A top 10 in Scotland for Kashi

World Cup XC#02 : Fort William, GBR : 31.05-01.06.2003
1. 52 BEL19710305 MEIRHAEGHE Filip BEL SPECIALIZED MOU 1:53:15 250
2. 4 GER19760520 FUMIC Lado GER TEAM-T-MOBILE 1:53:23 +8 200
3. 3 FRA19800816 ABSALON Julien FRA MOTOREX BIANCHI 1:53:34 + 19 170
4. 1 SUI19760413 SAUSER Christoph SUI SIEMENS MOBILE 1:53:44 + 29 150
5. 9 ESP19780824 HERMIDA Jose Antonio ESP MOTOREX BIANCHI 1:53:45 + 30 130
6. 2 POL19740801 GALINSKI Marek POL CLUB DEPORTIVO 1:53:52 + 37 95
7. 8 FRA19770522 PERAUD Jean-Christophe FRA 1:54:18 +1:03 90
8. 53 FRA19680808 DUPOUEY Christophe FRA 1:55:56 +2:41 85
9. 14 NZL19780630 LEUCHS Kashi NZL 1:55:57 +2:42 80
10. 7 BEL19760427 PAULISSEN Roel BEL SIEMENS MOBILE 1:56:04 +2:49 75
11. 16 AUT19801011 SOUKUP Christoph AUT 1:56:14 +2:59 71
12. 19 CAN19740729 GREEN Roland CAN TREK-VOLKSWAGEN 1:56:34 +3:19 67
13. 11 SUI19700217 FRISCHKNECHT Thomas SUI 1:56:36 +3:21 63
14. 40 AUT19810117 WEISS Michael* AUT 1:56:37 +3:22 62
15. 28 GER19760824 SAHM Stefan GER TEAM-T-MOBILE 1:56:59 +3:44 61
37. 66 AUS19710207 GORDON Craig AUS 2:01:53 +8:38 39
51. 59 AUS19751114 FLEMING Josh AUS 2:04:27 + 11:12 25

25 May - World Cup #1, St Wendel, Germany (14th)

Arriving into St Wendel brought back memories of past years. Its the 5th World Cup I have done here, and just by coincidence, Trek had booked the same hotel as I stayed in way back in 1998. And they still had the great snitzel festival every dinner to keep the mechanics happy!

I was getting a bit nervous the days before the race, as I was pretty unsure about how the form was. Last weekends Swiss Cup was promising, but I was still unsure if I had what I needed at World Cup level. Speaking to all the other riders, it was funny to hear everyone trying to be confident, yet full of anxious nerves.

The course conditions were good, but a lot of dark clouds started gathering just prior to the start, which made me nervous about my tire selection. I had an extra set of Mavic wheels prepared with Maxxis Medusa (great mud tires), but finally I decided to stay optimistic and rode with the Maxxis Larsen TT's (fast and grippe).

I was called up to the line in 7th position, which meant front row line up.. always a nice feeling! From the start we did a quick start loop, and then straight up the dreaded steep tar seal climb, which St Wendel has become famous for. Unfortunately for me, I am still not tuned for racing at full throttle, and I got passed by about 30-40 riders! As soon as this climb was over, I started pulling riders back again, but the lead group was gone.



The St Wendel course is pretty interesting, because it has 2 quite different sections. There is the forest sections, which contains a lot of short steep climbs, and has some really fun drops and rooty sections. Then there is the open "roady" section, which really kept the race together in big packs. I realized pretty early on that this was going to be a long race, so I really tried to sit on and relax during the roady sections, then try to gain some places while in the forest. The front of the race had formed into 3 main groups. There were 15 riders up front, including eventual winner Christoph Sauser, Roland Green, Miguel Marteniz, Thomas Frishy... Then there was a huge second group of about 14, about 1min ahead of the group I was in.

With 2 laps remaining I started to notice the groups splitting up, as riders began to blow. I made a good effort in the forest, and managed to catch the straggling riders from the group ahead. Then on the final lap, I passed by almost all of them, and even managed to catch a few of the lead group who had blown off the back. It was a nice feeling to pass by so many riders on the final lap, and finally finish in almost the exact same place as last years opening World Cup round. It could definitely have been a lot worse!

On Thursday I am flying up to Scotland for the next round

Some pic's
Helena's younger brother Johan (#414), .doing his first World Cup in the junior class
A tired soignee!

18 May - Swiss Cup, Perrifite (7th)

The final preparation race for the World Cup. The Swiss Cup courses are always short and intense, which is the reason why so many of the top riders keep coming back. For once I actually had a decent start, and managed to ride around 5th to 7th throughout the race. I faded a bit towards the end, but overall was pretty happy to finally feel those good sensations again.

