Archive for June, 2009

After racing tree weeks strait it is good to have some time off from races and go do some fun riding with my team mates Steve Smith and Thomas Vanderham unfortunately Filip couldn´t join us due to 4X European champs. This week we are going to hit few different riding spots in Austria.
First two days of our trip we spend in Schladming, where the finals of the world cup will be held later this year in September. Tuesday was our first day fo riding and it was raining really hard all day so we only ended up doing one run and took some photos with a Mathias Fredrikson who will shoot with us the whole week. We got some really cool shot even the weather was miserable.
Our day two was pretty much the same. It was raining on and off but not too bad so we rode all day and it was awesome fun. It was super sloppy mud but not too slippery. We had blast shreding down the tracks with Steve and Thomas! I think it was one the most fun day on my bike this summer!
Tomorrow morning we will leave Schladming behind and go to ride another spot!

Today was the semi and finals for Maribor world cup round #5. It rained down really hard the day before and qualification got cancelled so it was today. Morning practice started already at 07.00 am the whole schedule got rearranged for the live tv broadcast.
It was still really muddy in the morning and super slippery. I crashed really hard in practice and struggled to ride my bike and keep it going strait.
My seeding run was absolutely the worst run I have ever had. I didn´t crash but the moments that I had on my bike I should have crashed like 5 times. Some how I managed hang on and didn´t crash. I ended up on the 23rd place and was really disappointed about that because I didn´t score any points for the overall.
The course dried up a lot from the semi to the final. I put dry tires on and it was good call. I managed to take 18sec off my seeding time in the finals.
I sat on the hotseat for while before I got knocked off. I made pretty big mistake at the end of the track and that cost me some time, but I guess that’s racing.
I ended up on 8th place again like in fort bill. I was pretty happy that I pulled a good result again and I am riding consistent.
Next week we will have road trip with the team. We are going to ride in Schladming and few other spots. Stay tuned!

Photo: Sven Martin

The word in the pits was yesterday that it will be cold rainy today. The crazy weatherman was right! It was cold and started to rain really hard before practice.
It´s been raining pretty much all day strait. Due to thunder the chairlift is closed and the qualification is cancelled and moved for tomorrow.
I was able to do 2 practice runs and it was really hard to ride down. Really muddy, freezing cold, slippery roots and hard to see anything. Well I thought it was still pretty fun even it was hard. So I am pretty bummed that qualification is cancelled.
Hope we will have more luck with the weather tomorrow!

From Willingen we head to Maribor Slovenia. We were supposed to do a little road trip but instead we decided to go to Maribor and hang out there.
We have been having really good time in Maribor. It has been really nice weather so we have been swimming and riding DH Tuesday and Wednesday on some amazing tracks.
We did the course walk on Thursday with Rob Warner and Freecaster. Track is pretty much the same as before, they made few little changes but nothing special.
First day practice was today and it was pretty chill. I did only 4 runs and wanted to save my self for the race. It´s was really hot day and track is running really fast and super rough at the same time. It has a lot of roots and braking bumps and there are also few spots where it´s really hard to get used to the darkness cuz you come from bright light to dart so you are pretty much blind for a moment. For tomorrow and for the rest of the week are expecting heavy rain… So we´ll see tomorrow what happens, it will make the track interesting!

Photos Gary Perkin.

Today we raced the finals of wheels of speed In Willingen Germany. Yesterday was the seeding run and I got 10th place. I wasn’t too happy with that and I knew that I can make up some time in the finals. I blew few sections on my seeding and I could have been smoother.
In the finals I managed to pull a smooth run and took 4sec off of my seeding run.
I ended up on 5th place and was happy to get my first podium of the season. It was really tight in times and I was only 1.6sec off Gee Atherton who won the race in front of Mich Hannah by just 0.01sec. I am pretty happy to get good result on a track that I have never liked too much because it has so much pedaling and it´s not really technical.
Tomorrow we will head to Maribor Slovenia for the world cup round 5. On a way to Maribor we will hit some riding spots in Europe and do a little road trip with the team. Stay tuned for more updates from the road trip!