As most people associated with mountain biking would know.7 the UCI World Cup came to Cairns in North Queensland, Australia for Round 2, Downhill over the weekend 24-26 April 2014. Unfortunately, this also coincided with final burst of the Monsoonal wet season and the heavens opened up on Wed 23 April and continued through until Sat 26 April. With the Worlds best downhill riders assembled for the event, there was tacit agreement between all that the conditions prevailing for Qualifying on Friday and the race final on Sunday were some of the worst they had ever experienced! The volcanic rich red soil of Smithfield National Park turned to a sloppy, gooey and disgusting bog which resembled peanut butter at its worst! However; all riders were faced with the same conditions so it really meant that those who thought it out and held their nerve - prevailed.
Practice on Thursday was limited however; I managed to get in 5 good runs without any major issues but the worst was yet to come! Thursday night saw the heavens really open up and torrential rain was the order of the entire night leading into Friday. We arrived at the track early Friday morning to be greeted by more rain, mud and slop before heading up for practice. I managed 3 runs during our allocated practice time and lost count of how many crashes I sustained during this time but at best guess, I would have to say I crashed at least 10 times. I had come to Cairns with only dry weather tyres (Maxxis Minion 2.7 so I had picked the biggest tread pattern which just was not working in these conditions! Thanks to the generosity of Tony & Jacko (Swell Specialized Team) Davis who gave me a set of Specialized Storm's (wet weather spikes) I at least had a wet weather tyre to race Qualifying later on Friday afternoon. With some great advice from Chris Kovarik, Dad set about cutting the spikes on the rear tyre before I headed up for qualifying which saw the top 80 riders from a field of 124 Elite Male progress to the Final the following day. I put together a good race run in Quali's and managed to place 65th which saw me progress to the Final the following day.
We awoke on Saturday to sun and blue skies but the damage had already been done and there was not a lot to salvage from a muddy and sodden track! My 2 practice runs were without incident and I am glad that I asked Dad to cut the other spike because traction was just a whole lot better. Nerves were setting in as race time approached and I headed up to the start line with a lot of trepidation however; I was also relaxed in the knowledge that I had progressed to the final and could finish no worse than position 80!! My race time arrived and I was determined to get in a clean run and keep the Santa Cruz v10 Carbon upright during the race! I managed to achieve this and to great relief, crossed the finish line to eventually finish in 53rd place which makes me more than happy considering the conditions and competition! As my second only World Cup event and first as an Elite level rider, I came away from Cairns determined to chase down more and better results both at home and overseas. At this stage I intend to visit Europe in July for a month or so and race some IXS Cups whilst based in Morzinne, France. Later in 2014 I may contest the Asia Pacific Downhill Challenge in Bali because it looks like a fun race event.
I would like to thank all my supporters including NS Dynamics.com.au who provided Pits and race support in Cairns, Santa Cruz Bikes, ForTheRiders, Brisbane Mountain Bike Shuttles (BMS), Mavic Wheel Components, Ben Power Racing (Dad), JB Photomedia (Jamie Black) for the still photographs and good friend Paul Dymalla who builds all my wheels and provides technical assistance when required.
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