Martina and I rolled through the Lötschberg Tunnel Friday afternoon and emerged in the Wallis region, ready to contend Swisspower Cup #8 in Grächen and achieve the best team result to date With all three X.O-Felt women in the top 10 (Martina 4 th, Sandra 7 th and Fabienne 10 th) and Nico with a 41 st place, we marked our most successful Swisspower Cup race weekend so far in 2006.

The race started at 16:00 on Saturday, which meant almost an entire day of waiting eagerly to get pedaling. I lined up behind Petra Henzi, in order to ensure a good start, and at the sound of the gun, I sprinted up the first climb with the top women. I then tried to settle into a fast, but smooth rhythm, so I would have enough gas left for all five 5.5-kilometre laps with 220 vertical meters of steep climbing each, at an altitude of nearly 1600 meters.

My descending was good, but I noticed quickly that my legs were not as spunky as I would have liked them to be. I also had an unlucky crash into the creek along a smokin’ fast section of the course. I was ripping along the buff singletrack a little too quickly, washed out in a corner, and landed in the creek. I jumped up again right away and didn’t lose too much time.

On the last lap, I had moved into sixth position and went into the second-last descent confident that I could maintain that placing. However, my chain somehow got stuck and I had to stop to fix it. Those few seconds were enough for Kathrin Heimberg to blow past me and relegate me to seventh. It’s still a solid top 10, however. I would have loved to be duking it out in the top five with Martina, but I think the altitude (I’m a sea-level girl, considering I’ve lived all my life in Vancouver, Canada!) got to me a little.

Martina had a super race, powering by me on the first lap and never looking back – even after she got a flat tire!

I’m looking forward to another exciting race in La-Chaux-de-Fonds this coming Sunday – my last Swisspower Cup of the season!