Well Monte Sainte Anne was pretty tough… It had rained constantly over the past 2 weeks and with the trail building crew working on section it had made the track just a touch muddy…. when I say a touch I mean like thick mud! Even though it was fairly muddy the track was still pretty awesome!
I must admit though I had a pretty tough time trying to feel comfortable on this track. I had difficulty staying on line in some places and with a bad knee I kept hurting it everytime I put a foot out so it made my mind set a little negative I think… not a good thing as its pretty important to have fun riding. Even with that in mind I kept telling myself to just chill and play with it a little.
First day practice was not very good as I started the day out a little late getting my bike ready and I rode 2 runs with mud spikes which were not a very good decision as mud spikes felt awful on the higher speed sections and by the time I had the dry tires on I had missed the practice!.. woops.
Second day practice was better the dry tires felt great on the first run but as the day progressed the mud got thicker and I had decided that some cut mud spikes were going to be better but had no time to put them on.
Race day on the Downhill was dry and hot! The track dried up pretty quickly as it had been super muddy in the woods and even in the open sections. I put the dry tires back on once again and went up for practice and it was ok I still felt like I needed more time to get my lines checked in but didn’t have the time. I found that I was still trying lines out in my qualifying run! Not a great thing to do… I ended up qualifying 31st which wasnt bad as I had kept my qualifying run very chilled and I knew I could get a faster time than that.
I felt for my Finals run that I should be fine and I kept running my lines through my head trying to remember them all. I had a decent start and I was giving it a lot more this time but not giving it to much as I knew it was a long track. By the time I got nearer to the bottom I knew I was having a pretty decent run and wanted to start pushing it as I got closer to the bottom. As I approached one of the last woods sections I was on the gas and I kind of miss judged the turn just a bit and I missed a small bridge going over a creek and tried to jump it but unfortunately I landed on the side of the bridge and I went over the bars and got all twisted up.
I got up pretty quickly but soon realized that my bars were pretty badly twisted and that they would need to be straightened so by the time I got back on the track I had lost quite a bit of time so I just had fun with the last couple turns of the track…. Ohh well.. bad runs had to happen sooner or later hey! It was pretty funny as my bars were not quite straight still and I felt like I was crossing up everywhere!… you should try it… feels pretty funny when you are charging into heavily rooted and rocky section with your bars turning sideways! even jumping was crazy!
Anyways it was an ok race for me… not good as I need a good result for a World Cup! Hopefully this next week will be good for me as the next World Cup is in Bromont where I had won the Canada Cup about 2 months ago?.. fun! We shall see how it goes!
Anyways we shall see everyone later!
Cheers
