Euro Report #4

Europe Report #4

Junior goes to race.

Normon Thibault Reporting.

Corey and I are just sitting outside the press area right now having a few beverages and avoiding the sandwiches with the weird stuff on them. Let me get you up to date….

It is COLD out there….really COLD! We rode the course with the girls yesterday and everything was frozen. The course is one of the hardest I have ever ridden. One of the highlights of our ride was when we were just going up to the barriers and Hanka was getting interviewed at the side of the course. I cleared the barriers and heard a huge BANG behind me….it was Corey hitting the barriers and going DOWN. Right in the middle of Hanka’s interview…..she just looked over with a scowl.

On one of the steepest downhills a girl from Japan crashed at the bottom just as I was going over the top. I missed running over her head by inches. There were juniors and girls that were just walking sections…scared out of their wits.

Corey and I spent the afternoon finding small parts and some special snow tires for Wendy’s bike. I went to the manager’s meeting with Chris while Corey went back to the Dutch Camp in search of more parts….just in case and to be ready for all conditions.

Last night I was up until 11:00 working on Wendy’s Surly and Corey’s Empella (Wendy’s back up bike). Jake and Josh (the borrowed Mechanics from the USA) worked on Joel’s bike getting them totally dialed in. We were not totally satisfied with the pimp factor so I put my Zipp’s on his #1 bike and it looked SO good!

Early up. Breakfast and load everything up. -10 degreed outside. The warming trend is not happening and we are leaning our preparations more and more towards a frozen, hard, slick course.

On Site
When Joel saw his bike when we unloaded it at the race site he was so pumped! While he did his final preparations Samantha was getting her first look at the course and Wendy was dialing in tire pressure and checking over sections riding her back up bike.

We got every last detail sorted out and headed over to the start. Joel was pretty relaxed considering this was his 5th or 6th cyclocoss race ever. He handled everything fine and did his own preparations in his own zone.

Race #1 Juniors
Like all c-x races and particularly world championships this race started very-very fast! There was a crash just after the start that took a few riders down and Joel managed to just avoid it. Corey and I both commented on how he was not riding pace with anyone else and always trying to pass and try different lines. About half way through he got a front flat and then crashed on a downhill. He made it back to the pits and stitched to his back up bike but had lost a few spots. It was great to see him attacking anyone that was around him and trying to pass in the more technical areas. He caught one more rider from the US on the last time up the stairs and they had a good battle until the finish where Joel won the sprint. Afterwards he was pumped but totally spent! A great effort for his first worlds.

We took a bunch of photos and are painfully sending the 12 best from this morning via e-mail. Enjoy!!

Normon OUT

Thanks to Helly Hansen, Frontrunners Nanaimo, Brodie Bikes and eNVy.