telluride world cup

well, it was a really fun week getting back into the start gate again. ten months and two days after the olympics i re-entered the field of play and had an absolute blast.. when i first got into the start gate for round one i highly underestimated the younger world cup riders in heat one.. about halfway down the first straight away when i was sitting way back in third i got a quick wakeup call that i was indeed trying to ride the world cup after a summer spent on the golf course and plane seats on the way to speaking engagements.. the young italian who had won the pre-ceeding world cup in austria had clearing been working his butt off all summer.. time to get aggressive. turn four was the hardest one in the course and i took an inside line to muscle out the young luca matteotti.. i hung in second place to the finish line and realized it was going to be a hard days work at the office.. round two went better and i made another great inside pass in turn six to move to the semi finals. when i reached the gate for the start of the semis the heat ran like the who's who in sbx the past three years.. pierre vaultier of france and markus schairer of austria. the two previous world tour champions.. i had a good start and was trailing only pierre as we came over the first step down jump.. i pulled into his draft and sling shotted him over the next jump.. i hit the gas and never looked back until i was crossing the finish line to find myself with a major lead considering the talent in the heat.. i was off to the finals. when the gate dropped in the finals it was game on.. i pulled my first hole shot of the day and held it all the way to turn six. i opened the inside lane just enough for pierre to slip through but i had the line for turn seven and passed him back on the way into the final straight away.. sometimes the decision making process is a tough one in the split second format of time i have to work with.. all week i had watched pierre's practice runs in which he was working the final triple of the course where as all week i had opted to jump the whole thing.. knowing that its slower to be in the air i opted for a change of plans that resulted in a third option which was simply no good.. the dreaded caseing of a feature.. to case is to land on an uphill angle which effectively murders your speed. and that is just what it did.. i cruised across the finish line to a photo finish that i already knew i had lost.. no hard feelings though i was thrilled with my riding on the whole and it had been great to have a real head to head duel with the two time world cup champion..  as i sit packing up today for the travel day back east its been awesome to look back on two weeks that had a number of loafers along side the course here in telluride cheering with the blue triangle waving in the sky.. to watch alex tuttle qualify for the first time in his young career through the time trials and into a world cup made me as proud as taking the podium myself.. the year is officially underway and i'm looking forward to the holidays at home with some more great training time at the loaf.. see you all at the rack and tune in sunday afternoon on nbc after christmas to see the world cup from telluride as well as some familiar scenes from the loaf.. see you all soon.