IXS European DH Cup #2 - Spicak

This last weekend, we were in Spicak, a small Czech village, just over the German boarder. We ended up arriving a little bit later than expected on Wednesday night, and after driving through the lights from the casinos and strip clubs, we got to our apartment around 11 o'clock. The lady who owned the apartments wasn't too impressed when she got a phone call from 2 South Africans who were outside the apartment. Anyway, after getting inside, we finally got some sleep.The next day, we headed to the track, to do some recon, and find out exactly what we'd be racing. The track was a lot tighter and slower than expected. I knew that it was going to be a challenging weekend, especially if the rain clouds overhead were anything to go by. We then decided to set up our pits so that we could secure a good spot. 

The slow rock gardens, and super tights turns took a little bit of time to get adjusted to. Over the past few weeks I had ridden Val di Sole, Leogang, and then Schladming in between, so as you can imagine, my bike wasn't quite set up for Spicak. From the word go, I battled to find flow on the track, and I struggled to find a setup that I felt really comfortable on. The rocks were a bit slippery during Saturdays practice, but some mid day showers made it very slippery and wet for seeding runs that afternoon. My seeding wasn't great and I knew that I would have to improve come race run. I seeded 62nd.

The next day the sun was out but heavy rain during the night made the first few runs of the day super slippery and sketchy. I looked for new lines and for places where I could make up some time. Things just weren't going my way, and I hurt my braking finger after I crashed trying to avoid another fallen rider in front of me. By the time race runs came, the track was a lot drier and so the cut spike I had on the front wasn't necessary. I felt better in my race run than I did in seeding, but it was still far from a good run. I finished up 72nd, far from where I wanted to be, but it was just one of those weekends I guess. I am really looking forward to some downtime here in Schladming after 6 weekends of consecutive racing.

IXS European DH Cup #1 - Leogang

Going into Leogang was a bit different to any of the other races I have done in Europe so far. I had raced there before, and so I kind of knew what to expect going into it, which was awesome. After Val di Sole, we went straight to Schladming, and we got some amazing riding done while we were there. This was perfect preparation for Leogang.

The track in Leogang was relatively unchanged and was running as fast as ever. The loose, gravel corners combined with the high speeds of the track, saw a couple of stoppages in practice as riders were airlifted out. I got into the track very quickly, and we got a couple of South African whip trains going on the jump sections. Fridays practice as well as Saturday mornings practice were dry, but some afternoon rain made seeding runs on Saturday interesting. My seeding run was at 17:30. Just before my run, I was told that one of the sneaky lines that lots of us were taking had been taped off - which wasn't ideal. I didn't know how the rain had affected the track, so I didn't push it too hard. I seeded 56th with a time of 3:44.424. There was an exciting moment in my run though, when I was nearly seat bounced over the bars, because I took a tear-off off in a stupid place.

I got my bike and lines dialed in on Sunday morning, and because it wasn't raining, the track dried up pretty quickly and there was a ton of grip come race time. My race run went really well, and I had a lot of fun in it - probably the most fun I had the whole weekend. I did have a sketchy moment when I over jumped one of the tables to flat when I hit it at race pace though. I finished 46th with a time of 3:30.896, in a field stacked with top World Cup racers.

All in all, my first European Cup experience was an awesome one, and I am really amped for the next one in Spicak, Czech Republic, this weekend.

UCI DHI World Cup #2 - Val di Sole

Val di Sole, Italy was the venue for the second round of the UCI World Cup Series. It was also where I would do my first World Cup of 2013. The track is known as one of the gnarliest, most technically challenging tracks on the circuit, and I think it would be hard to disagree with that. After walking the track, I had a few doubts in my mind about how to even go about riding some of the sections. Val di Sole is steep, rough, rocky, rooty and loose the entire way down.

Thankfully the weather was perfect, because I have no idea how you would ride the track in the wet. We missed registration on Wednesday by like 5 minutes, so after registering early on Thursday morning, I headed up straight away to try and get as much time on the track as possible. The track wasn't as tough to ride as I had thought during the track walk - emphasis on RIDE, to RACE the track is on another level. It took some time to get into it, but by the end of Thursdays short practice session, I was really enjoying the riding. Myself and Adi walked the track again that afternoon, to look for any new lines that had formed. One thing was clear, and that was that the track was so much more beat up and rougher than when practice started - and it was only the first day.

After another short practice session on the morning of qualies, it was time to get the bike and body prepped for my qualification run that afternoon. I went off right near the end, because I was seeded 160th. By this stage the track was just brutal. I wasn't 100% sure that I had been able to spend enough time on track going into my run, but nevertheless, I was extremely excited to race.

I started my run off well, and I felt like I was getting into the groove of things, until Val di Sole decided to make me ride where it wanted me to ride. It seemed as if I was riding any lines that I possibly could, not necessarily the ones I wanted to. It was so tough to hold on to the bars near the end, my arms and upper body had taken a hammering. I crossed the finish line to see that I was out of the top 80 and so I hadn't qualified. I ended up 136th.

 That definitely wasn't what I had wanted to see, but I made it out of Val di Sole alive, unlike many others, and I learnt so much from just riding that track. A positive of not qualifying was that I got to watch the top guys ride some of the sections, which was educational to say the least haha.


I have taken so much out of my experience on one of the gnarliest, most humbling tracks out there, and I can't wait to go back and race it again in the future - its definitely one of my favourites.

 Leogang up next!

IXS Swiss Cup #1 - Morgins - 9 June 2013

My second stop of the season was in one of the most famous riding regions in Europe. Morgins bike park is so close to Morzine, Champery, and Chatel, so I knew it was going to be a good track. We managed to book an awesome apartment in Chatel, which was just over the French boarder and so quite a bit cheaper than Switzerland. 

