WORLD CHAMPS!! and general update

Have just found out last week that I will finally be able to compete and represent New Zealand at the UCI Mountain Bike World Champs in Champery for U23 men this year which is a big thing for me because I have been trying to get to this event for the past three years!! So am very stoked at the moment.
Now all I have to do is not waste this opportunity and perform on the day ha ha..
It is now time to nail down some hard training over the next couple of weeks leading up to the world cup in Czech and get the speed up through to world champs.


Other stuff

For the past to weeks I have been staying in Antibes on the coast of France with my girlfriend's uncle, Paul. Its a very good place to be based with the beach being a 5min walk away, the mountain bike/walking tracks being 20min bike away, and some huge mountains going straight up to 1200m being 50min bike away (the Alps).  I also have a double bed and bathroom to myself. This place is perfect!! I have met some really cool people that all snowboard which is awesome and have let me stay at their houses up in the Maritime Alps (just out of Antibes). Last week I went camping at Valberg.  Pitched my tent out in the whops somewhere and was woken up by some growling at around midnight, scary stuff!! I then went to St Auban to celebrate Bastille Day with a bunch of these cool people I mentioned earlier at Jayne's house (Paul's friend). There were some good fireworks and a live band after, wearing some funky clothes.

So far so good.

Cheers!

better late than never

Racing update (done on a phone)

Chur

After the race we headed to Basel to stay with Pascal and his parents Dieter and Beatris. I had an awesome time at their place and probably ate half their pantry as well.. Sorry about that. They also took us to the Swiss Circus which was amazing! I was sad to leave but the race in Chur was coming up fast. We stayed in Flims which is just up a bit from Chur. There is some really nice riding in Flims and I'd recommend it to any mtb enthusiast! We started riding the course a couple of days out from the race, it was a good hard course with a lot of climbing. A lot of fast downhills. The race day was hotter than any other day we had been there and we were down for 9 laps. I was seeded far back as usual (48th) and held that position for the first lap but started fading back into the 50s. On around the 3rd lap I found a rhythm but I was already way too far back in the field. I started catching places each lap and was feeling good! Until Nino came past and I had been lapped. I finished 8 laps in 32nd and was happy that the legs were working but I need to do a lot of work on holding that intense pace for the 1st 3 laps or so!

at the circus

Beiley the dog

Double rainbow!!

awesome track in flims

Val d'I sere

We arrived in Tignes at 2000m altitude to our hotel which was mint.

There is still a lot of snow up in Tignes and you can summer ski here! Which was tempting but I'm here for racing. Training up this high was a bit hard on the lungs and you would get slight headaches from time to time. Anyway the course in Val d'I sere had just been constructed. It was quite bumpy in places and had some challenging parts on the course which made for an overall good mtb race course.

Race day was hot like usual and there were a lot more starters in the race than I would have thought (106). I was seeded on the 3rd row and I wanted a good fast start this race. The whistle blew and I took off as quick as my legs would take me, this lasted about 2 mins until the 1st climb and I started going back through the field. I could not maintain the speed I'd hoped to. It took until the end of the 2nd lap to get my rhythm back and I worked my way up the field into the top 40 by the last lap. Coming up to the sprint for the finish my chain dropped off and I lost 3 places which was annoying. I finished the race in 40th overall and 14th U23. I now have a month until the World Cup in Czech and need to do a lot of work on my race start and being able to push above and over my limit in races. Until then Au revoir.  I think that's how its spelt.

the fox

the view

(wonderful isn't it)

Cheers