2009 promo video…
Archive for September, 2009
Australia World Championships
What a trip!
I left from Denver on Friday night, got to the airport way to early (which is typical if my dad drops me off at the airport), checked in, got screwed over by united with baggage fees, and then waited in the terminal for several hours. Flight one, Denver to LA, not so bad. Layover in LA, get some food, “Baja Express” to be exact, burrito not bad considering it is form the airport… Flight two, Denver to Sydney. 15 hours of misery. I am squashed in between some pimple faced fat kid and a total jerk businessman. They both decided that I do not have any need for the arm rest. great.
We finally land in Sydney. I find out that the bike I paid 200$ to get on the plane didn’t make it and will be arriving a day late… hopefully. I take my bag and walk out of the terminal. I have no idea where to meet any one. Damion, John, and Gwinny were on a different flight from Denver. Blinky is flying in from New Zealand. Gregor and Anita are flying in from Austria. And the Australian Distributor for Yeti is going to meet us in the airport. After sever more hours of waiting (It is now sunday morning, I left boulder friday night) I finally find Damion, Gwinny, and John. Soon there after we meet up with Gregor, Anita, and the distributor. We wait around for another 3 hours. Where is blinky. Turns out he missed his flight and got on the next one. Another 4 hours of driving and we finnaly show up in Canberra, the nations capitol. A pretty modern and boring city to be honest.
We had a really nice apartment for the week. There was a long week of practice ahead. We had practice starting on tuesday and the race wasn’t until sunday. It was important to not do too much practice because you want to peak on sunday and not before. I felt good on the track from day 2 on. It was like colorado dirt and the rocks were really fun. The bottom of the track was pretty flat and had a lot of pedaling, so i didn’t like that at all. Friday was the timed practice day. I ended up 38th in timed practice with a mediocre run. This gave me the confidence to go top 30 in the race run, my main goal for the event. It was my first Elite Mens World Championships. The goal was big but for sure doable because I am riding well right now.
Finally race day came around after a long week or waiting and practice. I was having troubles in practice on sunday morning but I was able to put it together for the race. I hit the top as fast as I possibly could, I was up at the split by over 1 second, and ended up being 19th in the world on the top split. This shows that I can be competitive on the World Cup level on the gnarly tracks. I hit the middle section good, made a few mistakes, and then pedaled as hard as I could at the bottom. I ended up 32nd overall in the world. I was really happy with this result and can’t wait to take another 10 or so spots off of this result next year.
Jared won the World 4x Title. It was so amazing to see and be a part of that. Congrats Jared!
The trip back was even rougher than the trip there. I wouldn’t think that that would be possible but it was. It was such a rough flight. I had school the next day and it was rough. All week I was just suffering from jet lag and catching up with school. Only now am I caught up with both and It is quite a relief. The regular race season has now come to an end for me. Now it is time for colligate racing. I won the CSU race last weekend but 8 second on a 2 min track. The racing is not very competitive for me but it is a really good time to go out and race with all of your buddies in a no pressure environment.
Gwinny and I. Course Inspection.
Jared and his new jersey. World Champion! so sick!
The Yeti crew
Me and Camilo from Columbia!
Crossing the finnish line on the freecaster.tv live feed
