We just got back home after spending the last 10 days up in Whistler bike paradise for the Crankworx festival. As usual it was a week filled with racing, music, riding, parties and good friends in a beautiful mountain setting. I decided to race the Garbanzo DH and then skip all the other events to just ride the park and have fun. The Garbanzo was the first gravity event of the festival, which meant that I had one day to practice before the race. It was pouring down with rain - as it has done the whole summer, so it was nothing new to me. My goal was to get through the tough top section of In Deep in these treacherous, muddy, slippery conditions, and to then start racing and pedaling as hard as I can. Continue reading ‘Crankworx Festival, Whistler Canada’
Author Archive for Anka Martin
Sitting here in Mont Saint Anne, Canada this fine Sunday morning sipping my cup of coffee, I keep thinking about all the mistakes I kept making and all the pedal strokes that I didn’t keep making during my qualifying run yesterday….yep - another no race weekend for me. With a strong field of 40 women entered into the DH, half the field was cut after qualifying and we were destined to spectate.
So with all my years of racing downhill and recently racing some pretty tough endurance cross country events, I can truly say that I have just completed the toughest, most gruelling race that I have ever entered. Continue reading ‘Mega Avalanche - Alpe de Huez’
Sven had to go and do a photo shoot in Chatel this past weekend in the Porte de Soleil region, and I decided to jump in on this opportunity and to invite myself along for a bike ride. It was so beautiful, you criss cross in and out of France and Switzerland, catching chair lifts up and down everywhere, dodging cows and thunder storms and with some 800+ km’s of trails, you will never find yourself on the same trail twice. Continue reading ‘Criss crossing in and out of countries without a passport…’
Sven, Lars and I have had an amazing week here in Fort William, Scotland. The sun has been shining all week and the track was dry and dusty and oh so much fun. The only negative thing about the whole week, were the MIDGES, they are tiny little mosquito like insects that devour your skin and leave you covered in itchy bites. We all look like we have some sort of Scottish disease or something. I felt great all week, the track was extremely demanding, and I needed some MAN arms halfway down the track, but it is by far the best downhill track that I have ever raced on. I had a big crash on my first run this morning, thought I broke my thumb, but was able to do my qualifying run. Continue reading ‘Sunny Scotland’
We had a great week of riding and racing in Andorra this past week. The riding conditions kept changing by the hour, and we kept switching between our Minions and spikes throughout the week. The track was short, rutted and muddy and the lines kept changing and getting more blown out after every run. Continue reading ‘Andorra World Cup’
We just had our first day of practise here in beautiful Andorra. It is a pretty short track, muddy, rutty and rooty. It rained all of yesterday and is predicted to keep raining - so spikes will come on for tomorrow’s practise. The bikes are feeling great and it is awesome to be back on the bike. The valley is amazing, massive, steep mountains covered in snow and the views are majestic. Thanks to Fluidride for getting all our gear ready to go for these races! You guys ROCK!
In a last minute rush, Megan and I decided to book ourselves and our husband’s on a four day bicycle safari that started only 2 days after the finish of the Cape Epic.
“What were we thinking?”, we kept asking ourselves this question on day 4, 5 and the rest of the Epic. It was done though, no turning back at this point. Continue reading ‘Mashatu Bike Safari in Botswana’
So with the snow not wanting to melt here in Bend, a whole bunch of us decided to go camping and riding in Oakridge for the weekend. I was super excited, because we got April Lawyer to leave her store for a while to come shredding with us. She still kills it on a bike even though she has been slaving away at her super dope clothing boutique here in Bend. Continue reading ‘Oakridge trail riding mania!’
This past weekend a whole crew of us from Bend went down to Ashland to race at the Spring Thaw Downhill race. We were all excited to leave behind the still snow covered trails here in Bend in exchange for some dark, loamy, tacky, elevated dirt in the Siskiyou mountains. Continue reading ‘Spring Thaw DH race, Ashland OR’
