Rhys Willemse has been off the bike with a broken arm, which caused him 2 miss the first 2 Downhill World Cups so far this year. But last night we recieved the good news from Rhys that he has been cleared by his doctors to ride, and he plans to make World Cup number 3 his first race back. Find out all the details below, in Rhys' personal update...

Just got the good news that my broken arm is now fixed and I'm looking forward to racing my first world cup in Leogang, Austria next weekend.

I've been out of action now for 6 weeks, with only being able to ride some cross country and a stationary bike for training. It felt so good to get back on my mountain bike on Monday and ride a real downhill track again. On Friday my team mate George and I headed up to Leogang to spend a week training on the world cup track. I'm hoping to know this track inside out by the time the world cup teams turn up in the next 5 days.

The pressure has been put on me for this race, as I've just found out that I need to produce a top ten result if I want to make the Australian team this year. If I don't make the team, this will be the first time in 2 years that I haven't represented Australia at the World Championships. After breaking my femur 6 months ago and now my arm, its going to be a big ask, but I love a challenge, and this could be just what I needed to push all the limits to achieve my goal of riding for Australia again.

To help me try to achieve my goal, Ancillotti racing team have built me a new frame specifically for this world cup in Leogang. Its a longer lighter frame which will help me go faster on a track like Leogang. The track is fast and technical and the longer frame will hold the speed needed to get down the course in the quickest time. The photo above shows  my new frame hot off the production line.

Will keep you all updated on my results at Leogang.

Cheers
Rhys
 

• By Allan H