Taxco: Day 4

Today is qualification (seeding) and Race run day. The big day!

I was in a whole world of pain in the morning after waking early still from the jet lag and the painkillers did not work.

The bikes were loaded and we all headed to practice the bottom section of the course which was closed on Friday. I knew this was a great test for me to see what my hand could and more importantly could not do.

The jumps were well over 30 feet in distance and threw up around 15 feet in the air. They were absolutely perfect.

I hit them feeling confident yet concerned how my hand would react upon the high impact landings. It was horrible! But the jumps were so good that I let myself do them 3 times. I then chilled for a hour whilst the other riders continued to practice. We then head to the Cristo for our seeding run (this decides the order of riders for the race) I set off in agony and still had not practiced a full lap of the course.

Every step felt like murder and I could hardly hold on, even going as slow as I was. I made the left. Hand turn into the run up for the big drop into the Plaza and had no idea how fast to go so I went faster than expected! Sure enough, it was far to fast and I dropped over 30 feet in height and 45 feet in distance. Even the highly tuned suspension that TF Tuned has set up could not hold me on. So I blew out upon the impact, the bike shot out from underneath me and I was left lying on the floor.

No time to waste I jumped back on before hunting down the last 2 big jumps. My chain was off but luckily snapped into place on the run up for the jumps. Boom my Taxco race was over before it had begun.

Yet again luck had the better of me but I promise I will return faster, wiser and stronger.