Vaughan Caseley is an experienced Endurance Mountain Biker, now residing in Switzerland, and running MTB Villars. After the Salzkammergut Trophy, he has refound the love of racing his mountain bike.
My wife and I were between courses of our romantic wedding anniversary dinner when I quietly mentioned that I had entered into and booked accommodation for another MTB Marathon, my second race within two weeks, which I think surprised her especially as I hadn’t done anything this ‘silly’ (her view) in over two years.
Despite the shocked look on her face her response was quick and to the point, another one, where? … I replied Montafon Austria, when? ….. ummm I leave next Friday morning(29th July), how long will you be gone? …. Only one night this time I replied enthusiastically. As silence descended as she took a sip of wine and while I was trying to gauge her thoughts on the matter our next course arrived. Having ooed and arhhd over the delicious meal in front of us the topic returned to the race, so how long is this one? …. My calculated answer of only 65k’s with 2400m of climbing, much less than the last race and it should only take me 3 to 4 hours this time seemed to bring her some relief.
My wife has been a tower of strength and has offered unwavering support to my countless crazy (again … her view) endeavours over the years and clearly she worries that I might ‘over do it’ one day, hence my reticence in telling her about entering the Montafon M2.
I didn’t have the heart to tell her, despite it being the second level distance, the first being the Montafon M3 at 145 km with 4400 m of climbing and labeled ‘Extreme’, the Montafon M2 is still classified as ‘Demanding’ and will certainly present some significant challenges along the way and with a little bit of moisture in the mix will offer plenty of …… whoa! moments.
It’s Thursday morning as I write this and with one more short and sharp training ride, a little bit of packing, bike preparation and a relatively short 4.5hr drive tomorrow morning, I’m pretty excited about taking to the start line of this my second Euro Marathon. Once again I’ll be racing in a beautiful part of the world and heading to a town which happily opens its doors to us grimey mountain bikers.
Stay tuned for my ‘Race Report’