Day 1 at the Worlds in Mont Sainte Anne
I'm going to jump a bit in the story here and leave out the weekend in Windham - it was remarkably rubbish, mainly due to the fact that the throat infection was killing me. On Monday, when the very kind guys from mtbs.cz gave me a lift up to Mont Sainte Anne, I started to feel better, I rested on Tuesday and yesterday, when the first actual race was held, I felt almost 100%. The only problem I have now is that one week of not eating properly and taking antibiotics simultaneously have took its toll and I am rather weak now, but I had my first burger last night so I'll regain my strength in no time. But enough of the chit-chat, let's see photos from yesterday's races.
The day started with the team relay race and I used it as an opportunity to map out the xco course. I quite liked it but it became obvious pretty soon that I won't be able to cover the whole course: it's just too stretched out to do that. I caught Katerina Nash at the beginning of the lap, she was the third rider of her team.
This ascent turned out to be pretty tricky as the surface loosened up and it became too loose for most people to be able to climb up.
It was probably his badass trucker 'tache that helped Jose Antonio Hermida Ramos on top of the climb - he was the only one who could do that that morning.
Pauline Ferrand Prevot is only 18 years old but acts like a pro already: she immediately started to smile once I pointed my lens toward her. She also seems to know the secret to a sparkly smile.
Different teams took different approaches to combat the exhausting heat. The Swiss took a more high-end road and used these cooling vests.
The US team went for rather lo-tech solution, also known as the icepack.
Young Canadian riders prepare for the race with serious grinning.
And then off they went.
Valerie Meunier tackles the longest and probably hardest climb in the cruel heat.
German rider Helen Grobert finished third place. This descent is much worse in reality than it looks here.
After the high-tech Swiss riders dropped out of the race, no one really threatened Ferrand Prevot's win.
UCI MTB Worlds in Mont Sainte Anne, Canada: Junior XCO winner, Pauline Ferrand Prevot
Cyclephotos does New York City - well, kind of
After a frantic last-day-at-work-before-a-long-holiday, I was ready to leave London. My extensive traveling in the last couple of months had taught me how to pack quickly and efficiently, without leaving anything important behind. So I was calm and prepared when I arrived at Heathrow last Thursday, little bit before 7am.
After the humble on-board services of my previous intercontinental flights in my life, I was impressed by the wide variety of films and TV shows British Airways was offering and since I had chosen seat with ample legroom, the actual flight was almost perfect. The landing went well and we were waiting for our cases in no time. Up until this point, everything went well, my only concern was that my throat ached more and more.
Finding the right tube line to central New York wasn't as easy as I thought but, eventually, I was on the right train, en route to Penn Station. Then a funny thing happened: I bumped into two fellow photographers, Jan and Michal from mtbs.cz. They were about head out to do some sightseeing, so we rode the same train for a while and chatted about New York.
Getting to my hotel took me longer than I expected so it was about 3pm when I was able to head into the center of New York to do some proper sight seeing. I took my camera with me and snapped a couple of pictures. Prior to my journey, I'd bumped into a blogpost that advertised an event at Rapha's NYC store, so I built my afternoon around that, making sure that I got there at 6:30pm to see who's the fastest mechanic in NYC.
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UCI MTB World Cup 2010: elite women's race in Windham, USA
UCI MTB World Cup 2010: Men's top 3 in Val di Sole, Italy
Nino Schurter
Julien Absalon and Schurter were riding together for the most of the race, but 300 meters from the finish, Schurter put the hammer down and opened a small gap that Absalon wasn't able to close until the finish line.
Winner of last round in Champery, Switzerland, Florian Vogel just wasn't strong enough to win again.
UCI MTB World Cup 2010: women's top 3
Maja Wloszczowska
Catherine Pendrel let the pack right from the beginning, but in the last lap Wloszczowska overtook her, but the silver medal still meant that she is leading now the overall standings.
Irina Kalentieva
Val di Sole - the juniors
World Cup weekend - follow Evans Cycles' blog
It's been quite a while since the last update - the lack of races should be blamed for that. This weekend is a World Cup weekend again, this time in Champery. But there won't be any update on this blog and here's the reason why.As some of you might know, I have recently joined Evans Cycles, a bike retail company in the UK as blogger/photographer/twitter guy. As a trial, I'll cover this race weekend on that blog, so make sure that you tune in on http://evanscycles.com/blog. You can also see updates on their twitter accound at http://twitter.com/evanscycles. Things will get back to normal next week, when the last European World Cup race will be held in Val di Sole, Italy. See you soon.
UCI MTB World Cup 2010 in Leogang, Austria: Downhill winner Greg Minnaar
The winner in Leogang: Greg Minnaar. This was the muddiest race in my life, will take ages to clean the gear. But first things first: now I need to catch my plane back to London.
UCI MTB World Cup 2010 in Leogang, Austria: Downhill winner Sabrina Jonnier
The winner of the women's race: Sabrina Jonnier. Rachel Atherton crashed at an upper section of the course and didn't finish the race.