After walking the track on Thursday afternoon, I was pretty excited to ride. The track had loads of corners, some fast traversing sections, one or two sick jumps up top, some rooty sections and a very tech line where you could hop over a stream. 

Fridays practice runs didn't quite go according to plan. About half way down our first run on the track, I was riding behind Adi Van der Merwe, when we both over jumped one jump to flat - coming from SA both of us were used to having to hit jumps as fast as possible haha. The jump was on a bench cut section, which traversed the mountain. Adi ended up hitting the bank on our right and crashed afterwards, and I then hit him and went over the bars to the left, and down the mountain. Luckily neither of us were hurt and we went up for some other runs. Being Europe, it had to rain during the weekend, and Saturdays practice was a wet one. After a couple of runs, and some sketchy moments in the roots, it was time for seeding. 

The track dried up remarkably quickly, and so we didn't actually need the mud tyres that were on our bikes. I seeded 35th.

The weather on race day seemed to stay pretty good and the track had some grip. I did 2 or 3 runs and just got my lines dialled and then went back to out apartment, and waited for race runs to start. My race run seemed to go a lot better than seeding and I felt better on track, than the day before. I somehow managed to smash the bash ring on my chain device while hopping over the stream in my run, so I am glad that it didn't affect the rest of my run. I ended up 37th with a time of 4:53.67. I had hoped to do better, but I had such a fun weekend. At least we got to hit some jumps on track, I was starting to miss those. Val di Sole World Cup up next.

IXS German Cup #2 - Steinach - 2 June 2013

Mud, rain, ruts and even some snow is what my first bit of European riding consisted of. I had been told that it was a bit colder than usual but I was in for quite a shock. We got in a quick track walk, in the rain, on Wednesday and I was a bit disappointed to find that only half the track was being used. The part that we were racing looked rad though! That evening, something I had eaten didn't agree with me and so I was up the whole night, sick. I spent the whole of Thursday in bed and tried to catch up on some sleep while the others got in some runs on the track.

Friday afternoon saw the first official practice session go down, and it was crazy to see how the track got rutted out so quickly. The one cool thing was that we had to ride down through the bike park to get to the start of the track. This gave us a bit of a warm up. Although it was raining a lot and super muddy, Adi and myself stayed on our dry tyres right up until seeding on Saturday afternoon. I ended up racing seeding and finals on a cut down mud on the front and a dry tyre on the rear.

My seeding run on Saturday afternoon was good, although I managed to completely ruin my tear off system, when I accidentally pulled all of them off, right near the beginning of my run. I was seeded 44th and I knew I could improve in my race run.

The guys at IXS hooked us up with these amazing DH overalls that kept us dry and clean during practice which was a major help. After two runs on Sunday morning we headed home for lunch, and to prepare for race runs that afternoon. Unlike seeding, I actually managed to stay dry and warm during the ride down to the start. After a good warm up I started my run. I felt a little cautious, and slower in some of the technical sections than I did in practice, but overall I put down a solid run and I improved on my seeding run's time by over 7 seconds. I ended up 35th with a time of 4:11. Its so cool to race and be a part of downhill races that have the numbers that this race did - over 400 riders with 200 of those being elite men. I can't wait for the next one in Morgins.

New Sponsor for 2013 - Moveo Safety

I am super stoked to be riding with the new Moveo Concept neck braces for 2013.

SA National #2 - Cascades WC Track

Cascades was once again the venue for my next race. This time however, we raced the full WC track which is definitely one of my favourite tracks around - its very fast and the jumps are massive. On top of that, the weather for the weekend was absolutely perfect, with the track being in the best condition its been in for a while. On top of all of that, I was riding my new Morewood Makulu, which is a size bigger than my previous one. This set the benchmark for an awesome weekend.

I walked the track, late Thursday, with Adi Van der Merwe and Stefan Garlicki, both of who were staying with me. After walking, I decided that Fridays practice couldn't come any sooner.

My first run on the new bike during Fridays practice felt amazing. As the day progressed, I just kept having more fun. Saturdays practice went pretty much the same and I was confident that I was up to speed on the track, and that I would be ready come race day.

We woke up on Sunday to a beaut of a day. The sun was out early, and I could barely contain my excitement. I smashed out a quick practice run as I arrived, and then put my feet up and waited for my seeding run. At the top while waiting for my seeding run, I decided that I would tuck through most of the pedal section and try and conserve as much energy as possible. This tactic clearly was faster than expected and I ended up being seeded 3rd with a time of 4min:03sec behind Tim Bentley and Stefan Garlicki who both sat with times in the same second on 4mins:00sec.

I knew that I could post a competitive time if I put together a good top section, combined with a big effort on the pedal, for my race run. I managed to have a good warm up before my race run, and I got into the start gate feeling warm and ready to go. Things seemed to go according to plan in my run and I felt good on the technical section up top. I entered the pedal after getting a good drive over the N3 tabletops and pedalled as much as I could from then on. I finished strong, feeling happy with the effort that I had put in and was really stoked to see that I ended up in 6th overall.

The weekend went a lot better than expected and I am really glad to feel like I am back into the full swing of racing, with both my mental and physical aspects of my riding coming along nicely. Huge thanks to Morewood bikes and Spank Industries for kitting out the new bike, and to the race organisers for putting on a great event. Looking forward to the next one and to the European season ahead.


Results:
1 EM Jonty Neethling 03.56.34
2 EM Stefan Garlicki 03.56.59
3 EM Tiaan Odendaal 03.59.38
4 EM Alasdair Fey 03.59.56
5 EM Hayden Brown 03.59.81
6 EM Samuel Bull 04.01.84