Miami Bryce

The week had gone well with practice in the wet and the dry so the boys were ready for any condition.  With Steve winning the qualifier he was feeling strong and confident.  Greg’s 7th place qualifier had him walking the course and looking for some time with the headmaster, “Old School” Peaty, or as Steve says, “The F—ing Headmaster!” Greg even shaved his moustache hoping to shave a few seconds off.  Also taking a lesson from the headmaster, Josh agreed to keep the whips out of his race run and get to business after his 32nd place qualifier.

Things were kept light and fun pre-race night.  In the morning we arrived in the pit where the Belgium fan club, the Filthy Syndicate was waiting with Peat and Minnaar facemasks.  The boys felt a bit uneasy standing next to themselves, but we all had a laugh at how funny it looked.  They joined the 15,000 fans that poured through the gates and lined the course ten deep in true French fashion.  The skies had been cooperating but rain was forecast for 3:00 pm and arrived early at 2:30 pm with a big dump, just 5 minutes before Josh’s start.

Josh said the rain didn’t bother him, “I had a pretty good morning practice and I was confident in my lines.  I got to the top and did my new warm-up routine and I was pretty excited.  I was sitting on the trainer and it started pissing down.  It didn’t really bother me.  I set off, felt strong, but I didn’t know how to attack the course because of the weather.  I had a good run, but came out of sections thinking I should have pushed a bit harder.  I felt like I had a good end to the course, but was disappointed with my finish position when I came across the line. “