Kategorie: 2008

Yesterday we arrived (we are : Diana, Martins and I) in Glasgow, flying form Barcelona at 7 am. It was bit of an mission but at the end everything worked fine. We got a big rental car and so I had to adapted quick to the right side driving. The rental car company didn’t realize my age… I am to young to rent a car…So I hope I am still insured. What ever. We staying in a very nice appartment. It’s so beautiful and near located to the centre.

Today we had the first pratice day and I manage to crash hard. I destroyed a lot on my bike but luckly the few spare parts I took with me were exactly the ones I destroyed. So all is fine now and I can train tomorrow.

I

This week I sorted a lot out for the next month so I didn’t race the planed race this weekend. It was a good desicion and I enjoyed not to compete … I trained good and hard and thing I got more out of that than out of 2 race and training runs. My stuff is already packed and I will fly out tomorrow to Barcelona-drive to Andorra- race – back to Barcelona- fly to London- to Glasgow-race there and back to London and back home… Vienna. I need sleep now See you LENE

I made it in the finals. So about that fact I was very happy and all the pressure was away when I crossed the finish line as 13th. At the end I was 18th but still top 20.

I was told the day before I have to be top 20 to get a start place for the Worlds in Downhill too so I wanted to do well. In my final run I had a good start but I slipt away in the second forest section and slided down… I don’t know how much seconds I lost but enough to be not very satisfied with my final placement. (19th)

Now we on the way to Fort Williams to have another good weekend. Because apart from my race result I can be satisfied about my qualification and I had a good time with my friend Diana M. and a new one from Latvia.  And I wish Sascha V. all the best and a quick recovery… (He broke his nose in 4x training)
see YOU LENE

That’s a picture from a little girl who made this pic in the gondola in Fort william and sent it to me.. Thank you.

Yes That’s where I was…

We are back home now- landed yesterday about 11pm in Vienna. Thanks to BMX king who picked us up (Us= Martins and me) I really liked the track long and exhausting but I really like it. I felt strong and fit but I was still very nervous. At the moment I don’t know what’s going on in my head- I guess I am thinking to much about my results, placement so that I can’t ride like in my training runs. I am not satisfied with my 18th place again but hmm I can’t change it now I will keep on working on my lack on confidence. I don’t wanna belittle my achievement but I can do much better.

Diana and I
Martins and I

Me ..walking down the track

But appart from racing I had a wicked time with Diana Maggraff from Ecuador and Martins from Latvia. We had a wonderful appartement, a big rental car

, great weather, a trampolin in the garden and more… Diana and I enjoyed the India food  and then we all three missed the party. Diana and I because we both felt a sleep on the couch with our huge bellies.See…

Diana went back to Barcelona and Martins and I flew to Vienna to stay at my place for this week.
Today Martins and I went with my friends to the BMX track and I did some gates. Training for the worlds…YEAHHHHH. I have a start place for the World Champs in Downhill and 4 Cross so I am very stoked about that. My second World champs… My last ones were 2004 where I managed to hurt myself so bad… other story.

Markus and I

So finally I made it to the worlds in Italy. Pretty happy about that cause it wasn’t that easy for me. I am here (Commezzadura) since monday. The first 2 days it rained and the track was very slippery. But today the sun was shinning and I had good training runs. I am glad that I know the track quite well from the pre event months ago. So I can keep my power for the 4 cross race and havn’t to do so many training runs. But it is still a very difficult track with many different lines and it’s not that easy to find your line. Especially if every second rider has a complete different race line and you starting to doubt about your line which you thought it’s a good one…
so I will go down and change my tires because I don’t need my Muds anymore. see you LENE

