We are all probably getting ready for 2012 racing season, but I'm coming back to show you a bit of my 2011 racing.
I've been racing for Banshee Bikes Factory team with my team mate Adam Brayton and we had an awesome time. I spent almost all weekends of the season at the races. I did whole World Cup except South Africa, most of IXS European DH Cup, a few other races plus a lot of training and riding. It was simply fun with some solid results.
First of all, there is a video footage which hasn't been released yet. It shows some Worldcups, Dirt Jumps, MX and World Champs of 2011.
I was a bit unlucky this season in WC qualis. I was really confident when the season started, as I qualified myself for all races back in 2010. But I put myself under a little stress too. Here is the spot in La Bresse, where I crashed in Qualification. I was simply too fast and landed too far, a little bit nosedived for sure, haha.
Another missed finals - Fort William. I was really enjoying the course this year. I was training with Brayton all the week, having fun. I had really good run in the qualis, but slipped a bit off the line at the bottom, missed the bridge and fell into the stream...a minute from the finishline, haha. At least, I was happy to get 6th at first split.
We also had some fun at Brayton's - Keswick, UK. Lovely place, really. As Adam said: "The best place in the world".
One of the races of IXS EDC also visited my home country, Czech Republic. I think everybody was loving the track, except the pissing rain following us for whole weekend. I finished 3rd in the end.
I was also having fun on Worlds in Champery. The track is one of my favorites and I enjoyed a whole week of training. I also had a solid run in qualis, finishing 21st. BUT!!, the mud on Sunday was a thing. I was really looking forward to that, because I like mud and I've been racing there all World Cups before.. But this was crazy, again. I was feeling good until I crashed for the first time...after that I crashed 3 more times. Really wild run, who has not seen this in real, can't understand how massive this is.
I didn't ride my MX bike through the season too often. I had no time. Here is one of the autumn rides.
If you are interested in more pictures from 2011, you can see the whole album at my profile.
I would like to thanks to my 2011 sponsors, which helped me a lot to make this happened. *Banshee Bikes *Alpine-pro *Hant *Maxxis *RaceFace *Elka *WTB *e*13 *HT *Cane Creek *Crank Brothers *Ultim8shop.cz *Gravitymag.com *Krabcycles *Bluegrass Eagle *Inkospor *Framewrap *GoPro *Five.Ten
And another special thanks to Gravitymag.com's Patrik Prochazka, who traveled with me to some races and made the most of the pictures above, the first one is by Ken81.
Season whether we like it or not unstoppably ends and that's why we took one last chance to ride in warm and dry conditions. While this edit of Matej was made on popular "Freeride" track in Spinleruv Mlyn. Video should also express a big thanks to all, who supported Matej in 2011. "I would like to say thanks to all my sponsors, who helped me in 2011 season. Just as I would like to thank to all the fans, who cheered for me along the track during the season and also to all the people who simply like what am I doing. Cheers!"
High temperatures and dust, that was the main characteristic of World cup finals in Val di Sole. The roughest track of the whole circuit pushed the riders and the material to their limits. I managed to equalize my best result from Windham(USA). After a bit slower upper part I smashed a bit harder at the bottom and finished 32nd again.
It was the last World cup this year, so I didn’t take the things easy. The conditions were hard, tho. Extremely hot and a lot of dust. Sometimes it felt like riding in snow. You hit the deep stuff and get out of control because you really didn’t know what are you going over. That’s what happened to me in last woods, I was a bit wild and wide over there. I’m actually happy with my run except I overbraked a lot of lines to stay safe and try not to fall.
I will hopefully be able to upload a video of me and Adam in Val di Sole soon. Stay tuned!
Matej
(Adam Brayton also got his best WC result of the season finishing in 29th)
Trip started on 27th June, when I flew to Montreal. I met my teammate Adam Brayton and Matt Scoles(Trek Cingolani) at the Airport. We were picked up by Elka Suspension's Patrick T. who helped us a lot. We had a drive to the races with a big Elka trailer equipped by a workshop, expotents and all what we needed. We packed up and went to the first WC in North America this year.
