So, what happened?! This is the question I have been asked about 1000 times since finishing a disastrous 28th in the Olympic race on Saturday. Well, the very first corner of the race was an off camber right bend, and with all that nervous energy blasting out of everyone, it was always asking for a pileup. I just was not expecting it to be at the front of the race! There was no one to blame, but it was Thomas Frishknecht that ended up going over the handle bars, and then everyone on the left of the course was forced to stop while those on the right went by grinning. I had to stop, then run a bit while changing into a lower gear before I was back on the bike again. Then just as I had some momentum again, I got shoved by someone from behind, and ended up off my bike again. By the time I got going the second time I was almost dead last. This was a devastating blow, and one I was not prepared for.

I managed to fight passed a number of back markers to finish the first lap in about 30th place, and from there I tried to convince myself that I could make it back to the front. I rode steady and caught a lot of good riders, and after the 4th lap I was in 16th position. But I was always losing time on the loose gravelly descents, and it meant I was having to ride harder on the climbs to catch up. By the 5th lap I was starting to make mistakes and almost crashed quite a few times. This slowed me down a lot, and I was starting to get passed again from behind. This was hard to take, as I knew I should be in the top 10, not moving backwards out of the top 20! I tried to clear my head and re-gather, but I didn't manage it. I really felt like pulling the pin, but I knew I had to fight my demons and at least finish.

The one great piece of news from the day was that Abs won! So in the end, its a great day for Bianchi and my team. Afterwards in the village I meet a lot of the riders sitting in the Mac Donald's area, finally able to enjoy the junk food that the rest of the athletes have been eating for ages! There were a lot of other hard luck stories going around. Christophe Saucer perhaps the worst of them all.. after also being held up in the start he had fought to catch the lead group, and looked in good contention for a medal, but then on lap 3 his chain broke! It seemed like everyone had an excuse of some sort, and no body except the first 5 seemed happy with the course! But this is mountain biking, and I think we just have to accept it.

Last night I went to the closing ceremony, which was a great feeling. I caught up with a bunch of friends, and we were all just buzzing about being center stage with 70,000 cheering fans around! In the end, we were all Olympians, and it was a great to be there. Now we have the worlds in just 2 weeks, so there will be a few riders turning up with revenge on our minds.. me included!

Finally, a big thank-you, to all those that watched the race, wrote me emails and supported me. I'm sorry it didn't work out better.
Cheers.
Kashi

The NZ team is buzzing tonight after the unbelievable ride from Sarah Ulmer. I was in the athletes area in the velodrome, standing on the fencing and yelling my headoff... and what a result! She took the old world record by over 6 seconds!

Other then that, things are pretty much as expected in the village. Many athletes have already finished thier events, and so the atmosphere is pretty relaxed. At the moment I am in Middle earth, an area set up with tvs, sofa's and a few computers. A good place to come and meet other kiwis and socialize. I've been seeing a lot of other mtbers in the food hall, and its funny to see them all in national clothing.


We've still got 6 days till the race, so today I ventured into the city, and meet up with my dad for a nice cold beer. The days are really hot as expected, so we're drinking non-stop. (normally water though!)

Two days ago there was a fire near the mountain bike course, and part of our course got burnt! (a really nice part at that!) Tomorrow is the first day of training, so we will get to see the damage then. At this point its not sure if we'll be riding the burnt section, or cutting it out altogether.

later
Kashi

Olympics, here I come! I've been a bit nervous all week, but finally I will fly into Athens today.
Yesterday I did my final training ride at home. I have been doing lots of motorpacing behind our Vespa with Helena on the wheel, and yesterday we did 1 min intervals. Overall my preperation is well on track, and dispite a bad race last weekend, I feel that given the legs are right on the day, anything is possible.

I'll try to get online at the village and let you all know how it is!

07 Aug - Swiss Cup, Savognin
Result: 1st !

After a hard weeks training, I was not expecting to have a stellar race this weekend. But my form is obviously at a really good level, as I managed to push myself really hard from start to finish to win my second ever Swiss cup (or Swisspower Cup, as the series is now called)
The start list was not too shabby, with the likes of Thomas Frischknecht, Ralf Naf, Sid Taberely and Florien Vogel. I decided from the start that I was going to push myself as hard as I could, just to get some good hard training. Near the top of the first climb the pace slackened, so I went to the front and opened a small gap. Even though I was hurting a lot, I stayed on the front and pushed as hard as I could for the next few kilometers. By the end of lap one I was away with Sid and Florien, and we all worked hard to hold off a big chasing pack.
I continued to keep pushing the pace, and on the forth lap, after a good acceleration, I noticed that I had opened a gap. From there I dug deep and went for it. Sid was hanging close for a long time, but finally he blew with a lap to go, and by the end I won comfortably with 1.30min.

30-01 Aug - O Tour (D2) Sarnen, Switzerland
3rd OVERALL

Friday 30th July- Street Sprint
9th

We started the tour off with a very different kind of race. The course was a 800m lap on the main streets of Sarnen, which included a few cobble stone sections and many tight corners. We were split into heats first, with the first 10 going into the final. We would do only 2 laps, hence the word 'sprint'! In the final round we did 3 laps, and I positioned myself perfectly on the leader (Calle Freiberg's) wheel, but then he went so fast into the final corner that he crashed! So I had to stop dead, and finally finished 9th.

Saturday 31st July - XC
2nd

This course is quite nice, because it has a long flat section, and then a couple of short hard climbs followed by technical singletrack sections. It makes for an intense race, but also allows good periods for recovery. Christophe Sauser put down the hammer on the first technical section, and we were quickly a group of four, including Roul Paulison, and Thomas Frichknecht. My legs were feeling great, so I put in a good attack with 2 laps to go. Frishy chased me down, and immediately Christoph attacked. I managed to go with him, while the others were dropped. But on the final lap I could not hold Christophs pace up the final hard climb and I had to settle for 2nd.

Sunday 1st Aug - Marathon
4th

With 80km and 2 huge climbs to contend, the day started off at a reasonable pace for once. By the top of climb #1 I was together with Christoph and Roul again. But then on the decent, I had a puncture. After fixing it I struggled to get my rhythm through the 15km of undulating single tracks, and had lost over 10min by the beginning of climb #2. This was a real monster of a climb, and I started feeling better already at the bottom, so I set a good pace, and brought back all of the riders except the first 3. By the end I had caught up to Thomas, but he beat me in the sprint. So I finished 3rd overall, which was a nice improvement from last years 12th place!