UCI World Cup Finals - New York;

New York for me was the coolest world cup of the year. I met the owner of Nema Clothing, Erick, who put me up for the week in the Nema Lodge; a massive new house with loads of rooms a swimming pool, hot tub, the list goes on! I also met friend of Erick’s and now a good friend of mine at the airport, he goes by the code-name of “Stevie Z” and happens to work with all the stars in Hollywood.

The DH track looked pretty simple but flat out. It had a 45ft road gap, rock drops, rock sections the list goes on but all the usual characteristics but with a lot of speed. I was pretty ill unfortunately for the whole time I was there but I managed to do enough runs in practise to feel confident enough to qualify.

In qualifying I just tried to get down and have fun without coughing too much. I had a smooth run and finished up 32nd. I was on a 2min 46 seconds and was pretty happy with that. I was 10 seconds off of qualifying winner Steve Peat and just 4 seconds off of the ton 10. Relieved too considering the UCI DH was powered by Nema.

That Friday night we all went to the VIP dinner which was amazing. I have never had a VIP pass before but I can’t imagine that anywhere else does it the way this was presented. First up you got a lift to the right floor where there was a presentation and thanks to the event kind of thing. Then there was live acoustic and vocal music as we walked into the dinner room with tables all over the place with a buffet in the middle with all sorts of nice exotic food! I ate very well that night!

I think I preferred having another few hours of practise on Saturday as opposed to the usual racing the day after qualifying. It gave me more of a chance to try new lines and see what the top 80 racers were up to. I think I learnt a fair bit more. I did 4 runs trying out the new lines I had found the day before. I felt like I could go a fair few seconds faster than my qualifying run for sure.

Erick introduced me to the guys at Adidas who seemed very keen to help me out. They hooked me up with some riding sun glasses and some race goggles which was pretty sick.

I was treated like a King on Saturday night before race day, so I woke up feeling as fresh as I could do considering I was Ill.

I did 3 practise runs before the big final run of the week. I felt good and ready to race. Erick even put me in some sample 2011 kit and got me to warm up properly at the top.

I sprinted off the start feeling strong. In the first tight left hand corner I was as close as it gets to falling off which scared the crap out of me. I managed to calm it down straight away and not try to make up on the lost time but have a clean run down the rest of the track. By the section before the raod gap I was having a lot of fun just racing down the hill. I whipped the road gap and the cheering got me going for the pedalling ahead. I had a smooth run through the rest of the woods and sprinted the straights at the bottom as hard as I could. I went 6 seconds quicker with a 2min 40 but ended up 50th place. I was pleased with my result but was a little disappointed. I needed 4 seconds to get comfortably into the top 20.

Everyone from the house went out for Mexican to celebrate that night before we all went our separate ways home. I went back to Albany airport with Erick and Stevie Z and some of the others went on to World Champs.

I had an awesome time at New York and I’m looking forward to the World Cup round there next year all ready.

Thanks to Erick for all the help!

Thanks to Last, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, 2026 distribution, Nema Clothing, DMR, Funn, 661, Maxxis, KMC, Lezyne, Mojo suspension, Kali and Shimano.