Introduction
Race stats
Type: UCI Mountain bike race
Length: 5 stages / days, third stage shorter XCO race
Location: Val Cenis, France
Bike and setup: Lapierre XRM (120mm/120mm suspension) with Maxxis Aspen 2.2" tires (1.5 bar)
Gearing: 32T up front, 10-52T in the back
Stage 1
Stage 2
Even longer climb to start the stage of on this second day: 18 kilometers and it took me 1 hour and 40 minutes to get to the top. I felt I kept good speed all the way up. I found a good group and a guy ahead of me paced me all the way up.
We crossed a glacier close to the top of the mountain. That was cool. About 20 meters across snow.
Very nice downhills segments which obviously were meant for mountain bikes. Rather high roots and tight switchbacks. Technically very difficult but entertaining.
I was quite happy with the tracks on this second stage until the end of it when we came to a another hike-a-bike section. This time because the track was very narrow and extremely steep.
After two stages of lots of walking the heel of my left foot now has blisters that hurt.
Finished the stage in 12th place. I actually thought this stage went better that the first so was surprised to be back in 12th place.
Overall in 12th place as well.
Stage 3
The last three stages all had a new starting village, Aussios. It was just 20 kilometers away from Val Cenis so I just threw my bike in the back of my car and drove there in the morning. No biggie.
Starting time for my category was 11 o'clock. It was really warm.
Third stage was a bit different. It was four laps of an XCO track. Now there were no A or B lines like a typical XCO track, but it was plenty technical anyway. Crazy amount of altitude gain as well: 250 meters per 6 kilometer lap.
The stage was extremely hot and I managed to run out of drink after three laps so stopped at the refreshments station and filled my bottle with coke. They were not ready for that and coke went everywhere!
Finished the stage in 9th place. I'm up to 10th overall now. Ninth place is 5 minutes ahead, and the dude in 11th is just 5 minutes behind me. Anything can still happen!
Stage 4
Stage 4 again started is Aussois. We did the same start loop and decent as in the XCO race the previous day.
Ahead of the stage the race organizers sent out an email warning of extreme temperatures and saying that water replenishment was allowed outside designated zones. This was obviously only applicable to those riders who had teams behind them handing out water bottles. I did decide in advance to be careful with my drinking and to stop at all water stations.
The first uphill went well and I picked up some places, then the old XCO downhill from the previous day went okay as I already knew it. Then, however, we got to a part of the course that I had not seen before, and then on a technical downhill it happened: I saw a rather large rock covering the right hand part of the path so I moved to the left side. However there was something there in the grass which I snagged my left pedal on and I went flying over the bike. Luckily I had my saddle down so I didn't get too far. On the left side of the trail there was a steep 'ravine' and I managed not to fall into that, while one of my competitors held onto my bike and prevented it from falling of the edge.
My Garmin bike computer went flying and I had to re-attach it. Managed however to put it into indoor mode so I missed logging about 10k of the stage.
At first I thought I was completely unharmed but then I noticed that my left leg had gone hard into the levers on the left hand of my handlebars. My knee and lower part of my thigh muscle were hurting. I did manage to continue the stage but the next day I woke up with a very stiff left leg that would not turn a complete revolution of the pedals.
Surviving the crash without injuries was one thing but crashing like this totally took my self confidence away for all the technical stuff on this stage. And it turned out to be the gnarliest of the stages so far with crazy downhills. This meant I was off the bike and walking a lot, something that always ruins my mood.
I did still manage to finish the stage in 10th place. Ahead of tomorrow's last stage I'm still in 10th place overall, just one minute behind 9th place, but 11th place is also just one minute behind me.