World Cup 1 – South Africa


My trip to South Africa began 3 weeks before the world cup series started to enable me to take on a different race....After 48hours of saddle time myself and Anka Martin my race partner rolled into the finish line of the 8th Cape Epic to complete the biggest challenge I have ever set myself !! A truly memorable experience and one that took more than a few weeks to be able to sit on a bike saddle again !! Luckily it was back to downhill action for me straight after that and that doesn’t require too much sitting on the saddle so I was all good !!

After the Cape Epic I met up with the rest of my Trek World racing team and flew up to Durban in preparation for the South African National and then the following weekend the first world cup of 2011. It’s always an exciting time of year at the start of each season as you don’t know if all your winter’s training will pay off, will you still be fast enough ?!! I know for me I have focused so much on my endurance training to complete the Cape Epic XC stage race that I was a little concerned my downhill would have suffered a little. However I knew for the first world cup in South Africa, my extra fitness would be of great benefit on the long flat pedalling section in the course !

The weekend before the world cup was the final round of the South African National Series which we were doing as preparation for the world cup as it used the same course. However the lovely South African sun went into hiding over the weekend as it just poured and poured with rain for the entire weekend. The downhill race was initially shortened as they could not get any vehicles up the track for medical access and then the final run was cancelled as the trucks could not even get the riders to the start ! So it turned into a bit of a disaster of a race, and with shortening the course it just meant we started at the pedalling, so it was just a long interval session ! Great training for next weekend as it could never be harder than it was in the mud ! I won the seeding run and was awarded the win of the race.

Fortunately the weather improved gradually during the week and by the time the world cup came around it was dry tyres all around. In fact I used a semi slick tyre for the rear, that’s how much this track was all about carrying speed and the pedalling section ! I had a strong qualifying taking 1st spot but with another day of practice and with the track drying up each day I knew the racing would be quicker on the finals day. I felt pretty nervous I think as it was the first big race of the year and also my first big race wearing my rainbow jersey which I really wanted to do justice to !! I had a pretty good run although I was not clearing the big table tops as with a bit of time lacking on my DH bike I didn’t feel confident hitting them, so I knew I was losing a bit of time there. I just buried myself on the pedalling and hoped I could make it up ! I gave it my all and never recovered before the finish so had some pretty sketchy ‘passenger’ moments coming in to the finish but managed to hold it together to take my 13th World Cup win and a perfect start to my 2011 season.

My new team mate Aaron Gwin also took the men’s win to make a perfect weekend for Trek.