Round 7 of the UCI World Cup tour saw riders form all over the globe congregate in Australia’s capital city of Canberra. This weekend’s event took place at Mount Stromlo forest. The name it’s self had given most of the riders a false impression of what to expect. I personally had visualized a forested mountain, however upon arrival it turned out to be a hill with virtually no trees. Apparently three years ago there had been a huge bush fire that wiped out most of the trees on the “mountain” along with the local observatory.
4X,

The 4X track was challenging for every one, It was probably the most physically demanding track I’ve raced this year. It definitely favored the bmxers amongst us, with very few mountain bike elements incorporated. It left everyone gasping for air after qualification, when all was said and done I would go through to the main event in 6th place. It was not a great result for qualifying and gave me a first heat that on any other given weekend could easily be a women’s final. I faced Anneke Beerteen, Mio Suemasa and Caroline Buchanan. I had 3rd gate choice, knowing that the other girls in my heat all have awesome gates I decided to take a gamble and select lane 4. My plan was that if everyone got a good gate they’d probably all go for the tight inside line, which they did. My gamble had paid off and after coming out of the gate half a wheel back I took the outside line in the 1st turn, It was a long way round but it put me ahead of Mio and into 3rd. I managed to get inside Anneke in the 2nd turn but she was not about to leave any doors open for me. By that point any passing opportunities had gone and I would be in the small final.

The Small final was uneventful, I got a great gate and nudged in front of Mio to the 1st turn, it stayed exactly that way to the finish.

I rounded up my evening in front of a screaming aussie crowd on the podium in 5th place. Caroline Buchanan was a flood of tears on the podium; the youngster had gone on to win the final in her hometown.

DH
The downhill started out to be a fun dusty track with huge jumps and technical rhythm sections, it was a real crowd pleaser. With thousands lining the track from top to bottom it was easy for us riders to be inspired to push the limits but hard not to get carried away styling it up for the crowds.
The finish section by race day would prove to be a critical part of the race, with a grueling 30 seconds of flat and undulating sprinting to reach the finish.
Race day saw the heavens open and and the slippery, dusty track turn to an awesome tacky trail, that was until that grueling finish straight where the track soaked up all the rain to create a boggy nightmare for the racers.

Qualifying went well I had a great run and pushed myself a little at the bottom, I knew I’d have to save some energy for the final though.

Buy the time finals had come around we had seen a lot more rain, by this time it was slippery! It was so hard to hold speed through the bottom part of the track but I did my best and with a pretty much clean run to the final section I gave it my all and powered my way into the hot seat. When the remaining four ladies came down I found myself in 4th place.
I’m really happy with my weekend, Norco Australia especially Jeremy has been helping me out all weekend so I want to say a huge thank you to him for his support.

4X:
1st Caroline Buchanan
2nd Anneke Beerten
3rd Julia Boer
4th Anita Molcik
5th Fionn Griffiths

DH:
1st Tracey Moseley
2nd Rachel Atherton
3rd Sabrina Jonnier
4th Fionn Griffiths
5th Emmeline Ragot