I knew I wasn’t carrying my best form into Albstadt but still it was disappointing to not secure a front 2 row spot in the short track event on Friday night. I suffered on the flat, high speed track and just wasn’t able to hang with the bigger, more powerful riders over the final 2 laps.

I was motivated to put together a better performance on Sunday in the XCO and after a good start I found myself in around 10th position. I was cautious to not push too hard early on and for the first half of the race felt like I was riding within my limits and relishing the slippery descents. On the last 3 laps I suffered big time and started to drop a few positions. On the last lap I had an unavoidable crash into a rider who had come off riding one of the drops and was lying across the track. I lost a few more positions there to eventually come home in 18th. While it wasn’t what the result that the first half of the race promised I also know it could have been a lot worse!

Looking forward to hopefully an improved performance in Nove Mesto next weekend.

(Photo credit: Matt DeLorme)