The last round of the Aussie National Series was held in Bright, Victoria. Beautiful part of Australia, cool town, mountains! And such a rad track! Straight down the side of a pine plantation. Steep, loose, wider than usual, different lines, roots, dust, good times. 

Chris knew this was his kind of track. Gravity fed, natural terrain, loose and fast, his kind of fun. He was pretty determined to do well and was riding awesome:

“Seeding on Saturday for me was a bit of a shit show, I caught up to 3 riders in front of me and it took quite some time to pass them with all the dust so I lost quite a lot of time there. I really wanted to punch out a fast run and possibly seed first, also wanted points for the overall series as I was in 3rd position behind Conner Fearon and Sam. In the end I seeded 3rd,  2 seconds behind Jack Moir and 11seconds behind Sam.

Race day I was feeling great, I got some new lines dialled in which were faster and was riding focused. I was on a mission to get back some of the time I lost in seeding the day before. In the final I felt loose but fast and smooth, was having fun. I came into a flatter bumpier section and threw a few pedals in but a foot came off and I flipped over the bars, bang just like that I was out, game over! I was pretty disappointed as I don’t crash often like that and I was really on it at this race, I was searching for the win.”

Pretty disappointing for Chris and I feel gutted too because I know what he is capable of but at least he can take away from this weekend that he knows he’s riding fast. He is now looking ahead to the Oceanias in 2 weeks time. 

I came into the weekend, not knowing what to expect. After breaking my hand at the Aussie National Champs 3 weeks ago, I was going to give it a go but wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to manage. The trip was paid for so I thought, well, If I can ride I will do my best, If I can’t  then I will just help out. 

So I taped up my hand, padded up my bar with some foam and moved my brake lever out so I could hang the outside of my hand off the end of my bar. After my first run, I had the biggest smile on my face because I knew I wouldn’t be sitting on the sidelines. I rode careful and calculated as it wasn’t worth letting it go and crashing on it again. But I was riding! 

After seeding pretty close behind QLD shredder, Lisa Mathison, I knew there was a possibility that I could win and take the overall. How good would that be? I didn’t expect to take 11 seconds off my seeding time! In my final, I hurried and pedaled more. It was a natural reaction to brake if I felt any pain in my hand and braking actually made it worse so I had to overcome that mentally and let it go which made it smoother on my hand. I did it!

Congrats to Sam Hill who made it a clean sweep of 1’s in all seeding and finals at all the National Rounds.

Now it’s back to work and healing and hopefully get some decent training in before the Oceanias in a couple weeks time. We are both looking forward to doing well there.