Where to start this report of Stage 1 of the Vaude Mountain Bike Trans Schwarzwald? Ever since I came across the line two hours ago, numerous titles have been going through my head: ‘the return to stage racing’? ‘A rendezvous in the hurt box’? or my ever favourite motto: ‘ never retreat, never surrender’
Let’s take it from the start. We arrived in Pforzheim yesterday afternoon to meet my team mate Johan and his buddies. They will be traveling by luxurious campervan, where I decided to stay in the camp because I like the social aspect of it and appreciate that it is usually close to the pasta party and bike park.
You know when you’re in a German stage race when you roll out your sleeping mat on the concrete floor
of the local Eishalle and a Scooter CD is on repeat until ten thirty at night. great! I missed you Scooter! Hypah Hypah!
The starting hours in this race seem to be quite late, which is not really my preference. I prefer to just get
up and get it over with. It probably means that the stages will be a bit easier than TransAlp, where the slower riders sometimes take up to 13 hours to finish.
Johan and I were lucky to be in the second starting box, only behind A box which was for men solo riders. Only my traveling partner Steven was lucky to be in this one. Most of Johan’s friends were in the box behind us, so I decided to make the most of it. Wait for the gun to fire and push hard in the neutralised zone. Mike Blewitt explained to me that Euro Neutralized means: just don’t overtake the pace car.
The stage looked moderately easy on paper with 82km and only 1800 meters of climbing, but that is only easy when your partner is at the same level. Mine happens to be from the planet Wattage. Luckily he is a good coach too, trying to slow me down in the beginning and pushing me beyond what is realistic in the end.
My way of riding is usually the opposite.
A bit of up and down on schotter for the first fourty kilometers and I could feel that my lights were fading.
Sometimes I saw heartrates in the 160s, but not too often. I started to wonder if training is really overrated, all seemed to be going well.
It was around this time that the first team of Johans friends overtook us. I tried to pick up the pace but it was hopeless. The black tunnel had closed on me. The mid section contained two longer climbs on Schotter. Traditionally my strength and I started to see the light again.
After that the profile seemed to be mostly down hill, but it never mentioned a mud section that was only rideable for the stronger among us. I was cramping up and as soon as i stepped off the bike for a hiking session, my left quad and hamstring decided to go on a strike. I haven’t felt this feeling for so long and was shocked by how much it hurt. I had two options at this point: stop walking and stand in pain or keep walking, still in pain. I decided to walk. Johan was out of sight by now. As soon as i could get on the bike (it took at least five attempts) things felt a bit better.
The last 10k was hard for me, rolling hills and the lights were officially out. Johan pushed me up some hills, telling me to always stick to his right side. I had no clue anymore what he meant by that or what a person that doesn’t stick to the right side would do. Lights out on the sprocket scientist!
We finished around 3h30, second of the Belgian teams of friends. At this time I have no clue how we did in the ranking but it will have to do. Not sure if I can recover from this one quick enough to make it a big day tomorrow.
Up next: massage, bike wash, pasta party. Did it hurt: most definately but i cannot describe how much i missed stage racing. Hope to send you an equally positive message after stage 2.