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.