Champery World Cup 4 Race Report

So the past weekend saw the running of World Cup Round 4 at Champery, Switzerland. I had been looking forward to this one, as I had heard many good things and it certainly didn't disappoint.

When we arrived we got to check out the track and as soon as you get here you get a perspective for the steepness of the mountain, as the chairlift pretty much goes straight up. Its the first track where I was kinda nervous for the first day of practice, but as soon as you do a couple of run's you get used to it and I was loving it, there's got to be nothing better than doing 2 pedals out of the start and straight into a line of jumps then you're pinned for the rest of the run without even having to pedal.

My practice day went pretty well I only did 5 runs to stay pretty fresh, would have been real easy to to heaps but had to keep it at just a few. The track changed from bone dry to slightly wet midway through practice which made it a bit more interesting. Over night there was alot of rain so the next days practice was pretty loose to say the least, people were crashing left right and center, and there were lines of people lined up for the technical sections, as one after another crashed out. I was having fun in the conditions and getting loose but mostly staying on my bike.

About 5 minutes before our qualifying run it started pissing rain, normally I don't really enjoy conditions like this but I was kinda stoked for my run, I rode my run to stay on my bike and muzzered most of the top section having both feet off through a fair bit of it. I did ride some of it at the bottom pretty well staying feet up. I slid out before one of the jumps at the bottom and cased it so hard I broke my headset and bent my chainring so I had to half pedal my way to the line. I was surprised for sure when it said I was 5th!?! But I guess you just had to stay on your bike and that was what counted.

Finals day rolled round and the track was getting more sticky the mud was heavier to push through but it now had a good rut to ride in most of the corners. I felt awesome in the practice before finals just having fun the whole time loving the conditions and felt like I was riding really well staying feet up most of the time. After practice I had a big wait till finals, and probably got a bit psyched up as I had never had to do this before, I headed up the hill a bit early too I think, as I prefer to only have short time at the top before my start usually. I was up there probably over an hour as the course was closed for a bit due to riders having to get picked up with the helicopter. I set off pretty well out of the start but then felt like I couldn't relax and was riding stiff I got a bit down the first section and blew out a section off the track, by now I was stressing too much thinking rather than just riding but it's good to learn somehow. I rode the rest of the way but was pretty over it and rode far from how I rode the practice, I finished 33rd with a terrible run, and I was pretty angry with how it went but learnt a bit at the same time.
Blinky put together a pretty good run for 4th but I don't think thats what he was looking for, and Brook put in an amazing ride for 6th place his best result to date.

Now I have the 5th Round at Val Di Sole this weekend which is a good course for me also, so I am pretty excited for this one!

Wyn