Spain 2005

I finally cracked the top 10! Yes folks, I did it. Saturday, I pedaled through rain, cold, mud and crashes to finish seventh and bump myself up to third in the overall series!

I’m pleased with my race, especially my start. I was called up in the first row because of my ranking, and I took full advantage of it by leading up the first climb and hitching on to the two women who finished first and second. I felt great on the climbs, but for some reason I had trouble on the descents. Usually it’s the other way around! Seriously, on each of the five six-kilometre laps, I crashed on the same descent (so much for learning – or don’t you have to do something seven times before it becomes fully ingrained?). It consisted of a gutter of slick mud and grass and I just braked too much, which caused my wheels to slip out from under me. I have a beautiful, multi-coloured bruise (currently it’s at the yellow-green stage) on my butt to prove it. I won’t include a photo, as I can’t get a good camera angle. ;-) On one lap, I crashed right in front of a guy and he had no choice but to crash into me. He launched over me (I think his bike included, but I can’t really remember the details), but we both quickly picked ourselves up and kept on fishtailing wildly down the slope. Slimy, grassy slopes: definitely a skill I need to work on! I believe the technique is simply: butt back, no brakes, hold on.

The mud made the race quite the gong show, with a huge number of riders DNF-ing, as the mud clogged everything – tires, brakes, gears, cleats, pedals, ears…. I was very lucky and had super shifting (yay SRAM!) despite the gunk all over my bike. By the last two laps, I wasn’t able to clip in anymore, but I’m sure everyone else had the same problem. Poor Martina’s tires wouldn’t even turn after a couple of laps (despite a wheel change), because her brakes picked up so much dirt and just clogged everything up. It was seriously mucky! She finished 14 th, I lap down.

Many thanks to Stefan, Marco and Andri for the support on and off the course (including cleaning my hideously muddy bike), all the people on the track cheering despite the miserable weather and Julia for the moral support and accommodations!

I’m looking forward to ripping it up this weekend on what looks like will be a climber’s dream in Hasliberg! I’m gonna be ready to rock, since a whole crew of supporters is coming. If you can’t make it, think of me at 10:30 GMT.