It was a bit of a worry from the start because as the plans stood I would be getting to Mont Sainte Anne on qualifying day. Luckily it was possible to get an internal flight to Quebec and I would get to the venue from there. I got to the pits around midnight on Wednesday and managed to find a place on Berny’s floor to sleep on. I got up around quarter to seven to see the course. I didn’t realise that it was one of the longest courses on the circuit so I probably wouldn’t have ran up the mountain if I knew but it definitely warmed me up ready for practise.
I had to sign on still which delayed my practise but I only missed the one or two runs. Right from the start I loved the course. It was a course with every characteristic a World Cup DH track should have, and very fast and rough. As of today this is my favourite track. I managed about 6 runs on it and luckily managed to pick up on the time I missed out on at the start. After practise I had to wait for Dad and Jamie to turn up with the R.V.
I did just 2 runs before qualifying on Friday. It had rained loads over night and the course was very greasy. As I was going up the lift I looked down at Dan Stanbridge going totally sideways through the open berms so I knew that they would be bad before I had ridden. My first run I went through the section very cautiously but still nearly drifted out of the corners. The day was nice so I knew that the course should dry up but I just wasn’t sure how much more before my qualifying. I decided to go with dry tyres which I think was a good decision in the end.
My qualifying was good. My run could have been better but I didn’t fall off and I just had fun with it. Besides the course being quite pedally and doing a full run was very tiring, it was still very fun the whole way down. I was at the end of the pack being set off so I would pretty much know when I went through the finish if I would have qualified or not. I came through into 64th place. I was really happy to qualify but I must say it was more of a relief for me more than anything.
Race day – Saturday; I was in a good state of mind and felt absolutely no pressure to do well as I had already achieved what I wanted. There were so many more people and photographers around in practise and everyone riding had a very high level of riding. I guess I am stating the obvious here but it was fairly daunting at the time. I did 3 runs down just going over the lines that I wanted to do. These runs went well and I was confident about racing.
My race run started off a bit too conservative. I just didn’t want to fall off and ruin what work I had done to get into the top 80. Going into the middle section I hit a rut that very nearly sent me over the bars in probably the fastest section on the course. The bottom was fast and smooth and in all I was pretty happy with how my run went. I came through the finish and ended up 54th overall. I was pretty happy with that and it was a nice relieving feeling going on to Bromont for the next weekend.
Here are some highlights of my time in Mont Sainte Anne;
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