Chris Grice

Crankworx Innsbruck 2022

Crankworx Innsbruck all finished up. It was an up and down week with lots of positives to take away! I seeded 15th in Elite Men and in the Final ended up 22.

The course was pretty simple and flat but made it so important to be spot on and full gas all the way. My race was was great all for one mistake in the rocks that led to me losing my momentum, and since the course was flat it cost me a a lot of time to get my speed back up. Looking at the results those few seconds would have made the result a lot better as I was shooting for a top 10.

It’s all learning, getting better at dealing with the nerves and finding that perfect balance for a race run. Happy with the progress and let’s keep going!

Photos by: @maddogboris

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Chris Grice

Winterberg Germany IXS CUP DH

Fun weekend in Winterberg! Some rain minutes before finals kept things sketchy. P3 for me, the times were tight and I made a hefty bobble in the last woods. Overall a nice weekend for good training and time on the clock

Photos by: @gruber_seb

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Chris Grice

First Year in the Elite Category!!

Photo: Jack Rice

A little warmup race last weekend to get back into the race mindset, the Brioude “mini World Cup!”. Just one day of practice and some unexpected rain in the finals I ended up 20th 2.8 seconds back! It was a good training race and feeling better coming into the first World Cup of the year this weekend in Lourdes, France!

After this World Cup, I’ll head home as we have seven weeks off, and get back to building for the rest of the season. There is one or two Downhill Southeast races I may attend in the off weeks, then in the end of May, Word Cup #2 kicks off in Fort William, Scotland!

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Chris Grice

Headed back to Europe!

First stop is at Maribor, Slovenia August 14/15 for World Cup #3. Afterwards, we will have one week off, then off to the World Championships in Val Di Sol, Italy on August 28/29. Then strait into World Cup #4 in Lenzerheide, Switzerland September 3/4.

Starting in Maribor it will be a heavy few weeks of racing, but I’m ready for it! I’ll head home September 6th and get ready for the last 2 world cups of the year in Snowshoe, WV. I’m super stoked that they’re close to me and it feels more like a “home” race even though it’s 7 hours away. I’ve rode that track before so I’m really looking forward to racing there!

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Chris Grice

3rd Junior Title in a ROW!

The 2021 National Championships in Winter Park, CO was one for the books! I was super stoked to get my 3rd Junior Title in a row! 2018 15-16 / 2019 15-16 / 2021 17-18 (2020 was cancelled for Covid19)
It was a few heavy weeks of travelling and racing.I left France Monday morning, and arrived to CO Monday evening, only to find out my two gear bags and my bike box did not make the flight to the USA. Luckily 2 days later everything showed up just in time for the first day of practice.
The track in Colorado was like no other. The town is at 9,000ft, and the top of the track 12,000ft. so the altitude was a big factor for the week. The track was quite flat and had a lot of pedalling, so it was very important to conserve energy.
On Saturday I was able to qualify into 1st place Junior. That night I started to feel a bit sick, and come race day it got a lot worse… Stuffy nose, sore throat, and heavy cough… gotta love it haha! Practice was a struggle but in the race I was able to put my head down and get a solid in a solid run! I was so stoked to grab my 3rd win in a row!
Thank you to everyone for the support!
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Chris Grice

First World Cup of the year!

First World Cup of the year done and dusted! The track was very similar to last year, gnarly and constantly changing! It’s super cool to be back with the whole team!

The first 2 days of practice were super muddy and it was fun letting it slide in the mud. I had a great quali run taking the 1st spot.

Come race day we had a bit of sun, and the track was slowly improving. It was my first time being the last one down the hill, which was super cool. In my race run I was a bit too aggressive and unfortunately went down entering the lower woods section.

It was a super productive weekend and I’m feeling great on the bike, just need to clean up a few things ?

Massive Thank You to the whole Specialized Gravity team for the support, especially my mechanic Jean Louis and my trainer Nics Arschoot!

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