It's been a while but our Pro Blogger, Claire Buchar just got in touch with the latest news from her travels...
"Sorry, it's been a while but if you're interested heres a little update with some pics!
Been hangin' with Chris and the Chain Reaction Cycles-Intense boys here at Chalet JoJo(www.winterandsummer.com) just outside beautiful Morzine. The riding here is amazing! We've been exploring the French Alps via DH ripping, XC missioning and mini moto ventures through the woods. And since the other day I had a massive crash on an easy spin, I might as well get rad on the rugged, rooty tracks around here! haha!
Maribor was a decent start to the World Cup season for me. I had just got on my brand new M6 that weekend so I was happy to finish 11th. At the moment I'm riding one of Chris's frames, hence the team blue, until Jeff makes me my specially light and painted M6.
11th is not what I wanted, I know some girls were missing and I know I am going to have to step it up for the next round. My M6 feels amazing and once I've got it all set up proper I should be able to focus on just pinning it! My buddy from Whistler always says pin it or !#$@!! off! So thats the plan....
While some of the boys went to race the Lisbon Downtown, Matt Simmonds, his buddy Liam and I went on an adventure to race a French Regional in this weird little town called Chalmazel. It was actually really beautiful but we think we stayed in a haunted castle. And no, I'm not kidding. You should have seen the boys, they were so scared!
When we showed up at the creaky front gates, Liam was shivering and ready to hop in his van and head straight home. It was that creepy. But it was literally the only place to stay unless we wanted to rough it in the pissing rain. After we promised Liam that we wouldn't play any pranks even if we were only joking and after we mustered up enough courage to enter the main courtyard, the rooms in the castle were actually really nice and although we slept with the lights on, we survived the weekend.
The track was long, rooty and pretty flat with one grassy fast open section at the bottom but it was good to get some more time on the new bike. It wasn't hard to post the fastest female time since I think there were no other girls racing that were over the age of 16 but I was impressed with the young ladies....ripping it up! And with tracks like that and kids ripping them straight out of diapers, theres no wonder the French are so strong in this sport!
Matt was beat out by a frenchy by like half a second and I think Liam was somewhere in the top 5. We were just glad to get out of there....haha just kidding, it was fun.
Heading off to Andorra tomorrow. Excited to check out the track! And anxious to try to pin it as best I can.
Claire."
Claire rides for: Intense, Rock Shox, Sram, Truvativ, Avid, Maxxis, Chromag, e13, Fizik, Crankbrothers, Sombrio Girl, THE Helmets, Troy Lee Designs, Dakine, Evolution, Dynamic Core Fitness, Whistler Bike Park, West Coast Freeride Guides, Mavic. You can check out a HUGE interview with her in Wideopen Issue 6.
