I’d had a busy first week getting settled back into Europe with lots of travel and things to sort. It was only the second year that the event in Chur had been held and the first time for me racing there. After a difficult lead up to the season opener I was expecting very little but still looking forward to getting my first race of the season in Europe on the board and seeing how I stacked up against some of the world’s best riders.
I started off the second row and had made up a few spots by the first corner. The course was probably 50% street and 50% trail with one main climb that came in one hit. I was holding on to the front guys in the train of riders for the first half of the race before things started to splinter a little bit.
For the last three laps I was in a group of four battling for positions 10 to 13. I felt like I was just hanging in but managed to bring it home for 12th position in the end, which was fairly satisfying given the circumstances and my recent glandular fever. It is a good place for me to be at knowing that I have a lot of room to improve as the season goes on.