So I am back home now. back from the worlds… This weekend was on the one side soooo long but on the other it passed so quick to. Some of the national team riders arrived on monday and some on wednesday. We were 8 riders. 4 women and 5 men. Anita Angie raced Four cross and Petra just Downhill and me both. The week started with rain, a crash straight on my nose and an wet track but ended with an sunburn on my arms and a top results for me. I liked the track  (I mention it already before) and up to the last training hour I found my lines. Thursday I manage to landed straight on my face and in the first moment I thought that I broke my nose. I couldn’t see and it hurt so much. I asked the first aid people next to me: „did i broke my nose? and they didn’t understand me and they look just with worried faces on my nose and said YES, YES, Yes hmmm yes… and I was shocked and worried about that I really broke it…But to solve it – They didn’t speak english and said just yes yes yes without knowing what I really had asked them… and I didn’t have a broken nose. It just turned a little bit blue the next day and I couldn’t breath very well in my seeding run. On Friday morning I was so tired from 3 Dh training days and 1 day Four cross that I just slept in and missed on purpose the downhill training. I felt that my body needs the sleep to regenerate and it helped -I felt good at the 4x training. I was ready to get a good qualification time. hmm But at the start I slipped out of my right SPD pedal and managed still to jump the first 2 step downs. I was worry that I wouldn’t make to the finals on Saturday with this mistake but I got a good run down (the rest of the track) and finished as 14th. The only thing was I could’t choose the line which was very important… like in every 4 cross…

Anita had a good time and was 5th in qualification. She jumped the men pro line so respect from my side well done Anita.
So Saturday was the raceday. At 12:56:30 downhill Final- I know it so exactly because I still can read it on my back of the hand. I wrote it with a waterproofed marker on it to be sure that I don’t miss my start….On this way I also wanna say thanks for the support from the National coach at the start (DH/4x) and the mechanic.  So I got down in one piece in my race run. I had a nearly clean run.. I could say I „cleaned up the track“ of photographers. There were so many that I hit one with my handlebar…I lost for few seconds my balance and nearly crashed. I think I was not the only one who hit one they were everywhere. I heard from a junior rider who crashed so hard after hitting a photographer that he ended in hospital. 🙁

So I ended up on the 13th place, which is my best result this year in an big event. 13th of the world I am stoked… The time different between the next girls are about 0,5-4 seconds but the podium ladies weer 30-47 seconds ahead, which is pretty much… so training training training.

Four Cross was very dissapointing for me. I had a good start but I had no chance on the outside line. In hindsight I shouldn’t have tried to go wide and cut in it was a to slow line… But pastes is pasted  and I know it better now for the next time…

My next race is the 4X national champs,which I am sure won’t be counted because of the less number of female competitiors. …But I am hoping for a surprise maybe we are more than 6.

seey ou LENE

Winners:

Woman: rachel Atherthon/Sabrina Jonnier /Emmeline Ragout

Men: Gee Atherton/ Steve Peat/ Sam Hill

National champs are done.

7:00 ready to go… my best friend Miriam came with us to support us (Us= Bmx king and I)

10:00 Arrival: the track was still wet from the heavy rain the day before. So no training for us -the track was closed. And Markus used the time to change his tires 2 times…

and get some advices from Roman „Russe“ or his new name „sex instructor“…

and after eating and lying around in the car the training started. I jumped everything and felt good, so ready to race. I realized in training that my pedals and clicks on my shoes didn’t work very well I tried to fix it before my run but I couldn’t..
So I slipped out of the pedaly 3 times and had so many problems to click back in. I was soooooooooo angry I can#t tell I went back to my car and was so frustrated that this happened to me. 3rd quali time…shit i thought…shit start position again…. F*’#?! F!?’*#. It was not easy the other girls Anit M and Angie H (World cup racers too) were fast and so I had just one chance to risk all and have the fastest gate. I am not sure it’s hard to tell from my view but I think I had in the final runs the fastest gates and was so able to cut right. In the national champ final run Anita was on the 2nd position (which is still a mystery for me because she had the fastest quali time and the first line on the ride side was the best position and choosed this line on purpose…) Angie on the first and I am on the 3rd. and the first corner was a right turn with two lines, where the inside line was faster. I started and cut right to get the corner, elbow on elbow with Anita, who crashed and Angie was a head until the finish line. She got 1st, me 2nd,  Elke 3th and Anita 4rd. In the international final run it was similar but this time Anita took the 1st line, Angie 2nd, me 3rd and Elke 4th. It was the same but this time Angie couldn’t pass me and I followed Anita. Anita 1st, me 2nd, Angie 3rd and Elke 4th.

I am stoked about my racing and jumping and that I did a good job from this start position…

Markus didn’t have so much luck he finished 5th in the nationals… He had good gates and clear runs but it’s always different to race against 3 other riders too you never know.

