July Update.

I have not long been back from my two month racing foray in Europe. There were plenty of highlights and I was generally pleased with my performances and happy with the progress made from the previous season. The best part for me was my race at the Czech Republic World Cup where I made it into 14th place and proved to myself that if all goes right, I have the speed to finish inside the top 10 at under 23 level.

A few photos from my trip:

Up in the snow above Glarus.

 

Glarus the Swiss town where I spent the majority of my time.

Czech countryside around Bystre where we stayed for the Nove Mesto Na Morave World Cup round.

Snow in La Bresse two days before the French World Cup race.

Rudy feeding the Fox up at the Mountain house.

Shuttling Swiss style.

Trail ride near Chur on the Nomad Carbon.

Bern.

Training on Klausen Pass.

Perch fishing.

I wasn’t totally looking forward to heading back to NZ in mid winter (being the first winter spent in NZ for 2 years) but have been surprised with how good the weather has been since being home. Fingers crossed it stays that way as so far it has been perfect for training. The focus is on stepping up and working hard to improve on weaknesses identified over the last trip in order to come into World Champs in the best possible shape.

Working big hours over the first couple of weeks at home I was able to top up the funds a bit and with support from the Rotorua MTB Club and part time work over the next 5 weeks I will be able to head over to this years World Championships being held in Saafelden, Austria. All up this will be a shorter trip of three and a half weeks and will include the final round of the Swiss BMC Cup series in Muttenz to hone the form before the big one less than two weeks later.