World Cup Chapelco

With loads of snow to build an enormous course, nice weather and some rest after the 2 continental cups it was time for the first training of the World Cup.
We inspected the huge course carefully, 45 obstacles, about 1.40 minutes long and a finish kicker with a 21m long flat The course was hard and there were many start-stops (hold ups) at the starting area because lot of riders were having difficulties with the course. We were also struggeling trew this hard course but managed to put in some good runs at the end of the day.
Qualifying Day: Blue skies, hot weather, a great course and the right wax > to ride fastAnd that we did: after the first run Bell was in 6th position and Britt in 14th. The top 16 after 2 runs go to the finals. By the time we could ride the 2nd run the course had become slushie (a lot of wet snow) and a little slower. Bell ended up 8th and Britt ended up 18th after two runs. That meant that Bell had qualified herself for the finals and Britt just missed them.
Finals: Bell shared the first heat with Lindsey Jacobellis and 2 other Americans.
The start was ok and Bell was in 3rd, battling for second by the first bank. By passing the American girl on a kicker they hit each other, she fell, Bell lost a lot of speed but rode on in second. But because of the lack of speed the 4th girl passed her on a step up kicker so she came in 3rd in that heat. Too bad but still an awesome result!!
Bell came in 11th at the world cup so she earned her first nomination for the Olympic Games in Vancouver 2010! Britt earned a nomination for the World Championships in Korea later this year.
We want to Thank SUNWEB without them this trip wasn't possible, thanks Frank for coaching, Pep and Rob for the good times,al the rest that supported us during this trip: JuanPa, Monte Verde, Carola ect and ofcourse our sponsors.

Continental Cups Argentina

ALL the rain from Pucon was snow in Chapelco so there was a record base of snow on the slopes. The first powder turns were a fact….. riding in 120cm fresh snow yeeha.I'm covering Bell with the new pow pow
The first challenges on our program were the 2 continental cups. These are two races in preparation for the world cup. There were so many world cup competitors, so many different countries this was the biggest continental cup in the history of the FIS.
The course was difficult and long, by the time you finished your legs were burning and you felt like you did a 1km sprint. After 1 hour the officials stopped the training and they were asking for the coach from The Netherlands. Bell had just started so I immediately knew something was wrong. I went down I saw and heard from other coaches that she had hit her head hard and had been out for a couple of minutes. She was going to be carried out by sled even though she refused. I tried talking to here but it was useless so I put a phone in her pocket and waved her off. In the hospital she found the phone and the result: a big concussion and a completely broken helmet. So no Bell participating on the continental cups. The first continental cup I fell in my qualifying run and because of the high amount of competitors no 2nd quali run possible. So next day next competition. Despite the weather ( witch was foggy and grey) I was able to ride a good quali run. Result 10th quali time and a spot in the finals. In the finals I got 3rd in the first heat (best 2 of 4 go to the next round) and ended up in 11th in the overall ranking!

UP NEXT THE WORLD CUP

Pucon Chile

After a short vacation in France it was finally time to go to Chile. The Sunweb team was ready for boarding. We flew in to Temuco (Chile) where we transferred to Pucon. Pucon is a nice little town in the south of Chile. The ski area is located on a volcano called Villarica. It’s an amazing view, this big white volcano sticking out of the country.
We stayed in a nice cabana that we heated with wood, which meant that the first nights is was freezing in our little place.
The weather was nice the first couple of days but then the rain came. We didn’t mind at first because there are so many nice things to do there. We could use the gym, squash and pool at the Gran hotel, visited the hot springs and went sightseeing. But when it kept on raining non stop we decided to go to Argentina a little bit earlier than planned.
JuanPa our guide who transferred us to the volcano and back took us for a really nice road trip to Argentina… Check out our (first made > thanx 2 the rain) movie!