Just a quick note as I'm trying to get everything organized for my flight back to Europe tomorrow.
This weekend in SnowMass showed some of my best form for years. The course was very similar to AngleFire, high altitude, with a super long hard climb, followed by an awesome fun and technical descent. Not a bad field either, with 6 riders who have been on the WorldCup podium this year!
Adam Craig and I had a gap after the first climb, and I was feeling awesome... but then a small rock sliced open my tire in the first 50m of the decent! I could hardly believe it was true, as we were not even going fast!
I put in a tube and filled it with a CO2... all good, and then as I pulled the CO2 out, it pulled the head off my valve! After blocking the valve with my finger I contemplated my situation... I tried to find the head, but it was gone... then I noticed that I stil had the plastic valve cap, so I screwed it on and what would you know, it held! I got back on the bike in around 20th position, but still had to stop in pit zone to change the front wheel. Then I set my sites on catching the front group again. I got into a great rhythm and started catching and passing riders like they were standing still. With one lap to go I was in 6th around 1min behind, and near the top of the final climb I was just 30sec behind Geoff Kabush and Liam Killian. Then I could see Geoff put the hammer down, Liam was dropped and then he punctured (as had Adam Craig a little behind us). Finally Geoff had some strength left and stuck it into overdrive down the final decent to finish 1.10min ahead of me.
Another note: Marcus Roy from Dunedin just flew into Boulder last week, and I've been helping him a little settle in. He raced the Boulder Short Track this week and finished 3rd, and then was sitting in 11th place in the NORBA this weekend until he crashed and punctured on the final lap... that's an awesome effort for his first international race!

What can be better then a great epic ride over some huge mountains!? I definitely don't do enough of them, which is why I just had to take advantage of my weekend off racing, and did the infamous Rollins pass, from Boulder to Winterpark and back!
After seeing Hincapie win the tour stage (way to go!!!), it was my turn to pull the pedals. The climb from Boulder to Rollins pass took me 4.5hrs, taking me from 1600m up to 3400m in one go! With a little caffeine in my blood I was doing a good tempo the whole way, and enjoying every moment of the beautiful valleys and panoramic views. My friend John was waiting for me on the other side ready to show me the sweet single tracks down into Winterpark, which lead straight to his B&B where I spent the night.
John had been a soignée on Volvo Cannondale back in the day, and we had stayed in his Wild Horse Inn B&B during our preparation for the World Champs in Vail 2001. Together with his partner Chris, they now own a second one, called Snowberry, and it is also an amazing place. This area has a huge network of ripping single tracks, plus of course fantastic skiing in the winter due to the high altitude of 2500m. Really worth checking out!
So the next day I enjoyed french toast for breakfast before heading back up the pass, although on some different roads. My legs were really feeling it though and I was crawling pretty slow. Coming down to Boulder I discovered some great tracks. First a 10km river bed, rough as guts, then onto some flowing single track leading to the Eldora ski area trail network where we had raced 2 weeks ago. Finally I finished off the huge decent down Magnolia Rd all the way down to the heat of Boulder. Sweeeet!

It's been a nice weekend for us kiwi mtbers! Yesterday we had riders on both the DH podiums, with Justien Leov (5th)and Scarlet Hagan (2nd!!!) both taking there first ever World Cup podiums. Then today I finally ended my 3 year WC Podium drought, finishing 4th.
This race was always one of my focus's for this year, being at such high altitude I knew I would have a fairly good chance. In training I must say I did become a little nervous though, as the down hill was super rough, and my confidence was not the highest. But from the start I knew I was going to have a good day. I was able to follow Christophe Sauser (Susi) up the long first long climb, with a group of 6 just behind. I then surprised myself by descending faster then Susi and took the lead of the race coming through after the first lap.
The next climb I tried to follow Susi, but it wasn't going to happen. I decided to pace myself and was caught at the top of the climb by Geoff Kabush and Erwin Baker. Geoff was descending super fast, so I followed him for a while, but then banged my rear wheel hard into a stone and heard that terrible hissing sound of air and 'Stans liquid' escaping through the tire. Finally the tire sealed up, but I was down to around 10psi. So, for the first time I made use of the new 'tech assistance' rule, which allows wheel changes in specified tech zones. I still had around 3km of descending before the zone, so I lost a bit of time, but then was able to put my spare wheel in place.
Now in 6th place, I knew I had to be careful. We still had half the race left, and it would still be easy to blow if I attacked too hard. I had Jeremy Horgan Kobelski at 20sec and Fredric Kessiakoff at 1min, so I knew I had a good chance for podium. My legs were stiff after the stop, but soon they felt good again and I started reeling them in. I passed JHK near the top, and then over the top I caught Fredrik, who had clearly blown a big gasket. By the final lap the gaps were pretty big, so I just rode tempo and kept it together.
This podium is a great relief. It's like I've had every problem in the book during the past few years, and this is a great step to put that all behind me.


