SchladMINGER

So, the Schladminger award this year was won by.....drum roll.....drum roll....drum roll.....Weiner Schnitzel!! Ah, any excuse to say weiner and schnitzel in the same sentance!! Hee hee!!I just got back from a speedy few days in one of my fav Austrian Villages, Schladming. Round 4 of the UCI World Cup. The track was as awesome as ever, really bumpy, wide open in parts, flat out with a few new technical wooded sections. It is an unreal track, it took me just under 6 mins, I was on the brakes way too much. I let myself get stupidly distracted my a weiner schnitzel and wasn't as focused as I should have been....but I still managed 25th place which means 3 top 25s for me! Yeeeeea! That leaves me in 24th OVERALL IN THE WORLD! Lets get giddy!! XX

So....Day 1 saw me arrive a little bleary eyed after a Ferrel night on the floor of Stansted airport. I had a mission getting there after experiencing my usual disorganisation and missing the last train to the airport! With a little help from my London based Homie Hannah, I made my way across the city on the tube with my kit bag and bike and found a farleys rusk (bus) which took me to the airport! A rather hungover Fionn met myself and a few stranglers at the airport including NO NO NO NO man from southerndownhill.com and Martin the GB masseur . After very little sleep, we hiked down the course, sorted out bikes then ventured out for an impromptu beer, which turned into a messy night in the Mexican with the usual suspects! Practice was early the next morning, but we had all day, so we chilled out, sectioned the course and got to grips with the alpine speed. I was having a little trouble with my brake set up, so I went to see Nick from Hope. I hung out with him for about half an hour while he fitted different length levers and fiddled with the lever pull. Once they were perfect, I headed home for some much needed RnR!

Saturday practice was again long, it is easy to wear yourself out on that course, so I just stuck to 5 runs, and made sure I accomplished every obstacle on course and took the time to watch and take a leaf from the the guys and gals while they nailed the sections. I walked the course again and drew my secret course map and settled in from an early one.

Sunday, I woke and pinned the tail on the donkey (number on jersey), headed up super early for practice before qualification. First practice is always the worst, got to shake the cobwebs and get the crashes out of the way! It was obvious in qualifying that the cobwebs were still sticking me together as I had the most diabolical run! I crashed hard in the woods and was down for a while. Once I got up, my 30 second girl was on me, I let her passed and she went and stacked right in front of me! Apparently the whole thing was on the big screen?!! Good job it wasn't the final!! I made it through and lined up again for another 6 minute brain shake! I had a great run, just overly cautious on the brakes, and managed to shaved 39 seconds off (which is heaps.....shows you how long I was on the ground after my crash) and finished in 25th place!!

So.....the extracurricular activities!! We had a ball, apart from too many SchLadMinger beers in the Mexican, we kidnapped D-Dawg and waxed his hairy fingers, ate far too many 'kebaps' for our own good, raced 7km downhill on off road go karts and got faces full of dust and stones. Fionn kicked ass again in the 4X and finished 3rd....erm erm erm erm, I shouted weiner schnitzel a few times, had my nails and fingers painted by drunken Mr Leov, missed my flight and had a random road trip back from Austria (Fee n Jill....your the best!). I got repremanded by a local gardener for raiding her plant pot and decorating my hair with her beautiful flowers?!! I was feeling a little blue and a splash of colour worked the trick! My friend Damion stopped me, asked me why I looked so blue, he told me if I could see what he saw, I wouldn't look blue at all! He took my photo and showed it to me. Its was the coolest thing anyone has done/said in a while...kind words are never wasted, and they don't cost anything!! X

On a slightly more bizzare note...check out this blast from my WILD CHILD past!! I got tagged this photo on face book by one of my old school buddies. It is me, sweet 16, or not so!! Check out the piercings, the purple lippy, the bike chain necklace n the fashion glasses!! What was I thinking?....erm, clearly, I wasn't!! XX