We've had a nice week for the final round of the World Cup here in Slovania. While we are technically in Eastern Europe, in fact its just 40km to the Austrian boarder and it does not feel like much difference at all. The nature is extremely beautiful here and everything is well organized...
As a team we had one mission, which was to win the team ranking that we were leading. Personally I had something to prove after my disappointing World Champs, although my asthma was still bad... a real worry, as I've never experienced it like this before. Basically it hits me just when I reach around 150 HR, then kicks in at 170-180 HR.. (my max is about 195) although usually the lungs open up again after the initial hit.
The course was super technical, with lots of flowing sections with deep drops, greasy roots and steep short climbs. Great fun actually. The start was up a steep and loose gravel road for about 1km.. not so fun!
I made a specially hard warm up to try to open up my lungs, but it didn't work so well as I was immediately out of breath within 30sec. I struggled up the climb and entered the first single track in around 40th place. Then I quickly managed to start squeezing past riders where ever I could find a space and sprinting all the climbs. I was still breathing hard, but the legs felt awesome and my new carbon scalpel felt fantastic After a lap I got to 20th, then after 4 laps I had caught 7th place... but then my hard efforts caught up to me and I almost blew the last lap, just hanging onto 9th at the end... another top 10, a great way to finish a super consistent year.









But then I got to hear that Freddy had won the race.. the first World Cup win for our team... That just a week after Jacob winning the rainbow jersey in Fort Williams... plus we totally killed the team classification. One could say the mood in the team was pretty good :) We had a pizza and beer party at the truck afterwards with a bunch of friends coming over to help celebrate. That was followed by a Shimano party at the finish area where they had a beauty contest and oh my, what girls in this country!!! Then we piled about 20 of us into the Specialized van.. alright Bobstar!.. and off to the club till early morn. With no more excuses left, the vodka was free flowing spazed xc'rs were everywhere making fools of ourselves. Today I paid the price, but luckily could just hang around watching some dh racing.
Tomorrow I'm off to Beijing to look at the Olympic course. I'll be there a week and without any serious races coming up, I'm hoping to actually be a tourist for once!!

Hey,
just a quick note, as I've finally found some bandwidth for a few minutes... Thanks to all who've sent me concerned messages, wondering if I am still alive and kicking after my 3rd lap DNF at worlds a few days ago.

Indeed I am fine, although a little disappointed and frustrated, but life goes on... In fact the problem was two fold... firstly I've been suffering from bad asthma during the past few weeks and coming to cold and damp Fort Williams was never going to be good for that. So from the start I was only breathing at 80%... But still I managed a half decent first climb, coming into the first dh at around 29th place I think. Then there was a section with some big rocks which I had a sweet line sorted out, but as I approached it I realized they'd taped off my line... so I was forced over the bigger rocks and lost my balance jamming my rear wheel onto a big sharp one, followed by that awful hissing sound. I managed to repair to seal it with around 10psi, but I was miles from the pits, so by the time I was back in action I was around 70th place.
Then on the 3rd lap I managed to puncture again... I don't know what happened this time... but it was really annoying to say the least. I was once again about as far from the pits as possible and without a second CO2, I decided to pull the pin and save the legs for next weeks world cup.

Otherwise it was fun to visit Fort Williams again.. the scenery never fails to impress and I stayed in the same great house as last year with my trade team. I would have loved to stay with the other kiwis, but the hotel felt really damp and I was concerned for my asthma.

Tomorrow its onto Slovenia.. a new race for us, so am looking forward to it.. plus time for some revenge!