped in Tracey Hannah on the way to the gondola so cruised down behind and crashed when I braked on a wooden ramp I forgot was there and went for a slide on my arse. Ended up with a graze on the side of my arse/leg but it was more embarrassing than anything. She ended up losing me about half way down the track when I stopped to look at some things and watch people do some of the drop/jumps. I did some more cruisey runs by myself just trying to get to know the track and get up to speed slowly. By the end of the day I was loving the track and feeling good. Saturday rolled around and with it came qualifying. I was still loving the track and felt as though I stood a good chance at qualifying. But once again I was outside the top 20. I was closer to the top 20 time wise but further away position wise. (At Val Di Sole I was 25^th and about 13 seconds off qualifying and here I was 26^th and about 9 seconds off qualifying.) I can’t work out what I’m doing wrong apart from being a little bit too careful. Hopefully between now and my next world cup I’ll get up to a world pace. Guess we will just have to wait and see till then.

WC Round 2 - Val Di Sole, Italy - 31/05/12-03/06/12

We arrived in Val Di Sole a day early so ended up getting some accommodation for that night as well and got our bikes sorted. The next day we cruised around in the morning doing nothing in particular till registration opened and it was time to walk the track. Registration was quick and easy unlike last year. During the track walk I discovered that the track had changed quite a bit from last year, with some new loamy sections that were obviously going to be torn to shreds come qualifying/racing time. After the track walk I knew roughly what lines I wanted to take to start with while I gauged the track and speed before I worked on my final lines. I started taking photos but gave up since there were too many people on the track to get a clear photo. Ended up getting a copy of Bryn’s photos that he took. After studying the photos during the evening I was looking forward to riding the track the next day. Friday was the first day of practice and I was loving the track despite the crashes on my first two runs. After these crashes I realised that I needed to tone it down a notch as the track was changing quicker than I could react. Come my last run down the track I had my lines pretty much sorted apart from one or two sections so decided to try and go a bit faster down the track. This turn out to be a bad idea as I ended up over the bars and screwing up my leg in the first rock garden which put an end to my run. I cruised down the hill slowly and somehow crashed on the bridge which killed my arm and made holding on to the bars kind of hard and pretty painful. Once I got back to our accommodation I had a shower and started loading up on anti inflammatory cream and some ibuprofen before I went to bed. Qualifying day I woke up with a pretty sore/stiff neck. Did 3 practice runs. First one I just cruised down looking for lines and bumped into Tracey Hannah so I looked at lines and discussed them with her and then did a run following her down. After that I did a run myself at a steady pace nonstop to see if I would be able to hold on with my arm. All was well and I knew I just needed to ride faster come qualifying time. Qualifying came and went and I had a steady run with a few near crashes but I managed to stay upright. I ended up in 25^th place (not a qualifying position) about 13 seconds off qualifying. Was pretty guttered and disappointed in myself and am pretty hungry to Qualify for Fort William this coming weekend.