Schweitzer NORBA cross-country 28/07/03
Men..
1. Roland Green (Can) Trek/VW 16:05.3
2. Filip Meirhaeghe (Bel) Specialized at 2:03.2
3. Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (USA) RLX Ralph Lauren 2:24.0
4. Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Subaru-Gary Fisher 2:58.4
5. Jeremiah Bishop (USA) Trek/VW 4:29.7
6. Todd Wells (USA) Mongoose/Hyundai 5:20.5
7. Adam Craig (USA) Giant/Pear 6:02.6
8. Seamus McGrath (Can) Haro Lee Dungarees 7:08.0
9. Ryan Trebon (USA) Krystal/Wc 7:59.7
10. Jay Henry (USA) Specialize 8:59.7
11. Chris Sheppard (Can) Haro Lee Dungarees 9:22.7
12. Jeff Hall (USA) Salsa Cycl 9:27.3
13. Carl Decker (USA) Giant/Pear 9:27.7
14. Kashi Leuchs (NZl) Maxxis/Trek 10:08.9

July 13 - WORLD CUP, Grouse Mtn, CANADA
A beautiful course was destroyed with a torrential downpour the night before the race, revealing a lot of sharp stones and causing huge numbers of DNFs. I didn't make it past the first descent, and I was standing on the side of the track, alongside 4 others fixing punctures. One lap later, a 2nd puncture took me out of the race. There is no excuses to be made... the Maxxis tires I was riding were excellent, and used by many riders (team Merida, Haro, Luna Chicks etc etc) that finished the race with no problems. It was just more of the same old bad luck again!

My first ever feature ad. Currently in many US magazines inc. MountainBiking Magazine and VeloNews!

Tripping around BC

For once we have actually had a weekend off racing! But because of this weekends Worldcup in Vancouver, not many of the European based riders decided to travel home. We had the choose to do what ever we wanted for one week, and because Helena was coming over, that made it all the more fun.

Firstly, I decided that we should go straight to BC. I love this part of Canada for many reasons... people seem more relaxed and friendly, the food is fantastic, the nature is wonderful, the singletrack riding is probably the best in the world, and I have many friends that live either in Vancouver or Victoria. We decided not to make any strict plans... so we rented a car and let some friends know that we were in the area (with nice hints to the fact that we haven't made accommodation plans yet!)
The first night I choose a nice hotel, with a room in the 16th level over looking the Vancouver bays and mountains... This, by the way, is not normal! I hadn't seen Helena in 3 weeks, and it was still my 25th birthday, so we had to celebrate!
On Tuesday we went to see Alison Syder. I couldn't remember my way to her place, just that it was in Edmonton, below Grouse Mtn area. So I went to the little village Starbucks, and how did I guess... there she is sipping her 4 shot espresso. Soon after we were off around her favorite little MTB ride... probably some of the most technical and fun "easy" trail I have seen. This is the region known for some of the sickest, most wicked singletrack in the world. If you ever see a crazy MTB video with guys doing huge drop offs, knarly rooty singletracks, or twisting 20cm wide boardwalks 3m in the air, then its probably been filmed on these tracks around here. After the ride we paid a visit to an old MTB friend, Amanda Smale, who I grew up riding with in Dunedin. She is working in Van at a bike store, between what ever DOC jobs she can land. Its amazing how many kiwis end up over here.. I think its because we feel comfortable in the relaxed, layed back environment.

Wednesday, and we were off to Victoria to stay with a cycling buddy of mine, Carter, and his girlfriend Christina. Victoria is another legendary place in our sport because of the amount of good riders that live here.. basically all the good Canadian riders! (Roland Green, Ryder Hesjedal, Shamus McGraph, Andres Hestler, Geoff Kabush...) So we just had to come and see whats going on.
Vicroria is the major city on a large island, about 1.5hr ferry trip from Vancouver, and very British! There were lots of great things to do, but the best of all is riding the bike and exploring.. for many hours! The other great thing was barbecues, almost everynight! We meet heaps of riders and nice people who made us feel very welcome.