Mont Saint Anne (CAN) The track was very simillar to the last years World Champs. We did some testing with Elka on Thursday on a different tracks to pre-setup the suspension for the race. It started to rain really heavy when the practice started. The track was almost like a river. I had a few crashes in my training runs. I didn't feel the best, but I made it in qualification on Friday. I slightly corrected my lines on Saturday for the finals. The weather turned to a bit sunny for Saturday and Sunday and the track started to dry. It was really fast for the finals. I put a solid run together with a few mistakes, but still good for a long track like this one. I also did a famous nosedive on the last jump, but I saved it in the last moment. I finished on 33rd - good result for me and we could move happy to cca 700km far Windham (USA) for next round of WC.
Windham, NY (USA) This track was also almost the same like last year WC. It was also a bit wet at the beginning of practice, but it started to dry fast. This track is one of the shorter ones on the circuit (maybe the shortest). Times are really tight and every hundred of a second counts. I was really confident in training and in Fridays qualification. I qualified on 26th. I knew that I can do top30 in the finals. Sundays final was a really tough battle. I did a solid and smooth run with just a few operatively changed lines. I finished 32nd at the end of the day!!! Just for fun - there were 12 riders in my second, which proves a really tight field.
You can also watch a GoPro video from Mont-Sainte-Anne:
European IXS series kicked off the season in Switzerland – Monte Tamaro. It seems to be the most prestigious European race serie. 300 racers from 16 countries were the indicator of that.
First race of the season is always different feeling. No-one knows how the others are going to ride after the winter break. The track was really difficult, long and challenging what was enhanced by rain on the begining of the weekend. It was my first real wet riding this year, but I felt amazing on Friday. I made some more practice on Saturday before quali and I also felt that I’m fast. I simply did a whole run and finished 3rd (1st Nick Beer, 2nd Marcus Pekoll) in qualification what really motivated me for Sunday. Sunday, the race day was full of sun. The track began to dry a bit, but some slippery rocks came out. I was really confident and I knew that I can do some good result. I rode well with some small mistakes almost the first half of the track, but than a fatal mistake happened. I slipped a bit from my line and hit the rock by my front wheel what catapulted me over the bars. I hit another rock with my head and knee and the race was over for me.
Resuls: 1st Markus Pekoll 2nd Joshua Button 3rd Lorenzo Suding 4th Marcel Beer 5th Brook McDonald Matej Charvat – DNF
It was a shame as I felt that I can do it, but this is not the end..
I've already been to doctor and my knee seems to be just badly bumped. A week of having a rest should make it.
Hey guys. Second round of Moravskoslovensky DH Cup was held again in slovakian Kalnica, but this time on a different track. This one is a bit longer with more jumps. Thanks to the super dry weather before and during the weekend the track was super fast and dusty. Actually, it made the times much closer. I was simply having fun and enjoying the weather and training. I had to stay a bit back because I had a bad wrist sprain last week. It didn’t pain too much what I was really happy for.
The times were really close on Sunday, but I managed to win both – semi and finals. It was really good training for some bigger races as it is always good to ride with timing and some racing attitude.
You can also watch a GoPro footage from my training run:
Matej has been living the good life doing some pre season riding in the beautiful area around San Rena in Italy.
Hey Guys!
Another short video edit from Matej Charvat'straining in south Italy.
„I just came back from sunny south of Italy. Due to a freezing cold here in the middle of EU I had to travel about 13 hours to the coast of Mediterian sea. It is really popular place for training in the stack field of worldcup riders. High concentration of DH tracks around San Remo gives you pretty good training options in pre-season.I’m really looking forward for the season already.“
Matej is one of the guys, who will ride for Banshee Bikes World cup team with Adam Brayton. Both will use their brand new Banshee Legends Mk2 to achieve the best results.
Next year Matej will be teaming up with Adam Brayton on the 2011 Banshee factory team. I can't wait to see what these 2 talented and driven guys can achieve next year.
