UCI World Cup Round 3 Leogang;

I arrived in Leogang on Thursday early morning. The sun was out and the atmosphere was rising as the best in the world came together again for round 3.

I signed on and found out I was number 46. Brendan was the first to point out that I had the same number as Moto GP’s Valentino Rossi.

I was very surprised when I walked the course. It was such a different course to what I had expected. Straight out of the start the course was pretty full on into a corner about 3 meters from the gate. The course was a miss match between the courses they had there already and they seemed to join together runs in really strange ways. It was pretty full on downhill style for the first min of the course and then suddenly it went into a long pedally section with jumps the whole way along it. Then it dropped off the side of that course into some Schladming style sections that were so fun! It was really rooty and rough. Then it was back out onto a pretty demanding pedal over more jumps for around another min. Finally it was back into some woods for the last min and a half with some real demanding steep, fast and technical sections. Basically to round it up it was over 4 minutes of changing from free ride into really good DH over and over again.

As I found out on the Friday practise; the course was so much fun to just ride at your own pace. It started to rain a bit during top 80 practise and the course turned a lot different. I did about 7 runs on Friday and every run the course was getting more and more warn each time. I thought as most of the track was already very warn in, it would hold up better but I was very wrong.

By Saturday morning the track had huge braking bumps and ruts that went up to my knees. I did 3 runs in top 80 practise on Saturday to practise a few lines that Simmonds had told me about on course walk.

Qualifying runs came around and I was pretty near the start. I prepared at the top just riding round in circles for a while. Being at the start all the top guys are there with their mechanics and trainers on their static bikes. It’s quite intimidating just riding round all kitted up but I knew what I had to do and concentrated on that.

I had a good qualifying run and managed to keep good speed out of the important bits. I hit all my lines with confidence and it turned out I came 30th. I was really pleased with this. I would have just been happy to qualify but I was pretty chuffed to be 30th. I even got an interview with dirt.

On Sunday a few people commented about how my qualifying run went which made me think about race runs a bit too much... Nerves etc. I did 3 runs in the morning to try a few new lines. It was still raining and hadn’t stopped since the morning after the day we got there. The course was soo so beaten up now. Holes and ruts just over ran the track. I really like tracks that are like this, I guess I just like how hard it is to keep your lines and how much more physical it was. I saw Brendan in practise and followed him for a bit. He saw that I was riding in some 6 year old Oakley goggles without tear off’s so he asked Andrew Neethling for some new ones for my race runs. They were pretty pimp and looking through them wasn’t any different to looking without them!

I didn’t really feel that pressured before my run but I just really wanted to do as well as I positioned in qualifying. I had a bit of a moment at the top where I came off line and landed off a drop into a bog but after that I gathered my thoughts and kept on a good run. I sprinted so hard into the finish and ended up 35th. This is my best final position yet by 2 places. I was mega pleased with how I did and I was pleased with my time. It was a hard track that was over 4 mins long and I was 18 seconds off of winner Greg Minnaar and 11.8 seconds off of a podium.

Thanks to Bren and Neething for the help! Also thanks to Thanks to Last, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, 2026 distribution, Nema Clothing, DMR, Funn, 661, Maxxis, KMC, Lezyne, Mojo suspension, Kali and Shimano.