The Sudety MTB Challenge has begun, and for a race that promises to be ‘Pure MTB’ and an “Unusual event” plus being “an above average race” I’m surprised more people don’t know about it. Today the Prologue began in the afternoon, one that was forecast to be plagued with rain but in reality just had an extra hose down before the start. The course started at the bottom of the ski slopes in Sienna and climbed a long firetrail and old road before starting some heavily rooted, then heavily rutted descending. And then you were half way. The second half of the course took in more forest trails and a lot of fast down hill fire trail with a few painful pinch climbs, where we didn’t stop to pick raspberries, unlike in practice. You were spat out in town, right near the pizza cafe. Ideal, really. About 15km, 444m of climbing and over 700m of descending. But you did have to climb to the start…
The men’s winner powers up the start climb.
The level of the men’s and women’s solo race is truly very high, with Bartosz Janowksi winning in 35:35, and Monique Zeldenrust in 44:36. But our race was in the Mixed category, and we hadn’t really scrolled through the start lists much beforehand. But there were plenty of fast looking people at the start, and it wasn’t only Peter Selkrig rocking a skinsuit. Imogen found a good rhythm, but we were both riding with heavy legs from low amounts of racing, and high amounts of travel recently. We passed other mixed teams, and had a really good run, save for a couple of very minor pauses for trail traffic. Not riding the whole tech chute would have lost us time, but not as much as those who crashed very badly. There was a smooth line down, but it was very steep, and everything next to it was very sharp. We were elated with our race, and found out later we had finished third. For our Australian readers, Pete Selkrig and Garry James finished 5th in the 100+ Masters Pairs – and hung around at the presentation to eye off their competition. I pity anyone who needs to race against these fierce competitors. Phil Welch started the day with a lost multitool, broken GPS and a torn tyre, and finished it with no recorded time for the prologue. A sub-optimal result for Phil. We are racing here for two more days, with each day climbing about 2400m for the 65km of racing. There are lots of steep trails, lots of roots, and heaps of rocks. We’re on hardtails, but it’s a race I’d happily be on my Bianchi Methanol FS dual suspension bike. It will be interesting to see how the race plays out from here, with the combination of mixed and solo teams, and three distances being raced. Race aggression seems unlikely, as the whole vibe is very friendly, and the race staff and locals are highly accommodating. Full results for the Prologue, and the coming stages can be found online.