Down to Business, Count Down to Race Day...

So it was time to head back to Mont Sainte Anne and do our final training and preparations before the first of the two World Cup Races that we are here to do. We had to do some precision packing to get everyone in with bikes and bags, it was a tight squeeze!

We arrived on a Wednesday and although the race is on the coming Sunday, things were really starting to buzz around town, all the professional teams roll in with thier big team trucks and trailers, mechanics set up work stations to service all the riders, you start seeing riders out on the course that you have read about in magazines and watched in videos. It is an exciting time and in general there is a sensation of something big is building.

So race day finally rolled around, it was warm and overcast then of course as they were calling us all up to the start grid it began to absolutely hose down, big fat raindrops that would have made any Australian jump for joy, sure made for an interesting race. Ended up loosing most of my gears due to the mud and grass build up in the drive train of my bike, there was alot of running again and I had selected a dry tyre, for use in dry weather, so in the rain I had pretty much no traction, I spent alot of time picking myself up from some pretty spectacular crashes, all soft landings though!

I was happy with my race considering the preparation I have had. I ended up finishing in 40th position out of a field of 76 and third Aussie girl across the finish line, I did loose alot of time on the leaders of the race, and was a long way off the 10% of the winners time (which is the selection criteria to make the National Team and ride the World Championships in September) but all in all I was fairly happy with my race, and quite relieved that I got through in one piece!

So next weekend I get to have another chance at qualifying with the second Canadian World Cup, so fingers crossed for some super speedy legs and a good solid race!

This is the team in the pit area they also call it the 'race village' It is where each professional team have a big truck and tent to service all the bikes and provide a base for the team riders to, chill out, and also warm up before the race.

This is my bike getting some much needed TLC before race day to make sure everything is working perfectly and minimise the chance of any mechanical issues that could slow me down.

This is our TORQ team with the Pro GT International Team along with the mechanics, these guys are all paid 'really' good money to ride thier bikes! Lucky ducks!

This is our poor attempt at having a professional team van, we felt quite ashamed with out set up as everyone else in the street had huge big trucks all painted up in the team colours and design!

At the World Cup races, there are 3 disciplines: Cross Country (my discipline) Four Cross (pretty much like BMX) and also Down Hill.

This is Sam Hill the winner of the Down Hill, pretty much the fastest guy on a bike in the world, and he is a fellow Aussie! He ended up smashing his nearest rival by 3 seconds and in Down Hill racing this is a huge margin!

These guys are lucky It takes them about 4 minutes to complete thier race as opposed to ours which is generally 2 hours, but the potential for serious injury is a lot higher in the Down Hill as you can see by the equipment they are in!

One of the drops on our cross country course, was quite steep this one and very sketchy in the mud and rain on race day!

This section of the course was the most technical section, It is called the 'Squirell' and it was pretty much a waterfall of rocks, quite fine to ride in the dry but on race day it was covered in mud, most people were running down it, which was pretty sketchy in itself! The commissaire (course inspector) said it was too hard and dangerous so they had to build an easier track on the side of this one the day before the race!!

This was the elite men's race only about 10 riders in the field of 120 were riding this section, and alot were crashing, making use of the mats and hail bales on the side!

Needless to say this section drew a huge crowd, everyone want to get a piece of the action!

Me getting into some post race tucker while watching the men's race.

This is Edgar. I always manage to make some fantastic new friends along the way!

Another one of my new friends Cha Cha on a walk to the waterfall!