PILA, Italy - IXS European Cup (photos and video)

FIRST THING:
...Find a good box, pack the bike...hope it will arrive in one piece...



Fly to Pisa in Tuscany borrow my mum's city car (fit the Session and the bags inside) and gooo 350 km and... Pila here we come!


........PILA view from the drop..................................................




The race was hard, an other sport compare to Greece ! Very hard full of super Pro from all over the world, not only Europe ( Australia, New Zealand, South Africa...)!
It went ok considering that I raced with a couple of cracked ribs... :S



Yes, unfortunately in the practice run before the qualification I had a massive crash at high speed and went over the bar...

After one hour I decided to ride the qualification anyway even if the doctor was not happy with my decision! ( I was riding with a very good chrono before the crash and I didn't want to waste the all race for this accident.)



I did the qualify so...ready for Sunday race in pain but happy.

Still in pain I raced and catch the two guys in front of me, but I could not pedal or ride hard because of the ribs ( and also the overtaking took me some time...) , so...the time was not good enough for being in the top of my category, just 19th.



At least I taste the pro circuit again and I know that with more training for this level of races I can still do well !

here my helmet cam! (unfortunately only of the middle part of the trail!)



the winner Florent Payet from France

PS: the Pro are Aliens !






thank you to all the sponsors, a special thank you to my fiance Helen for supporting me, Simone "Zaffa" and the guys from the chair lift of Pila for fixing my bike, Michel Angelini for riding with me and all the friends from Italy and Maximum Attach for keeping me smiling (even if with ribs problems was really painfull to smile :P )!