After a restless nights sleep , and watching the clock tick over every few minutes after Mike’s alarm sounded, I knew I was feeling the effects of the previous day. Lucky the start was at 10:30. Rolling out it was the usual madness, but thinking ahead I took it a little easier. With my form being clearly less than what it once was, it was a good opportunity to take a few steps back and hone a bit of my racecraft that I knew was hiding in my memory from several seasons ago.
One of the first things about European racing is that if there is even an inkling that a place can be had, someone will fill the gap. Yep, right down to the tail end of the field. Covering your line under braking, is a must, also when you are riding backwards uphill where it is highly likely someone will hustle you by grinding your tyre. There really is only one solution – join them. After all it is cultural. I had a few opportunities for both these distinctly European activities in today’s race.
Feeding was another aspect of racecraft I revised upon after yesterdays effort. It is always better to have a little extra in your back pocket (and be willing to use it), than to suffer. Simple as that seems, convincing yourself to slow down and eat can be a mission at times.
As for the days stage – well it was a hell of a lot of climbing for the short 56km distance. 2600 m of vertical ascent is ordinarily a fair bit, and after the first climb I was convinced it would go down without a fight. The second climb however was a beast – 10% gradually worked its way up to 25% and I was pretty glad to have a triple clanger gearbox using the 22-30 most of the way up. Things then got a little more challenging when the snow came in (winter cross training was really useful for this!). Finally, when we thought it was all over the track traversed a load of boggy, rocky terrain, then proceeded down an unrideable descent.
When the descent finally became rideable, I remembered the age old road descending trick of weighting the inside of the handlebars. Descending became a whole load faster, which was also helped by the fact that I had worked out the capabilities of my tyres and brakes.
The days finish was a lot more pleasurable than the previous; having ridden a lot smarter I was able to extract all of what I had in the last 10 k’s – to the point of almost being able to sleep after 2 doppio’s, a caffeine gel, and 2 red bulls. Moving up 5 places was also a bonus.
So the point of all this? Racecraft is an essential part of bike racing. It’s pretty much the whole reason I’m not doing any worse. It’s also the reason why Aussies have been coming all the way to Europe – to learn it from the best. With the amount of talent floating about here its easy to see how that’s possible.
Read the report from my MarathonMTB.com team mate Mike Blewitt on the team website