World Cup #6, Bromont, Quebec, Canada, 2/8/2009

Sitting here in Brisbane after 2 days, or one day, or is it three days; days become hard to define when you scoot over datelines. Either way we had been on the go for at least 40hrs and it’s fair to say the eyes, body and deodorant have all worn out. A hell trip home after a hell race. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was grovelling through the mud that was World Cup no. 6.

Wet is a word. As is torrential. The pelting relentless rain made any Australian downpour look like drizzle. It had began as we made our way over to the course, perfect timing as we managed to be drenched to the bone by the time we were starting our warm up. A trainer would have been nice, but since I was already wet, I reasoned it made no difference warming up out in the rain. I was soon to be hitting it out in some of the worlds muddiest conditions. A bit of nice clean rain was the least of my problems.

Other problems included my very fatigued set of legs after a solid few weeks of training. Although these world cups were important to me, I had planned to train through them in order to seek some form for the world champs in only 4 weeks time. I had overestimated my recovery abilities slightly and after a solid week on the bike I was left feeling sluggish and heavy for race day.

I put that out of my head as the gun sounded, sometimes you can still pull out a good race with bad feeling legs. The course went straight into the main climb and after about 400m we were off and running. Jostling for position on the narrowing track, bikes and bodies tangling, feet slipping as the entire field scrambled up the slope. I slipped back though the field as I was swamped with panicking, frenzied riders. I was just trying to maintain composure as it was going to be a long, hard day so I had the time to make back a few positions later on.

Unfortunately as the second half of the course turned downwards on some super technical, super slippery, rooty, rocky, mushy trails I was caught in the tail end of the field, with tail end riders.

Through the start/finish banner and out onto lap 2, as the course turned uphill again. I turned on the gas and made passes the whole way up the climb, my legs heavy and slow. I was hurting but was slowly making ground. And so the day went on. Hurting to drag my heavy legs up the climb and battling my way down the descent with all kinds of obstacles, namely slow riders, lack of brakes as the mud tore through even the toughest of bike components, Avid. Thankfully though my SRAM XO equipped Felt Six Team offered an actual working drive train and I experienced no chain suck or other mud associated problems, except for an extremely mud clogged set of cables…

Getting pulled 2 laps from the finish was a disappointing end to a disappointing day. I know I am in good shape at the moment but perhaps just need to let the cloud of fatigue lift a bit over the next few weeks as we go into the final phase of preparation for the World Championships.


A big thanks to the DiscoverTasmania.com MTB Team and sponsors, Particularly Felt and SRAM for keeping our brutally beaten rigs in tip top shape. Thanks to Diana Dickenson for her once again amazing all-round support and help. Thanks to my coaches Neil and Chris and my family and friends.
Thanks to Castlemaine Cycles, The VIS, University of Melbourne Sport, Reynolds and Oakley’s awesome mud shielding eyewear.