Live and learn

Ok I could write a 20 page essay on every thing that happend in the race but I'll try and condence it. Woke up at about 7 for breakfast with the juniors and then thay went to the course and I stayed at the hotel and chilled. Watched there race on the internet. Great job by all the Canadians! Even if the results don't show it they all rode great races overcoming there share of issuse.

Ok time to get ready for my race. got all my stuff together and headed to the course. When I got there Alex took me the the Canadian team hut. got ready and headed out for a lap. felt amazing! Really punchy and I was riding the course super clean. I was feeling confident that I could have a good race. Now on the trainer for a bit. had a few interesting visits. First was Marcello! He seemed pretty pumped about the race. Couldn't understand most of the Italian but luckily Alex speaks Italian so he was able to translate for us. Second visit was from Tim Johnson! He came and we talked about the course and he gave some good advice on some lines for the race as the were changing all the time.

All right, now off the trainer and to the start finish area. Feeling super pumped and ready to go. went to staging and got all the warm up gear off. Kinda chilly. Listened to the crowd as they yelled for the favorite riders as the got called up. Then all of the sudded my name is called! So I quickly worked my way through the crowd off riders and lined up. Wow I'm on the 3rd row beside Danny Sumerhill! Allright 1 min to go. jackets are flying every where. 30 sec too go. Silence... GO! perfect start. clipped in right away and I was on the gas. coming up to the first corner I locked bars with a German rider and almost had the worst crash of my life (check out the new blog pic). Little scary but I'm still calm. Off the pavement and into the dirt. hit the first snowy corner and out of nowhere a Belgian is sliding across the course on hif butt right in front of me. Don't remember the crash but when I got up my bie was a mess. Bars were really crooked, my chain was off and my wheel was rubing a bit. Ok just stay calm and ride it in to the pits. So 4 more crashes later I got to the pits and switched bikes. Alright it's chase time. Or not. I continued making mistakes and crashing. I just couldn't get back into a rythem. Back to the pits and on to my A bike.

lap 2
Down the start finish strait I tried to get my head together. I started to ride the first section cleanly. Ok now it's chase time. Then I crashed again... got back on the bike. and my seat was moving every where. Back to the pits. Just to save time I'll just say I had to pit 2 more times after that.

My the 4th lap I finally found my rythem. Started catching some guys and I was riding the course cleany again. I was punching it on the climbs and staying smooth aroung the corners. I was feeling great. At this point I knew I was going to get lapped but I wanted it to be as late in the race as possible. 2 laps to go and I could start to see the charging Polish Guy behind me. I thought mybe is I could ride a really clean lap I could make it. About 1 min later he rocked by me a the climb. It felt a lot like getting past but a truck on a rode ride. I looked behind me and saw that he had gaped the other 2 riders behind him. So the new goal was to try and stay clear from those 2. Started really ginving it on the climbs. I couldn't belive how good my legs still felt. Looked back a bit later and saw that the other 2 were still closing but not as rapidly. I was getting close to the finish now. Just one more down hill then through the pits. I had about 10 bike lengths on second ove the fly over. Coming down the hill I took a bad line and got cought in a rutt and went down. Got off to the side and let the other 2 go bye. So that was it. I finished the race 1 lap down.

Going over the race after I came to the conclusion that I'm happy with how I did. It would have been so easy for my to just shut down out of frusteration at the begining. But I kept on getting back on the bike and going. It was a great learning experiance and I'll definatly be trying to come back next year to improve on my reasult.

Alright now it's time to go and watch the big boys. Definitly cheering for Stybar. See ya