I flew directly from Paris to Washington for the Snowshoe, USA round of the World Cup series. This wasn’t the best preparation after racing the day prior in Paris at the test event, especially with short track on Friday making it a compressed week. I was just happy to arrive healthy and although my main focus was on Mont Sainte Anne a week after I was still hoping for a better outing in Snowshoe than previous years!
Short track was always going to be a tough one, especially with a bit of altitude to contend with around 1,500m. I felt decent but wasn’t able to move up any spots and got pipped by a few riders on the last lap or two to lose out a spot on the third row for Sunday, coming home in 25th position.
I was looking forward to the XCO a bit more than the short track as it gave me more time to settle into the race. The course in Snowshoe is probably my least well suited of all the World Cup rounds with the large amount of seated power sections, especially on the second half of the course which favours the bigger riders.
My goal was to have a good start but not go into the red too early which I was able to do. I spent most of the race close to the top 20, eventually finishing in 21st position.
I was hoping for a little more but overall, my feeling was a bit better than in previous years on this course so I will take that as a positive and move on to the race in Mont Sainte Anne which I know suits me well.