Maribor World Cup

 

DAY 1

Tuesday 

“WHAT A DRIVE! It took our 2Stage crew two days to get to Slovenia in our motorhome. I am so glad to be here! It’s raining at the moment, bit of a thunderstorm going on and golf ball sized rain drops – insane!!”

 

DAY 2

Wednesday

“We’ve set up the pits today, got the bikes cleaned and ready to go. It’s so hot here; it’s about 36 degrees C!! The hottest I’ve been yet but I’m not complaining. There are only a few teams set up here so not much to do. Griffiths Racing was here so I just walked the track with Fee and the rest of the mafia ha ha! The track looks so fast, can’t wait to get on the bike now! I had a ride on Fee’s 4X bike and she gave me some tips on how to do a proper wheelie. Harder than it looks I can promise you!”

 

DAY 3

Thursday

“It’s been another hot day; 42 degrees today!! I got myself an impressive tan line. More teams arrived today. There was another long wait to sign up and get my number board. I went for another walk of the track to give me something to do but on my own this time so I could concentrate on the lines I’d probably take.”

 

DAY 4

Friday

“Practice was awesome, super hot and sticky. There was always a river pouring out of me as soon as I stopped. I had to make sure I took my helmet off quick whenever I stopped so it wouldn’t get too wet with sweat!! It was quite hard work, although the track was fast, it was also rough and my arms were starting to get a battering! I was just told too that it was going to rain tomorrow, so I got down to the lake that everyone had been swimming in and did some diving off the bridge. Great stuff!”

 

DAY 5

Saturday

“The forecast was correct; it rained so hard last night and is still raining now! The clouds are over and it’s thundering and lightening. The chairlifts have stopped as the lightening is so close it’s too dangerous. As a result, qualifying has been cancelled and will be on tomorrow before the finals. I’m actually really gutted, most of the girls looked like they hated every minute of it but I was actually loving it! I stayed on my bike throughout practice and was getting the two wheel drifts perfect round the corners!!”

 

DAY 6

Sunday

“I had to get up early this morning. What a nightmare. 6:30am starts are not the one!! I got one practice run in, it wasn’t the best and had one off but it was ok. Qualifying was great. I stayed on for most of it. I stopped in the rock section and made loads of mistakes! I finished with a time of 4mins 12. I was convinced I hadn’t done enough to be honest - I hurt my ankle after catching it on a root during the run and was disappointed with the run that I had. Jo Petterson told me I had qualified 8th and although she was honest, I couldn’t believe it myself. I looked at the results and I was in 8th place. WOW!!

 

THE FINALS…!!

It was surreal, warming up with the top girls. It was funny actually; the entire top 10 that qualified had number boards that were in top 10. With only one girl who had a number board of 14. Then there was me – the underdog of the century in 8th position with the number board 24!!! That showed them! My run was good for the top section, made tons of mistakes and was so sketchy the whole way. I was really tired by the end after a long day and a long week. I struggled to hold on and keep my lines. As I hadn’t done the last jump into the final all weekend, I didn’t feel it was worth the risk to do it for the first time in the final. I crossed the line in 14th place!! My first ever top 15 in the finals and was stoked! I found out I was also 2 seconds off a top 10 finish. If I had done that jump, I think I could have made up at least a second which would have put me maybe 12th. (But was still 22 seconds off 1st place…) To know I was so close to that top 10 though is inspiring and who knows; maybe this is a sign of things to come. Maybe I could break the top 10 final this year… or maybe Maribor is just my sort of track…?