World Cup 5 – Maribor, Slovenia

After the problems I had at Fort William I was keen to make amends in Maribor. I was really enjoying practice on Saturday. The weather was so hot it was almost unbearable to sit on the chairlift as you could feel your head burning in the sun ! The track was wicked, bone dry and really hard pack, it felt so fast and rough it was crazy. I did 2 timed runs at the end of practice and posted the fastest time so that made me feel confident for the next day.

They had forecast rain for Saturday ever since we arrived in Maribor and they were spot on, it poured down with rain all day till about 4pm, enough for our qualifying runs to be cancelled as there was too much lightning in the area for the chairlift to run. The track was also pretty damn hard to ride, suddenly all those dry roots turned absolutely lethal ! Fortunately we were lucky with the weather and it stayed dry over night, the track however was still really slippery for practice on Sunday morning. I was really enjoying the challenge and it was great for the race as these conditions make the racing so much more wide open as it’s so easy to make mistakes. It was still slippery for our qualifying run, as I found out about 10secs into the start as I slid coming into the first corner in the wood. I put out my right foot to dab and upright myself, but I just went clean over on my ankle, found myself on the floor and as I tried to get back on my bike I had so much pain from my ankle I couldn’t put any weight on it. I sat and watched as the next rider came past I then continued to ride the rest of the track gingerly just to have a look at the track and see how dry it was, I made one more mistake and ended up in the tape as another rider passed me, I then carried on, only to catch the girl who passed me who had crashed in the bottom of a blind drop and I rode straight into her bike and straight over the bars ! It was one of the worst run in my years of racing.

I finished in 24th place but thankfully as a top 10 ranked rider I was allowed to start in the final. I had my ankle strapped up by my masseur from home Martin and felt like I could still put together a good run. I set off ok and got further than in qualifying, but in the first wood section I came off a drop and just could not make the corner after it. I rode straight into a tree, bashing my head pretty hard and buckling my front wheel. I could not believe I was once again on the floor in a world cup race run, I was just gutted, I wanted to just pull over and cry, but I knew I needed to carry on as I could pull back some time and I still needed the points. I managed to get down the rest of the track without anymore mishaps but I didn’t ride well. I crossed the line and finished up 9th, my worst result in 4 years. So for a second week at the world cups I finished off the podium and now have dropped to 3rd overall in the series. I’m really disappointed as I still feel like I am riding well but I just need to get it all together in a race. I’m back home now for a few weeks before the next round in Canada. So it’s time to do a few local races and get confidence back.