The flight out was fairly uneventful apart from ChrisP reminding Pete (celebrity mechanic for the Mojo crew) that Orange, cardboard bike boxes were maybe not the vessel of choice for £10Ks worth of DH gear!! Just 'cos Rowan S (get well soon) and Chris Ball had to sweep up their stuff off the Brazilian tarmac after their cardboard boxes turned to Papier maché!! As if that would happen to us? It never rains in Canada...

On Wednesday, Me Fabien and Damien went riding in the morning, just a few runs in the bike park, then walking the course in the afternoon. The Mont St Anne course is on the calendar every year but this year's course though similar to last year has a couple of new sections (most importantly for the slack-asses, a new wooded bit missing out the flat bit at the finish). Looks good though! A very physical track and quite fast and open. We are staying with Fabien B and his mechanic Paul Walton during this trip and it has been interesting to see their approach to racing because it is different to the majority of riders I know). From the outset, it seems very calculated and although it sounds strange, less 'riding' orientated that I am used to! It's more about the lines, the bike, the fitness, the diet, etc. He's racing with his head rather than his balls! I guess relying on 'just' riding fast leaves a lot more to chance! and anyhow, if you can't 'ride' by the time you get to a World Cup venue!...

Our apartment with Fab' was next door to Julien Absalon the XC World Champ so we were thoroughly immersed in French life for a couple of weeks. These guys are total athletes both World Champs winners, but even so, we are sat down to dinner in the evenings quaffing red wine and chatting as if on holiday! Great attitude!

Quali' wasn't great today... I qualified in 40 something place. I opted to race on dry tyres and it got a bit wet at the top, plus I had a small issue with a tree. Not a day to be proud of!

Again, it has been interesting seeing how Fabien and Paul go about things (apart from bickering like an old married couple!) I have been trying to learn from them, but obviously can't just directly copy their decisions because he rides quite differently to me and makes choices based on his strong and weak points which are different to my strong and weak points... Having said all of that - tyres are the one thing I should have copied because he got it right with the spikes as did an unfortunate number of others! arse. Anyway I am struggling a bit to find a balance between a) using the opportunity to try to learn and try out new techniques from Fabien and Paul's approach and b) sticking with my tried and tested techniques developed over years of international success, ahem. But I promise will do my best to get it sorted for race day. The times I have from my practice runs are looking OK. I also feel confident with my pace having ridden with some fast riders, however, having the fitness to keep that pace for a full run is difficult.

I finished 35th. Hm, it's obviously not what we were hoping for. Basically, because the course was so long and so rough, I was looking for a balance between going too fast and tiring my self out, and going too slow. In the end I didn't get it right.

Still, the real race, the Karts were good fun! Went Karting with Fabien, the Frenchies and the mechanics and we found out that Mojo's celebrity mechanic Peter Michaliyzsn and Paul Walton (named and shamed) had been out for a sneaky practice session the night they arrived. So Pete got the slowest Kart as some kind of punishment directly from Karma itself! Sweet, er, didn't win the Karts either...

It has been an interesting race though, where either wisely or foolishly I changed quite a few things in my practice/racing technique to try, some are good I think and some either I didn't quite master, or didn't work for me. There are a lot of positive things to take from the race and things i have learned about my racing technique, so I will try to keep them for the next race in Bromont - that's if there is a Kart track up there...

Just off to the gym for a bit to do some light recovery stuff, then travelling to Bromont tomorrow to do some training in the bike park before the race.

Just in case you hadn't got fed up of looking at Stan's rear end, another shot from the back. I've got my suspicions he's growing a tache and daren't show us the front. Come on Stan! a full-on Ron Jeremy, you owe us....

The second part of this Canadian trip brings us to Bromont for round 7, the penultimate round of the World Cup Series.

This course is short, steep and rocky, compared to last week's fast, open and long track, so couldn't be more different. This course is mainly made up of steep rock slabs and technical drops, with the mud in between making slowing down not an option. This delighted the local crowd, who were glued to either side of the track, several people deep, only moving to dodge falling bikes or riders throughout the race.

I was getting on well with the track, enjoying the challenge and feeling confident after some promising times throughout practice. With a steady run in qualifying, I was sitting in the mid 20's ready to put in 100% for the final.

Fabien was sitting in top spot after qualifying. I was seriously considering a career threatening injury to bring me up to speed... How does he do it?!

Come race day, with the weather drying out, the track was getting faster and faster. but with everyone pushing hard, the track was pretty beaten up.

I got off to a good start, but a couple of corners in I came over a blind crest to find the bank I was previously using to turn on had now a large hole, and there was a log strewn across the track from what must have been a crash by one of the riders before me. I hit the log, that sent me straight off the track and well, that was the race over for me... A tough break on a track I was enjoying, but no injuries so stand to ride another day...

As we came to the top seeds of the race, managers were frantically radioing their riders at the top to warn about the damaged track and with such close times, every fraction of a second was critical. With Greg Minnar sitting in the hot seat as Fabien left the start gate it was all to play for. Greg looked safe as Fabien's 1st split time came in, it was 2s down. However as the 2nd split flashed up on the board, Fabien was catching up and fast, it became apparent that he had had a problem on the top section of the course, and was riding like a man possessed. Hammering throughout the steep rocky slabs, making up time all the way down. As the Frenchman cam into view with the clock counting down it was going to be close....
Finally crossing the line in 2nd place, 0.46s off Greg in 1st, a great ride by all accounts.

Pete asked me to tell you about part two of the Kart race. We did manage to find a kart track and we also managed to get Julien Abs' to come along for a go. Although Pete didn't win, he asked me to remind you that he was only beaten into Bronze position by 2 people who had won World Championships! Just to illustrate how quick and smart Fab is.... He had already clocked the previous winners of the day's races, all the lap times and figured out which Kart was the quickest, checked it with the staff and popped his helmet into the driving seat - all this by the time we had stopped giggling like teenagers! Fab won!

Stanny