The Evan Guthrie Special

Mountain Bike World Championships 2009 Canberra, Australia

Video Links

Here are some links to some video interviews I have done over the past couple seasons:

2009 MTB World Cup Finals:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Crp3DEf1gg">

2009 MTB XC Junior World Championships:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAFWX-c3AiM">

2009 MTB Relay World Championships:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fa-vk8MI9k

2008 MTB XC Junior World Championships:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlNf4zhwdCw&feature=related

2008 MTB Relay World Championships:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OckIXJ5fDQ0">

Check it out!

Rocky Mountain Bicycles just updates their 2010 website, pretty rad!

http://www.bikes.com/main+en+00_100+home.html?zone=1">

Schladming World Cup

So my 5th place today was unexpected. I wasn't feeling too hot all week leading into this race, and this morning and I was doing some starts and I was just loosing it, well thats what it felt like any way. I was just thinking its the last race of the season, just go for it, and leave it all on the course. So off the bat I missed my pedal and had to really give it a good kick to get back up to the leaders before the climb. I was front line with the Junior World Champ and vice World Champ. So I was happy to be sitting up there with those guys. Then we hit the climb and I fell back a bit, but was still able to hang in the top 10 by the time we hit the first descent. I just put my hammer down and slowly picked off guy by guy. I think heading into the final lap I was 6th. I caught up with Ricardo Paulo Reis Marinheiro (Por) and Matthias Stirnemann (Sui). These guys were 1st and 3rd last weekend. So I was happy to be riding with them, once I caught them they attacked on a climb and gapped me. So I just kept it steady and high for the rest of the lap and was able to reel in Marinheiro and then gap him on the main climb which was making me think "is this right?". But I was going 110% there. Rolled into the finish 5th place and 57 sec off the podium. I was very happy with this race because we had 15ish more riders and the reigning world champ was there. So I was just going to go for it and hope to finish as high as possible. Just heading out to watch the mens race! Hopefully Kabush can reel in a podium ride!

Schladming, Austria what!

Been chillin' out here in Schladming Austria since Monday night. Took the trains all the way from Aigle Switzerland. Almost 13 hours of ridin' the rails. Pretty fun day, a lot better than driving because you can get up and walk around hang out with different people and so on. So far we are staying the best hotel I've ever been too. Its a sport hotel and has bowling, darts, shooting and squash. We also get a FREE continental breakfast, which helps us budgeting cyclists! We also make sandwich's in the morning with breakfast for dinner for lunch. Then we get dinner at the hotel for around 10 euros. Rode the course the last couple days. Way too mellow of a course for my liking, they seemed to cut grass in fields, put us on 20% long climbs, everywhere, and then we ride along hiking paths with roots and rocks that are spray painted so that we don't hit them, but last time I checked thats why we race mountain bikes. To get muddy, fall, struggle on the roots and rocks and say wow, that was hard. But being a Canadian I guess I have a different taste of "mountain" biking in my mouth. Trying the make the best of it though. When will I be in Austria in the mountains again hanging out with some rad people racing my bike. Seeing as though this is the last mtb race of the season I am going to be it all on the line and gamble it all, not play is "smart and safe" but play it "fast and dangerous" and maybe I crack after 30 min on the climbs and finish 30th, maybe I don't crack and win. Hoping for a good one to finish the junior years off at a world cup with a medal.

Switzerland

Just got some internet up in the mountains here at our hotel in Switzerland. Had a few long travel days in the last week. Made the trip from Down Under back to Canada. Home for 42 hours then I back off to Europe. Where I am with the National team for the remaining two World Cups here in Champery, Switzerland and then off to Schladmig, Austria. Super nice weather right now, way better than Australia. We took the train from Zurich and went all the way down south in Switzerland to a mtn. called Champery. Went out for a ride last night, hard to do an easy ride considering everything here is either straight up for a vertical drop down. Found a bike park and decided to hit some doubles and some drops, work on the xc skills. Just heading up to the mtn for a pre-ride. Will do a bigger update tomorrow after the race. Give full details and some photos.

