World Championships >> Les Gets, France
World Cup Finals >> Livigno, Italy

Les Gets

The Worlds have come and gone and now we are in Livigno, Italy for the World Cup finals. To be honest I was almost wishing I wasn’t sitting in second place overall in the World Cup points. That way I would’ve just flown home after Worlds and would have been in my own bed for the past six days. It’s one thing to come over here on vacation and be in the city and have the comforts of civilization, but most of our races are far up in the mountains and you’re in small chalets that don’t have phones or TV’s. I can totally deal without the T.V situation in fact it’s nice, but the phones….Ahhhhh! And of course your phone cards don’t work from pay phones so your S O L! O.K, enough bitching.

Worlds went fairly well. I ended up 3rd and with a bronze medal. The day after getting to Les Gets (Let’s Gets as the Americans like to call it) I walked the 4x course and it looked pretty good. I knew it was going to be super fast, but the jumps looked pretty easy and seem to have a good flow. I still wasn’t sure how much it would suit me until I rode it. We had to wait another day before practice started and until then I was just checking email all day so that I wouldn’t be bored. Although boredom was inevitable. I hung out at Le Boomerang and chatted with Jean-Michel a bit and would wonder around town.

Finally it was Thursday and the first day of practice. I ended up being super stoked on the course and was having a lot of fun. More fun than I had had for a while on a course. I think I jumped every jump, but the big triple step down by my second and third runs. It just felt like you were in the air the whole time. The first straightaway was a bit tough just because you had three doubles and a triple in a row and you were shifting in the air and trying to push down just to get in as many pedal strokes as you could to come out of the first turn first. I was pretty happy with how the first day went.

The second day of practice was good and we also had qualifying. Katrina and I had gone down a couple times in practice together and were trying out some passing lines. We both were having a lot of fun. Qualifying started and I didn’t have the run I was looking for and ended up 5th. I wanted top three, but what can you do.

The next day were finals and at all the World Cups they start finals just as it’s getting dark, which makes it kind of tricky for us. All of our practice is during the day and then for the race it’s under the lights. It ends up looking really cool at night with the mountain lit up, but for the racers there are usually some shadows and depth perceptions can sometime be off. In my first round I had Sari Jorgenson and Melissa Buhl. Sari quit for a couple years and just came back, but she has always been a good racer. I had second lane choice and I had lane three, Melissa had four, and Sari had lane two. Melissa got a good snap and immediately cut over. I’m pretty sure she cut over even before the lanes end, but whatever. She was in lane one by the first jump so I cut outside and was right behind her coming out of the first turn. The whole way down I just wanted to get in front because Melissa wasn’t jumping all of the jumps and slowing us down a bit. Finally I hit the triple step down and almost cleared the whole thing (by accident) and came to the inside of her coming down the three drops. I ended up first and somewhere Sari had managed to pass Melissa before the finish.

In the semi’s I had Sari, Anneke Beerten, and Mio Suemasa. I had a really good gate and led to the finish with Sari finishing second. In the final it was myself, Sari, Jill Kitner, and an unknown rider that was getting killer gates all day Jana Horanova. I think that’s her name. I had seen her in practice earlier that day getting gates and swore it was a guy. Her gates were awesome. She is from the Czech Republic and is the two time BMX World Champion. Anyway she had lane one, Jill lane two, Sari lane three, and I chose four. I had been really calm the whole night and feeling really good. I knew I had to get a gate of a lifetime to beat Jana out and cut over as soon as I could. Lucky for me that’s exactly what I did. As soon as we were out of the gate I was clicking gears and trying to cut over. Everything was happening so fast…. we were already at the triple in the first straight. I was slightly ahead of Jill and was still trying to cut over when we hit the lip of the triple going into the first turn. Jana was in first and Jill was on the inside of me going into the first turn. I wanted to get in another pedal stroke, but the ground was really lose right there as you turn and jump off the step down. We were in the air and I was leaning on Jill and she was leaning on me. When we landed she immediately cut over as we were coming up to a double and I had NO room. I had to hit my brakes otherwise I would’ve missed the gate and been disqualified. I did so and Sari passed me. I ended up making the same move on Sari that I did on Melissa in the first round and ended up third.

All in all I was happy with a medal, but of course I wanted it to be the gold one. Anne-Caro actually qualified fastest, but broke a bone in her shoulder that morning in DH practice. I still think though that if Anne were racing that Jana would’ve been the one to beat. She rode really well all night and I’m sure we’ll see her again.

