Samuel Shaw NZ mtb racer: Czech XC World Cup Round 2

After staying in Albstadt for two weeks and racing the first World Cup it was time to leave and make our way over to Nove Mesto Na Morave in the Czech Republic. I travelled with Adrian Retief this time making for a quick trip, my bikes however travelled with the NZXC team in their big van, thanks guys!

The Relaxation Penzion

Everybody outside the Penzion

Our massive room

It was pretty warm when we arrived, and I was finally able to ride in just a shirt again. It was cool staying at the Relaxation Penzion again with the coolest guy I know in Czech, Milky. He was friendly as usual and egging us on to race well, even giving us wine after the race, was pretty cool!

Really intense on the start line

From then on the weather got pretty cold and there were small showers each day but not really enough to change the course, race day came along pretty quick and I was feeling pretty good and was ready to race hard. I had a good start loop coming through in the top 60 and after the 1^st lap had worked up into 52^nd,

usually I am completely stuffed at this point in the race but was feeling good and felt like I could go faster but this is where it started turning a bit sour.. On one of the road sections a rider came across me swiping my front wheel and taking me down on the tarmac, luckily it didn’t do too much damage and I was back onto a bunch’s tail in no time, but on the first major rock garden I had a bit of a bumpy ride down and my front tyre burped losing all the air, I went down on the rocks pretty hard but got back up quickly a bit dazed and tried running to the tech zone, after about 4mins of running

I realized I had a CO2 (crap) and pumped up the tire like new. I was able to get in two more laps after this going from about 105^th to 76^th before I was lapped out. I was gutted after feeling so good and not being able to get a result out of it but that is racing as they say.

Big thanks to Sam Thompson for feeding me again and to Adidas for some more lenses for my Half rim pros.

It is also pretty motivating to know I can get up in the field a bit easier now so am amped for Val Di Sole, Italy (the third world cup) in 3 weeks.