Austrian National Champs

First race this year in Europe and am happy with the way it went. For starters, Schladmings track its self its just amazing, when your at the top or the bottom of the track you just look out and see these huge mountains which just look unreal!

Practice day started off dry in the morning, you could just hook all the corners and everything ran smooth enough, had two dry tyres on and seemed all well. Mid way into practice after lunch, holes started to form all over the show, in corners, landings of jumps, just everywhere. They weren't too bad but by then I could tell they were going to get a lot bigger and deeper by race. As all this was happening rain clouds started to get closer and closer and everything became dull. BOOOOM. The rain let loose. Then things got wild. This rain was not going to stop for a while so I finished practice early as I was happy with my runs and no doubt the track would be a lot different on race. Went back to the Ulrich residence too find the pesky cat had somehow found its way into my helmet bag, stole, unwrapped and started having a munch on my sandwich which I was quite looking forward too, but instead had some delish' prawn pasta which topped off the day. Living the dream.

Race day. Nerves settled in... but the excitement took over. Looked out the window and funnily enough, it was raining. Hoo rah. Mud races are always exciting as you never really know whats going to happen and you have to become looser on the bike, sometimes let your back wheel drift and slide a bit, but always stay in control which becomes hard in the greasy slippery mud. Changed to mud tyres as they were in need, indeed. First run down was so much fun, the dirt was a lot more grippier than I perceived it to be, the hardest bit on the track was two grass corners which got cut up and formed a big slippery mud mess. The rain had been pretty constant and on seeding it was still raining. Tear offs were a must. By now, the holes were bigger and your arms got worked very well. I came down with a semi clean run, but wasn't too happy with my time. After seeding, the rain became a lot harder for a while but then died off. Ended up having about 5 hours wait/rest in-between my seeding and race run and by then the rain had stopped and the sun came out.


Going up for my run on the gondola and looking down at the newly formed holes and ruts made me think "You better be ready to get rowdy girrrrl" and rowdy it was. The first chutes holes had grown in depth and length so I was up for a rough run. The track had become slightly drier than seeding and not so much mud was flying up into your goggles which was one less thing to worry about. Meanwhile, halfway down the track when it cuts into a few technical rooty sections, I couldn't believe just how deep these holes had got, they were trying to eat me up and throw me off my bike, ended up taking a wild line I had not even tried in practice but managed to hold it and stay on. Last open section, as the loose mud mess corners approached me all I was thinking was "stay on". The mud had become thick so when you hit the corners and chutes it was hard to stay in-control of your bike which didn't help when your arms and hands were aching. Managed to pull through with a time of 6.31.05 that placed me 1st in Junior women and would have placed me 5th in Elite women. 


Overall was a good first weekend here and am looking forward to exciting times ahead :)