On Monday after Worlds Adam (Craig) two U-23 XC boys Nick and Tristan and I ended up doing some sightseeing with Kathy Pruitt her sister Jeannie and her Trixter boss Dave. We drove to Chamonix and took the gondola up to Mt. Blanc. And can I say that it was if not the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. We were at about 12,000 feet up and could see for miles. Mt. Blanc is actually about 16,000 feet and you can go to the top, but you have to hike it and I think it takes two days or something. It was seriously breathtaking. K.P (Kathy) was getting ready to go to the top and lucky for her I had an extra jacket. She left the hotel with a beanie and a freaking’ tank top! I was like, “You know we are going to about 12,000 feet of elevation and there is a lot of snow up there, right?” She like, “Yeah I’ll be O.K.” Meanwhile she’s got this paper-thin long sleeve when she would’ve been better off with a role of paper towels for crying out loud. I gave her my jacket and we were all good. Jeannie and I were a bunch of wussies. We were screaming like little girls once we got to the top and looked out over this bridge. Damn we were high! Not only that, but we had lunch up there and I think all of us were feeling a little light headed. You should’ve heard me trying to talk. If you’ve ever seen the movie Bruce Almighty where he makes that newscaster sound like a complete moron then you know what I’m talking about. I sounded like that for about ten minutes and then I just gave up speaking. Later that night Katrina, Rennie, Derin Stockton, and a few others met up with us and stayed the night in Chamonix.

Livigno

We woke up the next morning and started our seven-hour drive to Livigno. It rained the whole time and reminded me of another reason I don’t like Europe. We got lucky in Chamonix because it turned out to be a beautiful clear day. So we finally make it to Livigno on some goat trail and found our apartment. Our place is about 100 meters from the start finish area so it’s cool we can walk everywhere. We’ve just been hanging out for the past three days until my practice started. It’s hard to believe we are at 6,000 feet of altitude because we are in this little valley, but it has really got to me. I started not feeling well on Thursday. It’s Saturday now and I woke up feeling like I’d been run over this morning. My chest is heavy, my head feels like there is a jackhammer in it, and every muscle and joint in my body hurts. Not good! I’ve pretty much been sleeping as much as possible.

We had our first practice yesterday and the course is really cool. It’s super long, fast, and has some descent sized jumps. We qualified yesterday too and I ended up second with a time of 1:03 and something. Jill was first with a 1:01 and Katrina was right behind me. I was kind of surprised just because I was feeling so shitty, but I just stayed smooth and take it easy. Today are the finals and I’m sitting in second overall with Katrina 15 points behind me. So basically if I finish in front of her in any position or one position behind her I’ll keep second. But if she finished two spots ahead of me I’ll end up third. I think that’s how it would happen. Sabrina Jonnier already has first place wrapped up. She hit two more World Cups than either Katrina or I and has enough points even though she is not racing to win the overall.
It’s about 2pm right now and I am feeling pretty tired even with my 9 hours of sleep last night. I think I’ll take a quick nap and then go check the course out. I’ll let you know what happened on my plane flight home. See ya.

I’m sitting on my plane right now to L.A. and the race ended up going pretty well. I finished in second place, which meant I kept second place overall in the World Cup series. It was a good final with Katrina, Jill, Anneke, and I making the final four. Jill and I had good gates and were pretty even going into the first turn. I was right on her until we were coming out of the third turn and there were these weird finger looking jumps. There were like five rollers all going different directions and I basically screwed the whole thing up and lost all my momentum. Katrina and I were drag racing to the next jump to get there first and I came out ahead. I was starting to catch Jill again and if I had another 5 feet I probably would’ve done so in the long finishing sprint. But, coulda, shoulda, woulda. I am just happy to be coming out of this season injury free. I have two races to go still, Mammoth and the last Jeep King of the Mountain race in Texas. Then it’s on to Interbike and teaching Adam how to play craps.

Speaking of Adam I definitely have to throw down the HUGE props for my boy. Can anybody tell me the last time a North American rider finished on the podium at a European World Cup?? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Well, AC did it. He finished fifth yesterday at the freaking World Cup finals in Livigno, Italy. And let me tell you it was awesome. I was feeding Adam, Nick, and Tristan in the feed zone and was stoked to see Adam come through after the first lap in seventh. The feed zone was so frantic because the put it in a high-speed grassy field and you were just hoping your guy could grab the bottle quick enough so I was just trying to make sure I counted right. I was just hoping he didn’t go out too hard. The next lap he came through in ninth, which is still amazing. Roel Paulissen was leading the race with some heavy hitters just behind him. Coming into the last feed and one more lap to go Adam had moved up to fifth place and every American in the feed zone was yelling for him. I was getting chills just being there and hoping he could just hang on. He came through the last feed and just looked at me and smiled. I knew right then that he was definitely going to hang on if not move up a spot or two. Sure enough I ran to the finish to get a towel, water, and anything else he might need and was just crossing my fingers. He came wheeling across the finish line in fifth and I just ran and gave him a hug. He didn’t even look tired. He said when he slipped back to ninth was when he pushed hard in a turn and about 20 psi came seeping out of his front tire. He had to stop and keep putting air it otherwise he felt so good he said he would have been battling for third with Christophe Sauser. CRAZY!!! So props to Adam for an amazing ride.
So I guess that’s it for now. I can’t wait to get home even if it is only for one day. Till’ next time….