Niki Siedl won the men, Congrats from my side..good job niki.

Last weekend I raced in Italy- the european champs. It was an amazing track. I liked it a lot. I just didn’t like the weather so much. It rained cats and dogs the whole weekend and the track got deaper and deaper. The race was nearly canceled because of the apocalypse conditions and the fact that the chair lift was strucked by lighting all the time and didn’t work. So the final run was started just from the half of the track because the jeeps couldn’t go up to the top of the hill- (to steep). It wasn’t that big problem because the track was long anyway. In the qualification I ended up on the 7 position. But i heard the timing didn’t work so I don’t know about this placement. The final day was allright it still rained heavy but I had fun the ONE training run was good. (we were not allowed to do more than one run… many riders didn’t more which was not very fair in my opinion…) I had a half good an half horrible final run. I just slipped away with my back wheel on the first off camber bit and lost so much seconds…at the next bits I felt really really fast but I didn’t keep on for long because I managed to get stucked in whole of mud and after the whole was a drop.. I had no other choice to drop my bike and jump from the drop… I was so angry about me in the finish…and sad too. Because I trained well and felt good too. Next time…  I ended up on the 11th place, which is not very good concerning the starter field about 15 th or 16th woman…

No i am at home and preparing everything for the next trip. I got new googles from Spy…and my helmet was restored by chris and Thomas -thanks to Obsn by this way i wish you all the best for the Body Paint Airbrush World champs. and I got new foils for my jerseys /thanks to Zebelon/ and to the copy shop.
This time I am flying to Montreal to race in Mont Sainte Anne and Bromont- then to Vancouver to race and train in Whistler the bike paradise on earth. and then to Canberra to race there the next world cup…

So I have to go and pack my stuff.. see you your LENE 

I am in Canada right now in my hotel room, my bike has arrived a day later than me, I stay in great appartment, got finally my new fork from Manitou (Travis), I am not too much jetlaged and it’s the first training day. It rained the whole night and yesterday night too. At least it doesn’t rain now. So jep it will be very slippery in some sections. I already have put my mud tires on my rims when I left europe and hoped I wouldn’t need them straight away. They journey was okay. The only enoying thing was stopover in Heathrow (6,5 hours) the first two hours I slept and after fluffing around I got toxicated by trying too much different parfumes and finally you could call me a makeup expert…knowing all new makeup trends… and I got oversugared by the choclate samples in the duty free areas… The flight to Montreal was good. The airplane wasn’t so featured and the food wasn’t that good but I had a nice company and so I didn’t get bored. I arrived in Montreal but my bike didn’t after filling out all the forms I got by bus to Quebec. The bus was so comfi and so I slept the whole drive. After an unintended sight seeing tour through Quebec city at 2 o’clock Harriet and I found the driveway to Mont Saint Anne. Yes and now I am here and I have to get ready.. The training starts soon.. bye bye LENE

So today was the big day in Mont Saint Anne. I couldn’t sleep very well because of all my bruises  I have.( I counted them -12) so I woke up early. My training run went okay. The track dried out so much that everybody was running just michelin comp16 or similar tires but I got really hard to ride on so many break bumps and wholes. I really felt good on the track and I liked it, althought I got so many bruises and scratches this weekend from crashing, sliding around. The weather was fine and so I felt this gonna be my day. And it would have been if I wouldn’t have technical problems. My qualification run went well. I finish 14th with 2 mistakes and I knew I can do better. The track was very long about 5-6 minutes and I normally like long tracks because of the pedalling and I see my advantage in long durations. Anyway on the first straight my dereilleur must have been hit by something because my hanger got so bended and I couldn’t pedal or change my pedal position the whole way down. Until I realized that I was already on the ground. sliding on my right side of my body on gravel and big stones…. AHhhhhh. that hurt so much my hand was shaking and I could feel the pain spreeding out through my body. I was so gutted about the fact that I went down that I wasn’t sure if it makes any sense to keep on fighting… I decided to keep on giving my best but I couldn’t pedal…. for few seconds and then it stopped again… I finished 17th which is actually very disappointing for me. I tried not to think about it too much but I am tired of that. I could have done top 10 I was so sure. Who knows..who knows. NEXT time, next weekend, next race and next chance… see you your LENE