IGSA WC Teutonia – Worlds Fastest Race

IGSA WC Teutonia – Worlds Fastest Race

Another amazing trip to visit the beautiful country of Brazil was once again epic! Any chances I get to drop down the barrel of the hill known as “Teutonia” are a must. Nothing comes close to explaining the feeling you get down this hill, full speed, full tuck and then to top it off with hundreds of screaming Brazilians leaning over the hay bales!

The weather this year was perfect! Friday started off with clear skies and practice was fun. It was good to get re-acquainted with the road and all the wonderful feelings of what seems like boarder-line control down the barrel of a cannon. When it came to qualifying I knew I had to push the envelope in the left hand sweeper. I felt slow through it during practice and knew I had to push harder… I pushed to hard and full tucked into the turn. I crashed and it was scary.

I was opening up midway through the turn realizing that I was going too fast. As soon as I opened up and was air braking up tall, I realized there was no way I wanted to hit the bales from that height! I focused hard on pulling as much of the turn off on my board to make sure I was going straight as possible. My board slid out and I was sliding feet first on me left side into the hay. Hell no! I started spinning around and ended up hitting the bales on my right side with my back and bounced back into the road.

Gnarly crash. The rest of the riders pulled off some fast times! Douglas da Silva continued his domination of Teutonia winning another undefeated qualifying time victory. The next day I crashed again! This time on the rough pavement at the top flat section, I was bent on riding the road on half auto-pilot and not worrying about the holes in the pavement… bad idea! I rolled off the road and into the start of the jungle.

My second qualifying run was much more successful. I came down the hill to hit Dalua’s mark from the previous day and I got close! I blew the left-hander by air-braking too much and came in with a 1:22.282 just behind Kevin Reimer’s time from day 1. Both Kevin and Douglas improved their times and I finished off 4th behind Everton Alves.

The speed trap was set higher up the road this year and provided slightly faster speeds but nothing shocking. I broke too much in my entry into the sweeper left and forgot the trap was higher this time! I new my speed was not all I could have hoped for but it served well. I went as one of the first and held the top speed of 115km/h until the second last rider Kevin Reimer put in 116km/h.

On race day all went well. I kept advancing smoothly with an awesome run with Otavio that had some fun passing in it. I got to semi-finals to race Douglas and then it was definitely on! He has me beat on the push and from then on it was playing catch up. I broke too much again in the left thinking he would brake too, but he cruised straight through and I had too much to make up on a match-up that had little room for error. The consolation round with Danky was quick. I passed on the upper section and just held my tuck with an ear out for the passing wind. No pass and a 3rd place finish secured my first podium at a World Cup for the year! Disappointed? Yes. I wanted to defend better than that, but I was happy to back feeling solid.

Kevin Reimer went on to battle Douglas da Silva in the finals and came out on top in a close final heat. Dalua had some wobbles which cost him speed near the bottom and allowed Kevin to successfully stay ahead after a pass further up the hill. What can you do? Blame Canada! 😉

Teutonia has been granted the IGSA World Championship title for 2011 and I am really excited to go back and push much harder! I am keen to make my presence a much bigger threat! I love that hill for all its insanity and look forward to drinking some more Guarana in sunny Brazil!