World Championships in Scotland

Me and Lisa after the long flight to Scotland

A very belated update about my trip to Scotland for the MTB World Championships. It was pretty darn cool to summarize in just a few words. Scotland is a beautiful country and the little town (Fort William) that we stayed in was super quaint. Our hotel was at the west end of the town, and we could walk all the way across town in about 10 minutes.

The Gravity Girls at the Opening Ceremonies
My "USA" toes :)

I did the 4x event there. There was the largest women's field ever at a World Championships, so it was pretty cool to qualify 12th. In the round of 16, I was in second place going into the final set of jumps before the last corner, and then I messed the jumps up, got really squirelly in the berm and ended up getting passed by both girls behind me. It was pretty disappointing, but a good experience overall. We raced at night, under the lights, and in front of a crowd of 45,000, so that was really cool!!!

My camera was MIA for several days of the trip and as a result, I didn't have it to give to someone to "film" my race on the big screen tv. The race was shown live on the BBC, though, so I'm determined to find some sort of coverage from the race out there somewhere. My friend Melissa got 3rd, which was super cool. She's such a strong rider and a great mentor for me!

The 4x was done well before the DH, so I had a little bit of time to relax and just cheer for my friends in the DH. The video below is of TJ's race run. It was pretty cool to be able to see more than a few seconds of someone's DH run, as normally you just stand there and watch them ride by!

TJ Sharp's 2007 World Champs DH race run

Cole and TJ after the DH race

Overall, I had a really great experience (midges and friend's lost luggage were really the only bad things!). Even the persistent mist wasn't too bad. :) I'm really glad that I went. It's an experience that I'll definitely remember for a lifetime.

Team USA for the 2007 MTB World Championships