The Cairns World Cup had been a big target of mine for some
time, it’s not often we get the chance to race the World’s best so close to
home. I was hoping to make the most of the opportunity and take advantage of
the race being in the Southern hemisphere with similar time zone to New Zealand
and not having to travel most of the way across the world to get there!
There was quite a bit riding on this race particularly with
it being my last chance to impress the Commonwealth Games selectors and it was
a frustrating to turn out such a poor performance. 39th in a European World Cup
would be a decent result but down in Cairns with a much smaller field missing
some of the big names it was far from what I was aiming for. Still I have
learnt a few lessons from this one and am very motivated to redeem myself next
time! Currently I am back home in Rotorua having a bit of a break from training
after a long summer season of racing. I have my eye on the World Championships
in Norway in September with a build up including the final World Cup round and
a Swiss Cup and will confirm plans over the next few weeks.
Cairns provided a unique setting for the race, held in the
tropical rainforest. Living up to its name we were treated with huge amounts of
rain over the week turning the main event Village into a muddy sloppy mess.
Thankfully the Cross Country course held up amazingly well considering and with
the sun making an appearance in time for the racing over the weekend things
dried out nicely over the majority of the track with just a few boggy areas
remaining. However the humidity and heat remained and definitely added an extra
element to the race. It was hard to do anything without sweating and we were
cranking the air conditioning almost constantly at our accommodation in an
attempt to keep cool.
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| Midweek mud fest. |
The track was pretty intense with a very long main climb
featuring numerous switchbacks and punctuated with technical rocks and log
obstacles. Although there were quite a few multiple lines it was quite hard to
pass and this was probably the main downside. The majority of the course was
technical single track with some pretty full on rock garden sections which got
the better of a lot of riders and caused a large amount of flat tyres.
I enjoyed the track but would have to admit I wasn’t quite
as comfortable on it as I would have liked after a couple of crashes during the
week. Still I was feeling nice and strong in training and couldn’t wait to get
stuck into the race.
With the race being off the usual beaten track and away from
the European stronghold the size of the field was smaller than usual and I had
a decent enough start position of 36th. A pretty solid beginning
to the race saw me sitting well positioned in 25th
after the opening loop and I held around this position through most of the
first lap.
However with not much left of the lap it all went wrong with
a big over the bars crash in a boggy hole that the organisers had filled with
gravel. It had turned into a rut fest looking a bit like a motocross track and
it got the better of me. Hitting one of the ruts a bit wrong I was on the
ground before I knew it with a couple of the following riders crashing over the
top of me. I got going again but had damaged my bike which started playing up as
the 2nd lap wore on with the chain jumping around all over the place.
Frustratingly I couldn’t put any power down without the chain trying to derail
itself so I had to limp my way through to the tech zone at the end of the lap
and attempt to get it sorted. Turned out one of the teeth on the front chain
ring had been badly bent so thankfully it wasn’t hard to fix with some pliers
and I was on my way. A fair bit of time had ticked by and I was now almost at
the back of the race with a lot of work to do to salvage a decent result.
Pretty fired up I attacked the remaining laps and picked my
way back up passing quite a few riders. But although I pushed hard and was
riding reasonably well the damage had been done and I wasn’t really able to
make up the deficit to the top 30 which was where I wanted to be. I lot a bit
of spark and focus near the end putting in a disappointing final lap with
another crash and dropping two places to finish in 39th.
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| Not a happy chappie. |
