Day dawned in Stronie Slaskie (Poland) and it was dry, if not overcast. Unfortunately, cycling kit that myself and my team mate Ant White (Cannondale/Mt Zoom) had washed last night was still quite damp. Such is life when racing at the Sudety MTB Challenge. As Graeme Arnott and I were told in 2009, “A polish woman washes at home.” As we are neither Polish, nor women, we weren’t quite sure how to take that. But basically, you need to hand wash your kit. Hotels won’t do it, and there aren’t any laundromats around. Carrying enough sets of kit for 6 days of racing (plus a marathon following) is a bit difficult when traveling.
Breakfast was another muesli-free affair, accompanied by instant coffee. Cultural differences are always interesting, but it can make for grumpy breakfast company!
The start today included a ‘lap of honour’ through town. Then we were straight into a climb, which changed quickly from road, then to old rock strengthened forest road. The first few ramps and pinches frced phsyiological splits in the bunch. Such is the third day. Ant and I were really hanging a few kilometres into this. The top teams like BMC, Rubena Birell Specialized and Nomadesk-Narviflex are super strong, and riding with the top solo riders, like the Milka-Trek guys and all the other fast kids. But today was 59km, with 2302m of climbing. “Fast” was Ant’s appraisal. I thought, ‘painful’ would be more appropriate.
Although short, the course was not without it’s challenges. The climb went straight into a long, quite technical descent. After copping a branch to the head, I backed off a little, and a gap opened to the solo riders we were racing with. That was a shame, those guys were motoring – and we often had them visually ahead for the rest of the race. More technical trails along the border followed, along with some super steep climbs. The border trails are marked with border stones, and are typically riddled with roots and rocks. They’re fun, but end up painful when they run on for a while.
By this point Ant and I were pretty happy with things. Our pace was good, and we felt like we were riding well. So we pressed on through the forests, sliding down some more trails, and keeping ourselves out of the red zone – but only just. The second last climb was super fast, as was the descent. The last climb was steep and loose, and topped out at a small church – The Virgin Mary Spring. The descent offered many chances to find Jesus. In part, due to all the monuments and small chapels on the path up to the Virgin Mary Spring church, and with the technical nature of what you were riding down.
For a fast day it was a shame that the finish was slow, for us anyway. My testy drivetrain had twisted the front mech around, and pedaling was barely manageable as the cage hit the chainring teeth. But we made it over the line to Bardo, after a day racing in great conditions, on fun trails. We crossed in 6th, and hold the same place on GC.
The Solo category is an interesting affair. With a few top pro’s here – it’s fast. But there are some super quick amateurs sneaking into there. This included Sam Malfliet, who came 6th. This is behind the four Milka-Trek pro’s and the super talented Sebastian Szraucner (Germany). And with a flat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA0NjS7jEg4
Full results for the General Classification and Stages can be seen here.
Today’s race was pretty high tempo, and the Polish music television is helping get us there in the morning.
Tomorrow, Bardo to Gluszyca, via 56km of what looks to be continually climbing mini-bergs – for a total of 2431m of ascension. For Australians, that’s about twice as much climbing as one of our 100km marathons. Depending which one you compare it to!