Rider Blog | Team Life Cycles in Whistler and Crested Butte

Valentina Macheda of Team Life Cycles is pretty well known in the EWS, tearing up times and putting a huge dent into the oppositions ego. After returning from the USA and Canada from the previous two stages of the competition, she’s back in Europe and gearing up for her next conquest. Check out her overview of the events below:

I’ve been back in Italy for just over a day after spending the last two weeks traveling and competing in Colorado and Canada. The days have been incredible and full of strong emotions. Unfortunately as everyone knows by now, during the American round in Crusted Butte, there was a tragic accident that claimed the life of a biker, who was participating just like all of us. There are no words to express how much sadness and sorrow I felt and still feel, Will was doing what we all love to do every weekend, riding his bike down the trails at full speed. We are all aware of the risks we take in this sport, but somehow we always try to forget about it and put it out of our minds, because otherwise it would be difficult to get on a bike, to enjoy ourselves and perform at our best, hearing the noise of ground beneath our wheels, forgetting our fears.

When these things happen, everything is amplified and very real, and in no time, especially when you’re away from home and your family, you realize how fragile we are and that it takes very little to get hurt. You start to think about how important it is to try to take those little moments during hectic days, to make life sweeter, to exchange a hug, to say “I love you”, spending time with loved ones, laugh, talk or be just being together without saying anything, sharing dreams, and always smiling!

It’s been a tough week and I didn’t stop to talk about the race because I don’t think there’s much I can add. Leaving behind the spectacular sunset gold of Colorado, we moved across to Canada.

Turning the page, but talking about dreams, I cannot even begin to describe Whistler, that magical place where every biker dreams to go and spend their holidays, with endless trails in fantastic scenery, and forests that are like something from a fairytale!

After the seemingly endless race last year, we were all a bit scared about what we could expect from the Crankworx organization this year, fortunately, learning from their mistakes they organized a spectacular race, with tracks that were always very technical but with less demanding transfers, where they made use of the the ski lifts and generous transfer times.

I really liked the tracks, they were very complete as enduro stages, with endless roots, steep sections, fast sections and sections where you could recover, they were certainly the most physical tracks we found this year.

After practice and after finding a little confidence on the track that had now reached a state of perfect grip, the rain came, and with it came all the fears and anxieties about how we would find the way on race day.

In the morning when I woke up and looked out it was all wet, it had rained all night, my first thought was “Why can’t I just go back to sleep?” but after a while I got up, got ready, and went to fight against the slimy roots, sadly they won, there were just too many!

The race didn’t start in the right way, the first two stages – the most technical – proved really difficult. My lack of confidence from the conditions and perhaps also for the many fears I had in my head led to me not riding confidently, making a lot of mistakes and a few slides, fortunately by the third stage I started over to get over my nerves, enjoying the transfers with the other girls, continuing the day, so I finished my race with a big smile and the satisfaction of completing another challenging race.

Manu unfortunately failed to finish the race, because a bump during practice, fortunately nothing serious but he preferred not to worsen the situation, given the conditions of the race.

Valentina Macheda of Team Life Cycles is pretty well known in the EWS, tearing up times and putting a huge dent into the oppositions ego. After returning from the USA and Canada from the previous two stages of the competition, she’s back in Europe and gearing up for her next conquest. Check out her overview of the events below:

I’ve been back in Italy for just over a day after spending the last two weeks traveling and competing in Colorado and Canada. The days have been incredible and full of strong emotions. Unfortunately as everyone knows by now, during the American round in Crusted Butte, there was a tragic accident that claimed the life of a biker, who was participating just like all of us. There are no words to express how much sadness and sorrow I felt and still feel, Will was doing what we all love to do every weekend, riding his bike down the trails at full speed. We are all aware of the risks we take in this sport, but somehow we always try to forget about it and put it out of our minds, because otherwise it would be difficult to get on a bike, to enjoy ourselves and perform at our best, hearing the noise of ground beneath our wheels, forgetting our fears.

When these things happen, everything is amplified and very real, and in no time, especially when you’re away from home and your family, you realize how fragile we are and that it takes very little to get hurt. You start to think about how important it is to try to take those little moments during hectic days, to make life sweeter, to exchange a hug, to say “I love you”, spending time with loved ones, laugh, talk or be just being together without saying anything, sharing dreams, and always smiling!

It’s been a tough week and I didn’t stop to talk about the race because I don’t think there’s much I can add. Leaving behind the spectacular sunset gold of Colorado, we moved across to Canada.

Turning the page, but talking about dreams, I cannot even begin to describe Whistler, that magical place where every biker dreams to go and spend their holidays, with endless trails in fantastic scenery, and forests that are like something from a fairytale!

After the seemingly endless race last year, we were all a bit scared about what we could expect from the Crankworx organization this year, fortunately, learning from their mistakes they organized a spectacular race, with tracks that were always very technical but with less demanding transfers, where they made use of the the ski lifts and generous transfer times.

I really liked the tracks, they were very complete as enduro stages, with endless roots, steep sections, fast sections and sections where you could recover, they were certainly the most physical tracks we found this year.

After practice and after finding a little confidence on the track that had now reached a state of perfect grip, the rain came, and with it came all the fears and anxieties about how we would find the way on race day.

In the morning when I woke up and looked out it was all wet, it had rained all night, my first thought was “Why can’t I just go back to sleep?” but after a while I got up, got ready, and went to fight against the slimy roots, sadly they won, there were just too many!

The race didn’t start in the right way, the first two stages – the most technical – proved really difficult. My lack of confidence from the conditions and perhaps also for the many fears I had in my head led to me not riding confidently, making a lot of mistakes and a few slides, fortunately by the third stage I started over to get over my nerves, enjoying the transfers with the other girls, continuing the day, so I finished my race with a big smile and the satisfaction of completing another challenging race.

Manu unfortunately failed to finish the race, because a bump during practice, fortunately nothing serious but he preferred not to worsen the situation, given the conditions of the race.

I finished my race in 22nd position, not the best result of the season but honestly my only thought was to get down safely, to embrace Manu.

Now it’s time for a few weeks of rest before the big season finale.

For more info, visit: ibiscycles.com

Words: Valentina Macheda Photos: Team Life Cycles PR

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