Swiss Bike Cup (Buchs) 27.04.03

1. Ravanel Cédric, F-Les Houches 78 ORBEA 1:38.15,7
2. Sauser Christoph, Sigriswil 76 Siemens Cannondale 1:39.30,1
3. Paulissen Roel, B-Zomhoven 76 Simens Mobile 1:39.45,1
4. Frischknecht Thomas, Feldbach 70 Swisspower MTB-Team 1:40.27,4
5. Chiotti Jérôme, F-Ste Croix de Quin 72 LAPIERRE 1:40.44,9
33. Leuchs Kashi, NZL 78 Team Maxxis-Trek 1:51.03,2

A couple of unlucky flats dropped Kashi back quite a few places!

SEA OTTER CLASSIC 10 - 13 April
MOUNTAIN BIKE STAGE RACE
MONTEREY, CA, USA

It was nice to get on the mountain bike again after all the recent road races I have been doing. The tracks at the SeaOtter are good fun to ride, because it is mostly windy single tracks on hard packed dirt. It was also great to be able to talk to all my sponsors, including of course my new team, Maxxis! The SeaOtter is always a hectic event, with multiple disciplines going on all the time. There is a 5 day pro road race, 3 Down hill events, 4 Cross Country events, and all sorts of other activities such as trial shows, jump contests, ramp demos, inline skaters... and it goes on. For me, I had a lot of work to do with sponsors, so I didn't rest as much as I probably should have. I went around most of my co-sponsors (RockShox, SRAM, Hayes, Time, Mavic, Thomson, Truvativ, No Tubes, Fox,...) and talked to them about the products, what I liked and disliked, and negotiated some new sponsors as well. Rockshox expecially have some very cool stuff going on at the moment, with a new BlackBox fork just realised, that is lighter again, and new 90mm extension kits, which is making a huge difference.

For this season I will be getting full team assistance from the Trek/VW team, which is just fantastic. This means that I will be staying with them, and benefiting from daily massage, and support from their soingee's Erin and Paul. On the mechanical side, Pat is going to be responsible for my bike, although Monkey, the Maxxis mechanic will also be helping out when he has time. Eric, our manager from last year, is also the manager of Trek/VW, and he is taking great care of me.

Maxxis also have a large trailer, and a nice set up in the pits, which I will be spending a lot of time during the season. My team mates John Kirkaldie, April Lawer and Colin Bailey are all fun to hang out with, so I'm looking forward to that. It was great to finally meet all the people from the Maxxis office too.. Jeana Norman, Chris, Mike, etc.. I look forward to start working together with these guys to build an awesome XC program!

Oh yeah, and the race! As far as results go, like every other year at SeaOtter, I struggled to bring on the top form. I managed to finish around 20-25th most days, except the XC when I was top 15. My overall position was 15th, which is actually one of my better finishes. Current World Champion Roland Green (Trek/VW) showed that he's going to be fast again this year by winning 3 out of 4 stages, and the overall. In the woman's field it was 2001 World Champion, Alison Dunlap on front almost everyday, to take the top honors.

Well, I'm now back in France again, and will be taking a break this weekend. My brother Isaac will be coming to visit me, and then I will be going up to Sweden to celebrate Kerstin's (Helena's mum) 50th BDay! Should be good.

Hope everything is well!
Bye,
Kashi


This is me, with my new bike and a pretty hot Trek jersey! My official Maxxis-Trek racing kit will be ready soon.


Eric and Paul


Erin in the Trek/VW pits

Redlands Classic Road Tour 1-6April

For the 4th year in a row, I come to race the early season Californian road classic. And for the 4th year in a row, I come out of it wondering why I always come back! Its not that there's a lack of good racing.. quite the contrary in fact. Its more that I never really feel great here, and end up suffering through the LA smog, just to be left with bad form for the following weeks SeaOtter Classic MTB race. None the less, as the season progress's, I will probably be thankful for the extra hard mileage that the tour put me through. Hopefully it has helped solidify my base work, and my form will just get better from here on in.

