World Cup # 3 Leogang, Austria


Leogang is a new venue for the World Cup series, but one which I have been to many times with my previous sponsor, as it is a Kona Bike Park. It’s a beautiful place in a lovely Austrian valley and if the weather is good its stunning. However after sunshine for walking the track and for Fri morning, that was it, no more sunshine and pretty much persistent rain for the next 3 days !! I thought the track actually got better with the rain on Friday, but after rain on Saturday and Sunday the track got really rough with some of the biggest holes and ruts I have seen ! It was still really fun to ride and the pedalling section in the middle of the track was tough in those conditions making it the hardest race this season.

I was finally feeling up to speed this weekend and after qualifying 3rd only 1.6sec back I was confident I could get a good result here in the final. I set off in the final, slipped a pedal in one of the first few bermed turns, but quickly got myself back into a rhythm. I was happy with the way I was riding and had a help from Jess Stone, who unfortunately crashed hard in qualifying so didn’t make the final, so she was running along the fireroad shouting at me to pedal !! I felt great until the last wood section where I got slightly off line, ended up coming to a complete standstill just before a crucial uphill section and the place where the second split time was taken. I then had no speed, dropped off the main line and paddled my way along the off camber, took forever to get back into my pedal and get going again, losing so much valuable time. I ended up in 4th place having been in 2nd at the final split. I was so disappointed as I really felt like I could have had a good result here. Another world cup done and although I did move up a position to 4th overall, its still not the result I was looking for.

I now have another week here in Leogang to race the same track at an IXS Cup race, so a great opportunity for some good training on this tough track.

Tracy