World Champs

World Champs was the final race of my season and I couldn't be more excited about it. My whole season had been getting stronger and stronger and I truly felt ready for the race. All the prep went well and even though the weather was horrific everyone was still in high spirits for the race. We were so lucky that on our race day the weather was the best we had seen the whole time we had been there and it was relatively dry. It was a split transition, so we had set up T2 and were on the way to T1 when my concentration wasn't as much on the road and that's all it took for my front wheel to go into a tram line and for me to come tumbling face first onto the floor. Probably not the best start to my first world champs. I had a quick trip to medical and then was back on my way to athletes lounge to get ready for the race. I had about an hour to go so had lots to do in not a lot of time.
My face was nicely cut up and I had a blown up lip. I was focused on the race though and just wanted to perform best I could. I was last onto the pontoon, so didn't have much choice of where to go, but I made the most of it and actually got a really decent start and had a good swim to come out of the water 2nd. I made front pack, but once we got into the technical section I really struggled with the cornering as my confidence had been knocked from the crash. At this point I kept going backwards through packs which was moralizing but I tried to keep my head up. Going onto the run I tried to give it my best but by now I was pretty sore all over and my face was stinging from the water on my face. I came in and was surprised to find I came 29th, out of a 72 big field. I know that it was no where near my best performance, but with the circumstances I was proud of myself. After the race we got to just relax and spend some time exploring Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Now I've had my break and time off, I am ready to start winter training and get prepped ready for a successful 2018.