This years tour was actually even tougher then previous years, with the addition of a new climbing stage, the day after the long and tough Oak Glen (178km) stage. The Saturn team took charge of the tour on the first prolog stage by taking first, second, and third placings! After that, there was no teams able to challenge. I was racing for the Trek All-Stars, with Roland Green as our leader. Potentially Roland could have been a podium threat, but he had been suffering from a little illness prior to the tour, and this flared up again after the Fridays stage, so that left the team purposeless, and a little unmotivated.

My own tour was a little hampered by a sore quadriceps. I had been feeling this since my crazy adventure on the Canary Islands, and it was getting worse during each day of racing, so I decided not to race on the final day, and just let it rest. My luck was not going well in any case, especially on the Oak Glen stage. This stage finishes with a really tough 8km climb, and I was feeling okay on the lead up, but punctured with 2km before the base. This put me off the back, just as they really started winding up the pace. I ended up just taking it easy up the climb, losing over 10min!

Well, now its SeaOtter time again, which means seeing heaps of friends and sponsors. Today I met up with my Maxxis team mates, John , April and Collin, and the Maxxis mechanic, Monkey. We've got a nice small trailer (with over 600 tires in it!) and 2 decent size pop up tents. Not quite Volvo/Cannondale, but everybody is great, and I'm sure we're going to have a great time.

Okay, now I promise next time I write there will be some pics!
Seeya,
Kashi

Redlands Classic, (6 Day Stage race in California)
I just arrived this afternoon into Redlands, and have been enjoying the reunion with all my fellow US riders. Many mountain bikers come to this event for pre-season build up, as well as of course, almost all the top US road riders! I also got my first look at my beautiful new Trek 5900 carbon road bike. I will be racing this bike already tomorrow in the opening uphill prolog tt. I will be sure to put some photos online of it in the upcoming days!
An interesting twist in my team situation has me know registered to ride for the Trek all-stars team, together with serious race contender Roland Green. Prior to arrival I had agreed to ride for the small Californian based, Minute-Maid team, but then I was offered this place, as a replacement to Walker Ferguson, who had become ill. Of course Trek is my bike sponsor for this year, so its perfect that I can race for them here.

Bergembresse Road Race (130km)
With only 4 days after finishing the MTB tour on the Canary Islands, Benoit thought it would be a good idea to do another race.. just to test the bodies limits. As expected the first 50km felt awful, but thankfully there were no hills, unlike the final 70km! We then had 4-5 major climbs, so there was no more hiding in the pack. My legs got better and better, and as Nicolas, my Evian team mate was up the road until 15km to go (he was away for over 80km, with only 1 other rider!), I was able to sit on the chasing group. By the time we had caught up, we were only 8 left in the bunch. Then with 10km to go, I made an attack, and rode clear with one rider on my wheel. We lapped it out, and ended up sprinting for the win.. which I lost by about 1/2 a wheels length. Still, I felt great to have been able to finish as strong as I had.

Annemasse - Bellegard Road Race (180km)

This is one of the area's most important Elite races for the year, and also probably one of the nicest courses. Starting in Annemasse, we rode about 50km relatively flat to the village of Bellegard. Soon after we hit the hills around the area that I am often training. This consists of one climb after the other, and I was told that the race usually brakes up completely, with many riders finishing one by one. This year there were almost 230 riders including all the best Elite 2 teams, and quite a few Elite 1 (professional) teams.

Sure enough, the pace was scorching from the start, with an average over 50km per hour on the way to Bellegard. A group had managed to get away, which actually helped contain the bunch over the initial hills. My legs were not feeling great, and once I almost got dropped after dropping too far behind in the bunch just before a technical decent. The field had split just in front of me, and I had to chase for 1km up a steep climb to bridge the gap!

On the final major climb I passed over the top in 4th position, and was hoping to break away.. but it wasn't to be, as a group of about 35 caught us from behind again. Nicolas and I were again the only two Evian riders in the front group, so we took turns at going with the attacks. Finally after 4.45hr, I ended up in the bunch sprint, finishing 25th overall.