However, there were, as always, plenty of positives to take, including the brand new World Cup track. At over 2300m altitude, looking out over bluebird skies across the high Pyrenees, the start was something special. High altitude, high speed, and bone-dry conditions gave us thin air thick with dust. Big berms brought big grins; loose dirt delivered wild style. Practice day was sick! 

So too was Myriam, although in altogether less positive terms. After being horribly ill through Tuesday night, she missed Track Walk on Wednesday and instead visited the hospital. By Thursday she was well enough to do some runs, but energy levels were very low. It was to be a huge challenge to face race day with the strength to perform. 

As the track got blown out in some sections and established ruts in others, it was time to face the clock. Myriam did remarkably to post the third best time; Amaury gave a taste of his speed with second place despite a couple of big moments and subsequent slowdowns; Thibaut punctured and Tristan and Hugo were solid but not spectacular. We had some work to do…

Race day dawned with splendid sunshine and high hopes of success. Those hopes took a hit when Hugo drifted too far left off the finish line jump and crashed onto the landing. It was one of those crashes that makes you feel lucky it wasn’t worse, rather than unlucky that it happened. We took a deep breath and waited for Tristan’s run. After struggling to find the right mindset for Quali, Tristan dialed in the focus and put together a great run to take fifth place, a time that would have put him an impressive 18th in the Elite ranks. 

Back at the top, Myriam was trying to muster all the energy she could find. The fatigue was weighing heavy but Pompon was displaying two of the major reasons why she wears those rainbow bands: supreme skill and incredible determination. She was green through splits two and three, but then she could hold on no more. Exhaustion, mistake, crash. Seventh place at the end of the day was a bitter pill to swallow with overall World Cup points slipping by, but what a courageous effort all week long.

With the sun blazing down and the tension going up, Thibaut was motivated to set aside his frustrating Quali run and crank up the heat on a track that he’d been loving all week. As he explained afterward, the conditions and the support were great, the bike was perfect but he couldn’t bring it all together for a fast race run. Sometimes things just don’t quite click. Fifteenth place is a lot less than he hoped for, but we all know days like this are part of the game. 

Amaury was the penultimate man to start, and he had some serious speed on track in Vallnord. The problem with speed is when it is abruptly stopped by a tree… Amaury took a huge slam in his first practice run of race day and we were once again thanking Lady Luck for sparing us broken bones. It was an amazing team effort to get man and machine up and riding again in time for a second practice run and then the all-important race run. Bike parts were shuttled back and forth, settings were recalibrated, physio was administered, space and time were given where needed, pep talks were given when required. It was a huge ask for Amaury to perform, but he stepped up like a champion. Physically and emotionally, that race hurt, but thirteenth on the day was enough to keep him in the overall leader’s jersey. We made the best of a bad situation.

Indeed, that’s perhaps what we can take away from Vallnord. We had sickness, crashes, and missing parts of the puzzle, but in the end, we held onto the yellow plates as team leaders, Amaury retained his overall lead, and no-one walked away seriously wounded. They say championships are won on your worst days. Let’s hope that the misfortunate has passed and more celebrations are ahead. 

Now that the dust has settled, we are really proud of our efforts in Andorra. And we still love this game! Bring on North America!