This week we are in North Vancouver again for the Grouse Mtn World Cup. Then next week the tough life continues, as we will go up to Whistler, where there is the Canadian championships and a big gravity festival.

Later,
Kashi



The view from our hotel room. NICE!


Helena, back on the MTB again, but just for fun at the moment... we'll see how long that'll last!

WORLD CUP - Mont Saint Anne, Quebec, Canada - 26th (overall position 11th)

Its been a super hot and humid week, so we spent many afternoons down at some waterfalls, where we could jump in some refreshing rock pools. This is probably the best recovery for the legs, and soooo nice.

It stayed hot right through till the race, which made a hard race even harder. From the start Roland Green took charge, and split the field up in the first half lap. Its amazing how much harder it is to ride technical single track during a race. Heaps of riders were leaving gaps, which is very frustrating, and when your frustrated, you can try pushing too hard! I was in about 15th position on the second lap, trying to make some time and took a risky line down a rock face. In practice I had riding this line no problems, but I guess I was going a bit faster, and I just flew over the handlebars smashing my face into a stone. I was dazed. I checked my teeth.. all there.. but my hand was full of blood. I couldn't feel my face, so I asked a spectator if my face was okay. They seemed half confident, so I continued.

After hitting your head, or any kind of crash, its super hard to re-gather a good rhythm. I felt like I was a beginner again.. riding straight into every rock, and just not having a good time of it at all. I slipped back through the field fast until I was in the late 20s. I thought about pulling out, but with all the DNF's I have had recently, this was not an option.. I had to re-gather, and keep going. Maybe it was due to the heat, but many riders had big crashes, and quite a few punctured. Finally at the end of the day it was Julian Absalon who took the win, ahead of Christophe Sauser and Roland Green. I rolled through over 10min afterwards, which is about the biggest time loss I have suffered in a world cup for ages.

The theme for the party was Austin Powers, so you can imagine there were some good costumes. The best of the day was definitely Martin Whiteley, who put on a Sumo Suit, and Tartin dress... "Get in my belly". Then at 12oclock was my birthday, and of course someone managed to spray me top to bottom with beer. Oh the joy. Overall a good night out with the XC boys.

Kashi
Mont St Anne World Cup

1. Julien Absalon (Fra) 1:51:20.00
2. Christoph Sauser (Sui) 1:52:07.00
3. Roland Green (Can) 1:52:17.00
4. Jose Antonio Hermida (Esp) 1:52:17.00
5. Lado Fumic (Ger) 1:52:50.00
6. Roel Paulissen (Bel) 1:54:42.00
7. Christophe Dupouey (Fra) 1:54:51.00
8. Bart Brentjens (Ned) 1:55:25.00
9. Carsten Bresser (Ger) 1:55:43.00
10. Ryder Hesjedal (Can) 1:56:01.00
11. Liam Killeen (Gbr) 1:56:02.00
12. Geoff Kabush (Can) 1:56:48.00
13. Filip Meirhaeghe (Bel) 1:56:54.00
14. Martino Fruet (Ita) 1:56:56.00
15. Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) 1:57:15.00
16. Seamus McGrath (Can) 1:57:22.00
17. Balz Weber (Sui) 1:57:23.00
18. Carlos Coloma (Esp) 1:58:51.00
19. Marek Galinski (Pol) 1:58:51.00
20. Peter Riis Andersen (Den) 1:59:21.00
21. Christoph Soukup (Aut) 1:59:59.00
22. Christian Poulsen (Den) 2:00:16.00
23. Michael Weiss (Aut) 2:00:38.00
24. Manuel Fumic (Ger) 2:01:06.00
25. Adam Craig (USA) 2:01:06.00
26. Kashi Leuchs (NZl) 2:01:44.00
60. Tim Vincent (NZl) -1Lap
68. Jason Clement (NZl) -1Lap
83. Mark Leishman (NZl) -2Laps
87. Nick Hotchin (NZl) -2Laps
89. Tim Madgwick (NZl) -3Laps