Tasmania World Cup Trip
by Kashi Leuchs
With the opening two rounds of the world cup in Tasmania, I decided to go over and offer support to riders on the Yeti NZ Devo Team who wanted to go and race.
We ended up with a big group including Bradley Harris, Xanthe Robb, Joe Millington, Poppy Lane, Dylan Walton, Ollie Jenkins, Lachie Ross and Jake Ramon. Xanthe's father Hunter came to support us too, so we were a pretty big group.
With such a large group, we had a few challenges. We had just one van booked for the first week, as I knew once we were there we wouldn't need them much. But we had to get there still.
Cooking would be the next mission - I had made a shopping list on the plane, first stop w and then split the group into 5 teams to go find everything. It was pretty hilarious trying to figure out all the different foods. We would go onto to take turns cooking every night and in the end, we ate super well and it certainly kept the costs down.
The first event was in Maydena, which is a DH focused MTB park in eastern Tasmania. We spent the first few days riding the other trails that were not in the race (race tracks are closed to racers before the event). We were all blown away by how good and how many tracks there were here.
World Cup racing format is pretty hard, as they give you just one chance to see the tracks and we had to ride everything in one day. The amateurs then race the day after and the pros get a rest day and race the day after. That's a lot of pedalling in a short period of time, as each day is 5-7hr on the bike.
In the end everyone raced really well and we even had a few riders stand on podiums! Bradley is the only rider on our team with experience, having done a few seasons already, and he did his PB result, which was fantastic.
Bradley Harris - Pro Men - 31st
Xanthe Robb - Pro U21 Women - 4th
Joe Millington - Pro U21 Men - 14th
Ollie Jenkins - Pro U21 Men - 25th
Lachie Ross - Open U21 Men - 2nd (Qualified for Pro next round)
Jake Remon - Open U21 Men - 3rd (Qualified for Pro next round)
Poppy Lane - Open U21 Women - 3rd
Dylan Walton - Open U21 Men - 8th
Kashi Leuchs - Open Masters 45+ - 5th
Hunter Robb - Open Masters 45+ -
The next week was the Derby round, so we packed up the van again and went to pickup a second van, as this time we would need the van's daily. The drive through Tasmania was stunning and it took around 4hrs to get there.
We had a sweet accomodation in Derby with lots of space for bike maintenance, which was a godsend as the weather turned sour and we had to deal with a lot of mud.
Practice day was horrendous... solid rain all day made it a tough day out on the bike and far from ideal race prep! The riders in the Open race, including myself, had to get ourselves cleaned up, feed and bikes prep'd for the next day.
I was super stoked with everyones attitudes getting through these conditions and the results showed the positive vibes. Of particular mention was Bradley pulling off a 3rd place stage on the infamous Trouty (Beating Richie Rude and most of the other pros), and Xanthe for holding a firm grip on 2nd in Pro U21 women until the very final stage, where she punctured and had to ride a flat the whole way down, eventually slipping back to 4th.
Bradley Harris - Pro Men - 42nd
Xanthe Robb - Pro U21 Women - 4th
Joe Millington - Pro U21 Men - 18th
Ollie Jenkins - Pro U21 Men - 26th
Lachie Ross - Pro U21 Men - 25th
Jake Remon - Pro U21 Men - 31st
Poppy Lane - Open U21 Women - 3rd
Dylan Walton - Open U21 Men - 4th
Kashi Leuchs - Open Masters 45+ - 4th
Hunter Robb - Open Masters 45+ - 9th
I was told by lots of people that I was crazy taking a bunch of teenagers overseas, but in the end I felt everyone turned up with great attitudes and while there may have been a rather big party after the last night, this is all part of learning and growing and I was super impressed with them all. I'd like to say a big thanks to Hunter for his support during the two weeks, as it would have been harder with out that for sure.
Big thanks to Yeti Cycles, Shimano and Fox for their support in the pits during the events and a huge thanks to Clancy Kelly for taking photos of the team. See below for some great shots of everyone!
