IXS European Cup #5 - Chatel

I had managed to ride the Chatel race track once, earlier in the year, and I loved it, so I have been waiting for this race for a while. We decided to stay in Morzine at Riders Refuge because we had enjoyed it there so much a couple of weeks before. This meant that we had a 45min drive into Chatel each morning, but this was a sacrifice we were willing to make to stay in really comfy accommodation.

After track walk on Friday, I quickly got on the lift to smash out some runs. Conditions were perfect and I was loving it. There were a few rain drops that afternoon, but it didn't look too serious. The track was a bit wetter on Saturday morning, but it was definitely ridable, and pretty fun actually. The weather managed to hold out a bit for seeding runs and I rode a cut spike up front and a dry tyre on the rear. I had a good seeding run on the whole, I made a few mistakes in the rooty sections in the woods, but other than that it was a solid run. I was stoked to see that I was seeded 25th, just 3.5secs off a top 10.

On Saturday evening it poured and so things got pretty interesting come Sunday morning. The rain didn't let up the whole morning. I got my IXS rain suit and decided the brave the cold, wet chairlift and do a run. I had such a good time, even though it was sketchy in places. I did a second practice run, and was blown away with how difficult it had gotten. The ruts were deep and all over the show and it was a lot slipperier. I knew then, that race runs would be rather tough.

The rain stopped a bit over lunch, and I made the decision to take my dry goggles up with me - BIG mistake! About 5 mins before my start, it began to rain again. I accepted that my vision probably wasn't going to be great, but I was still hoping to put together a good run. As soon as I got into the first few corners, I got sketchy, with the track being a lot more churned up and muddy than I had expected. A big off-track, a stall against a tree, and a crash later, I was finally out of the steeper, more technical root sections and into the open section. I just tried to have some fun until the bottom. That run wasn't the best end to a great weekend. To top it all off, the only gust of wind that weekend managed to break a leg right off our gazebo/pits when we were at the bike wash.

I decided that I will give Hafjell WC a skip and rather head to Schladming to get some riding done and prepare better for Leogang WC which is up next!