World Championships 2008: It's Ill and Thug Nasty!

Friday night. Race day is tomorrow. Over the course of the week the track has gone from a total mudfest to now being almost completely dry and considerably faster. We’ve been out practicing every day, and my lines have changed multiple times. I guess that’s what happens when you ride the same course for a week straight… it’s just something I’ve never done before.Early week mud:


Drying up finally:


Wednesday we woke up to a cloudless blue sky, which put a smile on everyone’s face. The course was still super muddy from the night’s rain, but with the sun shining it didn’t seem quite as bad. I managed to get in 3 laps, and by the last lap was starting to feel a bit more confident slipping my way down the hill. There were still quite a few people tumbling down the mountain, and I have to admit I’ve had my own fair share of crashes on this course! Luckily it was my bike and not my body that took the hardest beating - I managed to crack the lowers of my forks on one of the many HUGE ROCKS on course and was leaking oil all over the place, and had a few other minor mishaps. Thank goodness for on site mechanics! (Big thanks to Marcus at Marzocchi) Unfortunately our very own Marie Eve was not so lucky, as she crashed near the end of the course and got her money’s worth out of her helmet. After visiting a few doctors she was forced to pull out of the race due to a concussion – very disappointing, but she quickly took on the role of team support both before and after the race!


Thursday was the seeding race, and by this time the course was drying up nicely. There were still muddy sections and more exposed roots than ever, but it was slowly starting to feel faster. Chris, the team coach, had worked some magic and managed to find mud tires for everyone who needed them, so we were all prepared for whatever the weather decided to throw at us… which was sun, sun, and more sun! My seeding run went ok but not great. Mentally I felt completely calm and relaxed, but still ended up crashing a couple of times and ended up placing 19th out of 26 women. Canada’s fastest guy was Drew, and our fastest female was Claire. Kim and Hans both got flats in their runs, and Charles crashed hard and also had to pull out of the race with a very concussed head and whiplashed neck.

Friday’s practice went much better for everyone I talked to. I think we were all starting to come to terms with how challenging the course was and letting off the brakes more and more. The weather was still hot and sunny, and the mud tires we were all wanting so desperately a few days earlier were not really all that necessary anymore. The course was pretty much void of mud except for a couple of sections, making the roots and rocks quite a bit less intimidating… it was still rough but keeping the rubber side down was soooo much easier!



It’s hard to completely grasp the feel of a course from pictures, so here’s a few descriptions from some members of the team to help add some depth to the photos:

Micayla: it’s a very technical and challenging course, and you have to stay on your toes and know your lines. It hurts your fingers because you have to brake so much!

Drew: it’s fast, steep, rough, gnarly, and technical. It has big lines, and you have to stay on your brakes the entire way down.

Simon: lots of steep fall line, wide open with multiple and constantly changing lines. It’s a course where you have to let off the brakes as much as possible, and there aren’t many places where you’re pushing for speed – you’re always on the brakes. It was tough too because track conditions changed insane amounts over the week.

Coach Chris: it’s one of the steeper World Championship courses; technical with lots of roots and big rocks, demanding on the upper body and line choice is very key. There was no real need for a speed suit because it was all in trees - no wide open sections.

Hans: steep technical, cool when it’s dry, but when it’s wet it’s horrible.

Miranda: it’s ill and thug nasty. I think that about sums it up!

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And now it’s Monday… already. The race is done and we’re flying home. When I left Canada I had no idea what to expect once I got off the plane. In the past 10 days I’ve made new friends, felt the intense excitement of watching the World Championships live, represented Canada while riding my bike in Italy, and accomplished goals I didn’t think I would this year. What an incredible experience this was! And yes, watching the pro men come down is crazy! Everyone was yelling and blowing horns and stomping their feet on the bleachers... seeing Steve Peat come so close to winning, watching Sam Hill crash right near the end of the course, and then Gee Atherton taking it all right at the very end! That gets the adrenaline going all right!


So what’s it like on race day? Well, there is definitely a lot of excitement and nervous energy in the air. I think Team Canada handled it very well, especially for being such a young and fairly inexperienced team as far as racing internationally goes. Everyone was pretty relaxed, chatting and hanging out in the tent we shared with the cross-country team, but when it came time to race everyone had their own way of focusing and mentally preparing themselves. Miranda was the first to race, having a good run and coming in 4th in junior women! Next went the junior guys: Yann, Philippe, Simon, Alex, Trent, and Rob. Simon was the fastest in this group, managing to come in 16th overall in this category! Way to go Simon! Yann, Philippe, Trent, and Alex had good runs as well, while Rob went the crowd-pleaser route with about 5 spectacular crashes on the way down. Thankfully both he and his bike crossed the finish line in one piece!


Then the pro women: Kim, Micayla, myself, and Claire. We all had clean runs, although not everyone was completely happy with their runs. I guess that’s how it goes sometimes, but when it’s Worlds it’s especially disappointing to know that you could’ve done better. For my first big race, I’m happy with how it went. I basically wanted to keep my tootsies on my pedals, and that I did! Micayla was the fastest Canadian coming in 12th, Claire was close behind her in 14th, I was 15th, and Kim came in 20th. In the pro men we had Drew and Hans, who also had clean runs and came in 36th and 38th respectively. All in all, I think the Canadians did a great job and will only come back stronger next year!


And what happens after the race? Why, you celebrate of course! We went for pizza, watched the 4-cross finals, and then joined in the festivities at various places around the site until the wee hours of the morning. When we finally made it back to our van at 3:30am, we discovered that someone else liked our van as well... some guy from South Africa had thrown up in our van, stripped down to his boxers, and curled up on one of the seats wrapped in some banners we'd had lying around. He wasn't too impressed with us waking him up and making him leave, but we all wanted sleep just as bad as he did, and we definitely outnumbered him!

I know this is only my first World Championships and I have nothing to compare it to, but everything seemed to flow fairly smoothly. Many thanks to Chris, Mike, and Sylvan for encouraging us all, taking care of the details, and making sure everything was running properly at all times. I also have to thank Obsession: Bikes in North Van for yet again getting my bike race ready before I left, and all the sponsors taking care of Team Pinkbike, especially Devinci! My Wilson took all that rough riding like a champ!

Ok, that’s it for this adventure.

Till next time…
Dancie

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