Chris Kovarik Thredbo Race Report

We haven't been able to uncover any shots of CK at Thredbo, as most of the photographers seemed to shy away from the rain. So here is a crazy shot of the legend busting a huge 360 on his downhill bike....

Well we made the trip down to Thredbo for the 2nd round of the Australian National DH series and i was looking forward to this race, as we have the rare luxury of riding a chairlift for runs during practice.

First day of practice was friday, it's pissing down and about 8 degrees at the top of the mountain blowing a gail, mind you i was a little unprepared for the race as i would usually use a set of spike tyres for the muddy conditions but didnt bring any as i thought i would buy some at the local bike shop. The problem was they had sold out, how convienient, and i was deligated to using my dry tyres the whole weekend.

The track here at Thredbo in the dry is a little pedally in places, and there are a few sections were you have to hold speed to finish with a respectable time, and its usually around the 6 minute mark which is long compared to most, so racing it wet was going to be tough.

On Saturday we had qualifying and its still pissing down, and to make it more interesting, i didn't bring wet weather gear! So the chairlift ride was a blast!

I end up qualifying 2nd in a time of 7mins 15secs, just 3 hundreths behind my young mate Josh Button, who is using spike tyres so im kicking myself over that.

Sunday raceday, it's still pissing down and the track is so blown out and deep with ruts that the organizers tell us were only allowed one practice run in the morning for environmental reasons, what a load of sh*t.

My race run was average, and i was feeling the big dry tyres pack up in the mud a little and they weren't cutting through the ruts as nice as spikes would have, but in the end i still finished 4th.

3 weeks untill the last round in canberra at Mt Stromlo so i've got some work to do untill then!

Later!

CK

• By Allan H