Home

Just got back to Peachland mid day yesterday after a long travel day from down under. my mother had a nice meal last night all ready. Ribs, rice, salad and then some brownies. Was feeling darn tired so I hit the sack at 7 pm. And woke up to it pitch black out, so I checked the time and sure enough it was 1 in the morning. Couldnt get back to bed, so Im just killing some time on the computer. Thought I would post a little update. So here we go. I am home for 43 hours or something stupid like that. Just unpacked my gear yesterday, washed it all and today I will repack it. Not taking the trainer or spare wheels this time. No way in hell I will $250 bucks for my overweight bike and suitcase PLUS oversized on my bike. Absolute joke. Anyway today I am meeting with the local paper to do an interview, then I head to bike shop to get a couple things, get a ride done, then get a massage, re-pack the bike and all my gear and hope for a solid night of sleep. Im excited for the next trip, Leaving the day after everyone starts school and Im free. Living the life this year, just need to find a job when I get back so I dont have to live on the streets!

OZ summary:
Had a sweet time down under. Weather wasn't what you hoped for, but everything else made it awesome. We rode lots, found some wicked trails and we ate kangaroo, which was awesome. In the midst of making a "OZ 2009" video of all the clips from the couple week I was there. Got to hang out around the venue and meet some new people, got some free stuff and enjoyed watching everyone else race. Lost the voice a bit from cheering so hard. A world championship is an event you don't forget. Everything is just so neat, something everyone should try and experience. Well need to get back to bed and get a bit more sleeep..

World Championships Cross Country

Tuesday was the Relay World Championships, Canada had entered a really good team and we had a shot at the win. We put it all down on the line and came out 6 sec off winning a World Championship. I was super excited with this, its was hard because we were so close to winning, but the whole team had big smiles on their faces. We quickly had the podium, a press conference and then made our way back to the hotel to get in some good recovery, I had my XC race coming up on Thursday(today). Today was now the Cross Country race. The one I wanted to place a top-10 in. I was started in 13th, our UCI world ranking. I was happy with that start position. After the start I was sitting in the top-10 heading towards the single, which is where the race is decided in the first lap because there is so much traffic. But then I got caught behind a little pile up and was now in the 20's. Which was all right, not ideal for where I wanted to be riding. But then half way through the lap I passed 3 guys on this hairy line and took this big drop and was going way too fast and over shot it and landed up hill and snapped my handle off. I then crashed hard and got up and made the couple minute run to the tech zone, where our wicked Team Canada mechanic had a spare bar waiting and we unscrewed my old bar, took off the grips, along with the brakes and the shifters. We put the new bar on and I was anxious to go so we didn't put my grips back on. Then my number plate was hanging so we had to cut that off. I lost 6 minutes to leader that lap and was now sitting 2nd last in 69th position, so now the chase was in high speed. I was putting everything down on the line, I now had nothing to loose. I was standing up and going as fast as I could every place I could. I was catching guys all over the place, which was giving me even more confidence at the moment. I was feeling 110% today. So now I wanted to race my legs off and see how fast my laps were to the winner. I was making myself think that each guy in front of me was the leader. Which worked well. Came through in 30th in the end, which I was pleased with after everything that had happend. I later checked lap times and my laps were the same as 8th place. So I think if it all went well I could have been in the top 10. Which makes me feel good. Now off to Europe to race the final two World Cups and test out the legs again and hopefully have some good races.

First World Championships medal is unforgettable.

Today was World Championships relay. Where Canada put in a solid effort and came 6 sec off the pace of winning the World Title. Were thrilled with second. But first was so close and in reach. Canada had a strong team entered, with Canadian National Champions lining up, Geoff Kabush, Raphael Gagne, Catherine Pendral and myself. All the "boys" were riding Rocky Mountain bikes, which was pretty darn rad. We all threw together a pretty good race, and we also got stuck in traffic for most of our laps. We can always go back and say this and that, but you can only do one better than a silver. Next year! For myself it was my first World Championships medal, as for Catherine I believe. Geoff and Raphael had aready won the relay back in 2004. So they were our vets. Geoff rolled out the fastest lap of the day even though he had some heavy traffic. Pretty happy with my ride, I felt good and comfortable on the course. Should be ready to rip it up on the XC this Thursday.

Photos courtesy of Rob Jones, CanadianCyclist.com

Silver for Canada in Relay at Worlds

Just won the silver in the Team Relay at Worlds. Pretty stoked on that. Not too often one wins a World Championship medal. Really solid ride by Raphael Gagne, Geoff Kabush and Catherine Pendral. I think we all lost from time in the traffic, but super exciting race, only 6 sec off winning a World Championship. Now comes XC on Thursday..