Hi there,
Well, its confirmed now.. I need to race more at altitude! Today I finally won a race, and the same one that I won back in 1999! Here's a link to the press release, ( http://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=1740 ) which explains the race pretty well. It was a bit of a surprise, especially after I only managed to finish 27th in the TT yesterday.
I will put a few photos on my photo page... Believe it or not, but they were taken by Kashi... another one! But that's another story.

I'm now in Parkcity, Utah. I'd forgotten how tough this altitude is on the body. We're at around 2500m here, so that's pretty high! The first few days were not too bad, but yesterday I hit the typical 4th day knockout. I was like a zombie trying to get air, falling asleep at 3pm and waking up with what felt like a bad hangover. But hopefully that should be the worst of it, and hopefully it should be fine for the 3 days of racing we will do this weekend.
I'm doing this whole US trip on my own this year. Julian decided he didn't want to do any of these races and instead focus on world champs. I had already not come to US last year, so I just decided to do it myself. To make the most of it I'm combining a bunch of races together, and made a nice little 6 week schedule including 2 NORBA's and 2 World Cups.
Leaving home was a bit sad, with summer on the way things were just starting to amp up. But arriving back to US was awesome.. I had 3 days alone (so to adjust to the altitude) which were mostly spent relaxing. US has the best organic supermarkets in the world, such as Wild Oats or Wholefoods. I can spend hours doing my groceries, drooling over all the nice, yet healthy stuff. Only problem is the bill once you get to the counter!
I also checked out the course, which was about as different as possible to our last race in Willingen. This 15km track is probably 90% flowing single track... wicked to ride, but I guess it will be tough to race.. and no passing.. but heck, its so fun!
Finally all the teams started rolling in on Wednesday and I started meeting up with all my old friends again. So many of the people I've worked with from the Volvo/Cannondale days are still around, and its been a blast to catch up with everyone again. My old team manager, Eric Wallace, is now the captain of the Maxxis US programs, and he's helping me out with lodging for the next few races. Last night Paul Shlitz, our old Aussie/French soigneur came over and we had sipping hour... one of our old traditions where we share some fine red wines, played pool and just had a great laugh.
This is just what I've been needing.. Racing in Europe can get a little to serious at times, and its sure nice to be able to come over here and relax again.
Today we will start our mini tour with a uphill timetrial up the Olympic bobsled track.. Tomorrow is the XC and Sunday the short track.
CU all
Kashi

This weeks world cup was a new venue, in Willengin Germany. It's been a big MTB fest for 8 years, with a big marathon and a large festival area with heaps of product stands. It seemed though that people were much more interested in looking at the latest dh parts then they were watching a world cup race. The organizers too seemed only interested in building a spectacular 4cross course then thinking about twice about how a nice XC or DH course should look. Our course was an embarrassment, with a near vertical climb, followed by a long fireroad climb, then a 1min technical section before roads and easy tracks back to the start finish... not that interesting, and we had to do it 9 times!
The steep climb made the race very tough, but there was a real lack of passing. For the first 3 laps the race was just a long line of riders. I sat around 25th place for the first half, before riders started blowing and I moved upto 16th at one point, finally fading back to 18th at the end. Christoph Sauser pulled off the win, and took over the series lead.. Bui was second.
Once again all the kiwi girls were also racing, Rosarah finishing 23rd, Robin 28th, Sonia 31st, Carrisa 61st, Genevieve 68th.

Houffalize seems to have turned into a cursed race for me. Last year I double flatted here, and this year was not much better... The new start here is awfully long, and I find it very hard. By the top I was around 30th position, and somebody grabed my shoulder and threw me to the ground! I didn't realise we were in a wrestling match, so I was quite surprised. Back on the bike again and I was feeling okay, but getting passed by everyone. I was getting really frustrated, but kept battling on thinking it will get better... finally after 3 laps, back in 85th position I gave up, and rode easy to my team manager to tell him its just not my day. When I stopped and got off the bike I saw what the problem really was... my spring on my brake lever had poped out (probably in the crash), and my brake had been dragging hard against the wheel!
So, then i figured I might as well give it another try... and I got back in the race at around 120th position. Most of these riders were starting to blow, so I passed riders pretty quickly. By the end I was still feeling resonably good, and ended up 55th... better then nothing I guess!