Stodge-Blog

Team GB made a difficult decision last night. As Andrew Windrum was the only elite man to qualify for the long final, he gallantly gave his place in the relay to me. The deal was that Andy Conn, Ben and myself would not race the Long B final and keep ourselves fresh for the relay to give the team the best possible chance of a good result.

As a result, I spent the day of the long final supporting and taking photographs (see updated gallery). The finish area was again in the centre of a village centre with an exciting downhill spectator loop before a final climb back up to the finish. After watching all the British riders competing come in I

settled down to photograph the culmination of the men’s and women’s elite races, which were close considering the near 2 hour winning times. There was a great atmosphere with Maria commentating to a background track of traditional mountain music.

So I am under pressure tomorrow: Andrew has given me the A team ride but will be starting alongside me in the mass start leading out for the B team. Lets hope I can ride like I did in Poland last month and reward the decision to put me off first.

The steeply wooded and semi-open, seemingly mountainous hills surrounding the town of Chaves were the venue for the long race qualification. Where as in the women’s race the numbers of entrants at present do not exceed 60 the men’s field of over 90 riders needed to be cut to 60 for the final on Friday.

All the men were split into 3 courses of similar length by world ranking, then 3 riders start at once on the 3 courses every 3 minutes. The top 20 from each course then qualify for the final.

The finish area was in a little village square, complete with little cafe, elderly locals and old gnarly trees. Dust clouds blew up from time to time, the hot Portuguese summer now quickly drying the plush green countryside. Some commented it was like a scene from a Western movie, just needing a group of bandits to ride into the square on horseback!

I got a good, long warm up before heading to the start. I was apprehensive because I knew it was, again, going to be a very physically demanding course, but I was fairly relaxed. Starting with MTBO legend Lasse Brun Pedersen and the Italian pocket rocket Giaime Origgi, I was surprised that I could keep up quite well and felt confident after seeing Giaime make a mistake. I roared down a steep track towards the first control, unfortunately miss-reading a track junction (I know others did exactly the same or even crashed here), and performed a classic parallel error until I realised what I had done, possibly losing a minute or so before punching. After a short leg we then had a massive route choice leg with an evil climb across the map. On the ascent I felt fairly good and settled into a much better rhythm than on the shorter steeper climbs of the middle race. We then had another route-choice leg with a manic descent into a village. I made a small mistake losing perhaps a minute in the dense streets, the little alleys mapped at 1:20,000 being very hard to read.

There then followed another big climb back up to the ridge before another mad descent into a river gorge, the rough track twisting and turning following the valley side. By this time I was starting to tire and for the first time had to get off and push for the last few metres on the way into number 8. The climb up to number 9 was just bonkers, & with the sun on the back of the neck I was forced into the granny ring as I ground my way up, sweat pouring down my face.

I refused to let it beat me and eventually it flattened out. After another control I started the final descent towards the finish but took a safe route into the penultimate control. I then gave it everything to the last control and on to the finish line.

I was completely spent and could have given nothing more. I went light headed and collapsed in a heap by my bike trying to keep my feet high in the air, pouring cold water over myself. One of the Swedes kindly grabbed a cereal bar which I forced down, luckily the sugar hit immediately revived me enough to be able to get back on the bike for a warm down.

Then the disappointment of not qualifying for the long final hit home, but although I may have lost 4 minutes or so in mistakes, a clean ride would still not have got me through. The easy navigation and massive climb favoured the stronger riders.

My altimeter showed 860metres of climb!

Cath texted me following the race with the words ‘Mechanical, mental or physical?’ I didn’t exactly know how to answer.

Todays was my worst international result for a long time, and following the race I was gutted. Although I felt the course was too physical for me, post race analysis shows everyone was having a tough time of the climbs so I was not doing as badly as I felt at the time, and I was on course for a top 50 finish (which I would have been very happy with) when the real problem struck: a slow puncture that started on the mad rocky descent to number 7. To cut a long story short I tried 4 times to pump the tyre back up, but in the end I could only get to one control before it needed doing again. I was really struggling with the skwirming back tyre both on the climbs and  on the descents where it was just dangerous ( I nearly rolled the tyre off the rim at one point, had a burp and nearly hit a wall!). In the end, on the way to number 13, I gave in and put a tube in (I run tubeless so a real pain in the neck).I then immediately made a silly mistake, the stress and heat getting to me. I ended the race in a whole world of fuzzy pain, and in a foul mood. Hopefully I wasn’t too rude to my fellow team mates, and thank you to Andy W who got me into the rier to cool off.

When I got back to the flat I started a damage assessment on my rear wheel. Luckily I had not damage the rim riding it so flat, but the rim tape was off in several places. I had no choice to either beg and borrow some tubes for the rest of the week or go to Chaves to a bike shop. The fantastic people at “Run and Bike” in Chaves replaced the rim tape and put on my spare tyre, they were just brilliant: one of the best bike shops I have ever visited. Thank you!

I have to mention Ben Plowman’s fantastic result, his climbing ability shining through with a 31^st place, a great result at his first international event. Unfortunately, Helen’s awesome 6^th place on the JWOC course didn’t stand when the course was voided, so she hs to do it all again tomorrow.

More photos are in the gallery.

I have updated the Gallery with lots more photos from the opening ceremony. I will probably update it most days so keep checking !

WOC 2010 Album click here

Most exciting bits condensed to 6 mins. Watch out for speeding cars, near crashes with other riders, steps and a open manhole in the moat !