A solid start for Kashi in the World Cup opener in St Wendel Germany.

1. SAUSER Christoph SUI SIEMENS MOBILE 250 250
2. GALINSKI Marek POL ORBEA 200 200
3. ABSALON Julien* FRA MOTOREX-BIANCHI 170 170
4. FUMIC Lado GER TEAM-T-MOBILE 150 150
5. RAVANEL Cedric FRA ORBEA 130 130
6. BUI Marco ITA 95 95
7. PAULISSEN Roel BEL SIEMENS MOBILE 90 90
8. PERAUD Jean-Christophe FRA 85 85
9. HERMIDA Jose Antonio ESP MOTOREX-BIANCHI 80 80
10. MARQUEZ José ESP 75 75
11. FRISCHKNECHT Thomas SUI 71 71
12. KARCZYNSKI Marcin POL LOTTO-PZU S.A. 67 67
13. FUMIC Manuel* GER TEAM-T-MOBILE 63 63
14. LEUCHS Kashi NZL 62 62
15. HORGAN-KOBELSKI Jeremy USA 61 61

Swiss Power Cup Results

Lauf Swiss Bike Cup 2003, 17./18. Mai in Perrefitte
01 Elite Herren 88 Klassierte
1. Sauser Christoph, 76, Sigriswil 1:38.11,9 (2)
2. Absalon Julien, 80, F-Raon aux Bois 1:38.48,4 (1)
3. Frischknecht Thomas, 70, Feldbach 1:39.09,2 (4)
4. Ravanel Cédric, 78, F-Montauroux 1:39.09,5 (5)
5. Hermida José Antonio, 78, E-Puigcerda (Gerona) 1:39.09,9 (3)
6. Frech Frederic, 76, F-Chatenois 1:40.31,4 (13)
7. Leuchs Kashi, 78, NZL 1:41.07,4 (89)
8. Péraud Jean-Christophe, 77, F-Cornebarrieu 1:41.19,3 (93)
9. Dietsch Thomas, 74, F-Molsheim 1:41.30,1 (9)
10. Chiotti Jérôme, 72, F-Ste Croix de Quintillargues 1:42.02,7 (12)
http://services.datasport.com/2003/sbc/sbc02/rang/

Roadie Weekend!

This week I competed in a couple of road races. These were once again more for training purposes, to try and gain some speed for the first world cup in 2 weeks.. which I need!
On Thursday I rode the regional Haute-Savoir championships (National level), which were held near by on a hilly 15km circuit. We did 6 laps, and it split up pretty early on. My legs were good, and I made the good brake away, which stayed away until the end. On the final lap it was only 3 left, but I screwed up my chances by letting the strongest guy away, thinking that 2 of us could bring him back... we couldn't.
Then on Sunday I did a criterium in Switzerland. It must have been about the most boring race of the century with 90 laps of about 600m! It was great for the speed training, and to build mental toughness, but not much else! A group got away on the first laps, which I just missed (I was riding 20m behind them alone for 3 laps, and I just missed the final sprint to bridge up), then they lapped the rest of us, so the race was pretty much over after 10 laps or so!
This weekend is another Swiss Cup, which will be a good indicator if my training has been on target or not.
Later
Kashi

Hi again,
The European spring season is well under way now, and its coming to that time of year when the motor has to get tuned to turbo!
I have been a bit tired, so have kept the training to a minimum, and have been concentrating on short, intense interval training. The two races I have done have gone okay, but I am lacking a lot of speed in the starts. Hopefully I can improve on this before the first world cup in 2 weeks time!

Sunday 27th April - Swiss Cup, Buchs (34th)

I was just finding my rhythm on the second lap when I rode off track and punctured my front tire. This set me back to 50th position, so I spent the rest of the race trying to catch up. But my efforts were not well rewarded, as I took a second puncture on the final lap. Perhaps I did choose too light weight tires for the rocky conditions here, which is perhaps a good lesson to have learnt early in the season!



From left to right: Me, Roul Paulison, Bart Brentjens, Ralf Naf, Christoph Sauser and Cederic Ravenal (winner)


Saturday 3rd May - Swiss Power Cup, Interlaken (6th)

My poor starting form didn't help me much, as I was back in 20th already after the first lap. While this was pretty demoralizing, I persisted, and finally found my rythem by the final lap. In fact, my final lap was my fastest, by over 35sec, and was close to the fastest lap of the day of all the riders!

NEW RACE WAGON !
While in Sweden, Helena and I found a beautiful red Dodge Ram Van. We then drove it down, through the traffic jams in Germany, and onto Buchs for the first Swiss Cup. We will be setting the van up with all the basic stuff needed for the races, and will have the outside decaled with my main sponsors soon.


Kashi