PS. should also mention that Vox finished 6th and JK 9th in the DH, which means we had 5 riders with top 10's this weekend :)

The MTB circus has arrived to AngleFire, New Mexico. Heading south from Boulder, the organic carrot juices quickly turned into supersized Pepsi's, and the eco mansions became run down shacks.
Anglefire itself is just a very small ski resort, very close to the Colorado boarder. Apart from the already many mountain bikers wondering around, this place feels dead. The house we stay in feels like no body's been here for years, cold and damp. Yet, on arrival we found the one nice looking coffee shop in town and straight away got invited to a get-together of locals and riders to celebrate the world cup coming to town. So that night I wondered down and what would you know... the place was going off! A great little 3 piece band was ripping up some tunes, free pizza (the best for a country mile, they promised us), and a great mix of locals and mtbers drinking 1$ beers. It was so laid back and fun, the nicest welcome I've had to any race yet!
I also managed to do a lap on the course. Starting from 2600m, we will have to climb for a good 15-20min per lap, reaching a head spinning 3000m. Just to top it off, the climb ends with a single track with a tricky rock garden. Normally this should be fully ridable, but at this altitude I'm not too sure. The following descent is very rough and very technical all the way back to the start/finish area. It is maybe the first time all year I'm wishing I had a fully, but at least I have my disc brakes!
All the gravity events will be on Saturday, and the anti-gravity/gravity events on Sunday :)

Ops, I just realised I never posted a report after Mont Saint Anne. Its funny how quickly my motivation diminishes when I have a bad result :) I was pretty disappointed after that race because I was really hoping my form was on track.
I was having an okay race, sitting comfortably in the top 10, but still too far from the first 5 where I wanted to be. The humidity was crazy, creating a virtual temperature around 40C. I like the heat, but this was so muggy, I was finding it hard to focus. Then at around half way I momentarily lost concentration and as I was going over a small wooden bridge I clipped my pedal and flew over the bars. I fell around 2-3m straight onto my back, and left side. After laying on the ground for a while I managed to get back on the bike and continue, but it was super painful. I struggled around for the final 3 laps, really not enjoying myself one bit, but still managed to finish 30th for some points.

So, since then I have been spending time back in Boulder, Colorado. This is where I based myself during the 2000 season, and I still have a bunch of friends up here. It is truly an amazing place to be a cyclist, as there are just so many people into sports in this town. On my first ride I just got out the door when I heard someone shout out to me... I looked back and there was Hendi (Greg Henderson), another Dunedin boy making it on the international cycling scene. So, together with a couple of others, we ended up doing some good days in the saddle, and I got to catch up on everything that's been changing back home (a couple of new traffic lights and.. well.. that was about it!)
With the tour de France about to begin, the main theatre in Boulder had a feature event showing a cycling film called Hell on Wheels. Its a German film about the 2003 tour, featuring Eric Zable, Rolf Aldag and a few others. It was a good film, going really behind the scenes and had some cool cinematography.. but what amazed me the most was that the whole place was completely full of die hard cyclist's.

This weekend I competed again, a Mountain States Cup series event in Eldora Mtn. It was at around 2700m elevation, so perfect training for next weeks world cup, which is at the same crazy height. The course was honestly the best I've ridden all year... only I would have loved a fully as it was pretty rough. Still, I had a blast of a time, and managed to win the event to boost :) I'm now spending a few nights up here at this altitude to start my acclimatisation, and I must say that this is one fantastic place to come to ride MTBs. Its stunning beautiful, and there are fire road and single track trails for 100's of miles. All of this, and its only 30min drive from Boulder, or 1hr30 from Denver International airport.