Subaru-MarathonMTB.com racer Stuart Spies is heading out to the Spanish round of the UCI Marathon series this weekend – the Quebrantahuesos – here’s his take on the build-up:
This is going to be tough!
As I fumble my way through another working week and the separations between life, passion and productivity seem to boil over and crash into each other I’m in my usual mad scramble to make sure I’ve covered as many bases as possible and I’m ready for my next little foray onto the World Marathon stage. Its an impressive title, I like saying it, but I’m still feeling like its Bash-A-Mole and I’ve only been given a chopstick!
Headless chicken aside this weekend looks set to be a cracker!
Quebrantahuesos – serious faces at the start
Spring seems to have at least shown a vague emergence over Europe and I can happily report I’ve finally done a race in shorts! So if the weather holds, Spain’s UCI Marathon in Sabiñánigo ‘The door to the Pyreness’ this weekend is going to be awesome!
Sabiñánigo is synonymous with sport, hosting not only this round of the UCI Marathon Series but the hugely popular Quebrantahuesos Gran Fondo in June, worryingly otherwise known as the “bone crusher”, and the Quebrantahuesos Triathlon in July. The course is a
90km intimidating profile that I hope reflects what makes the Pyreness such a challenging terrain for riders… um ok so maybe not too challenging please!
One thing you can guarantee, there will be rocks, you will get a beating but with 2500m of climbing there will also almost certainly be some fantastic, fast, technical descending.
I’m hoping that a recent mild run of form holds and I can get through the week before landing in one of my favourite European cities, Barcelona, cue sunnies! That said every time I’ve thought of some early season sun its either been hail or so much sun my face
turned to dust, so something in the middle please. My Transalp partner Matt Bridge aka ‘Northern Monkey’ will be making the trip out from the Netherlands where his entire 150km training ride loops sees a whole whopping 30m elevation, needless to say this will be a good test for the both of us! We have a lot of eyes on us for this one thats for sure, the team baiting has already begun for Transalp and I can almost feel the assessing gaze of our non-racing team mates stationed across the globe, so here’s hoping we keep the rubber down and the drama at bay.
Bike wise, and you will laugh, I’m now running a new XTR right shifter, PTFE cables, multiple levels of voodoo prayers on all nuts and bolts and, tubes, yes I did say tubes, look don’t judge me, I can’t risk a last minute tubeless bike build panic given my wheels DON’T
FIT IN MY BIKE BOX!!! Mike has assured me all future MarathonMTB trips will be done in the Hercules he’s planning to buy just as soon as race organizers start setting prize funds for ‘Most calamitous race prep for European riders’, I can’t bait our Aussie brethren they’re all winning! Nevermind at least I have a bike, Bridgey is yet to see his new one and he plans to race a full marathon on this mystical beast, how we ever won a war I will never know, hang on I’m South African!
Anyway, enough lunacy from me, have a good week mates, see ya at the races and please hold thumbs as we take on Quebrantahuesos UCI Marathon Spain. If you’ve been debating entering, registration is open for another couple of days and the weather forecast looks good, so get on it and I’ll see you there!
http://www.quebrantahuesos.com/
Quebrantahuesos – riders hit a river crossing