World Cup Round 3, Czech Republic

15/5/12

After a couple of solid days on the bike in Switzerland, Monday was a travel day.  The 7hr journey into Prague, in the Czech Republic, was quite smooth traveling with only a few minor hold-ups due to road works.  Once we got into Prague though, it was a different story. The city consisted of an endless maze of one way streets and the GPS seemed more than a little confused!  We attempted to enter from many directions. On one such attempt we were stopped by a pretty scary looking female cop saying “you do not enter our city this way”.  In the end we opted to park a fair way out and walked to our accommodation.  Needless to say, we were pretty knackered by the time we hit the sack that night!

Tuesday morning I got out early for a recovery ride in attempt to beat the morning traffic. Riding around the big cities in Europe, is quite often the best way to see the sites as you can cover a fair distance quite quickly.  I managed to scope out the whole city and take a mental note of where to go later on.  We only had one day to take in the sights before making our way South for the World Cup, so we definitely wanted to make the most of it! So the rest of Tuesday consisted of hopping on and off trams and checking out the amazing world of Prague. The history of the city could be seen through the mix of ancient buildings, bridges, clocks and an impressive Castle.  It sure was different to anything we have in Australia and it was well worth the stop over.

Wednesday morning it was back to business, and we drove the 2hrs South to Nove Mesto na Morave, where World Cup round 3 was to take place.  We got a good feel for the countryside and the true Czech life, as we drove through all the little towns.  We arrived at the race venue at around 10am and I jumped straight on the bike for a few practice laps.  The course included quite a bit of climbing with some wide track which would be great for passing.  There were a few rocky technical sections, one vertical drop off and a bmx-style jump section.  So nothing too technical or “scary” to be worried about unless of course the rain started and then those tree roots could become nasty! After a few laps, I decided to spin the legs for another 30-40min and rode toward out accommodation about 20km out.  The roads were perfect for riding with undulating hills and next to no traffic.

We weren’t sure what to expect with accommodation in this part of Czech, but it turns out we chose a great pension, with comfy beds, clean bathroom and a restaurant downstairs selling what looked like some good tucker!  Actually we ended up having most dinners here as for no more than $10 a meal we were treated to a large helping of grilled vegetables, local meat and rice. These meals were the perfect choice for the hungry bike rider!

The language barrier in our travels around Europe so far, hadn’t been much of a problem.  However the Czech language proved extremely difficult to understand and seemingly minor tasks became a challenge.   We had accumulated a fair size bag of washing over the previous week and top of the priority list was to find a washing machine.  With no luck at our own accommodation or in the town we were staying, we ventured into the closest larger town to try our luck.  We looked up the Czech word for laundry and plugged this into google maps.  Turns out we found what I think was a dry cleaning place and we handed our smelly bag over to 4 lovely Czech ladies who said a whole lot of things in the Czech native tongue.  They could see we were quite hopeless with our language skills and were kind enough to ring a friend who interpreted the whole conversation over the phone!  We weren’t sure what to expect when we returned at 5pm to pick up our bundle, but we were astonished when we opened the bag to find our clothes the cleanest they’d ever been. So clean in fact that the grease marks on my knicks had well and truly been removed and all this for around 12 Australian dollars!

It was also quite difficult to find any sort of hose to give the bike a good clean, so Ed made good use of the bath tub!

Thursday, Friday and Saturday consisted of course practice, riding some more on the scenic country roads, prepping the bike and some good quality rest.  Nothing too exciting, but all necessary components of a good quality taper leading up to the weekend’s racing.

Friday arvo, saw the running of the World Cup Eliminator.  This is a new and exciting event, where riders line up in heats of 4-6 people and each round the back few are eliminated until a final is run and won.  Paul Van Der Ploeg from Australia has been performing extremely well in these events over the last year and even managed to take victory in the UK round last Season.  He was probably the favourite leading into the final, but unfortunately missed the decisive move from the Swiss rider and had to settle for 2^nd, still an amazing result!  In the women’s event Rowena Fry from Australia had also made her way into the final.  In just her first attempt at this race format, she put in a great effort to finish 6^th place overall.

On Saturday the Under 23 Cross Country races were held.  Anytime Fitness / Trek teammate, Bec Henderson, was ranked number 3 after some great results from the previous 2 rounds.  She had a tough day on her hands with 4 laps plus a start loop in some wet and slippery conditions.  She rode mighty well to finish 13th although didn’t have the same super-legs of her previous 2 world cups.  The U23 Australian guys had their work cut out with over 100 starters.  Michael Crosbie had a good solid race and was best placed of the crew in 60^th position.  Sebastian Jayne and Alex Meyland also rode well to finish on the same lap as the leaders.

I woke early Sunday morning to be greeted with some sunshine.  However when I ventured outside to complete my pre-race TRX routine, the true temperature was felt!  It was going to be another cold one and probably best to pack the thermals! As warm up for the race I decided on an easy ride around the start loop, then some high cadence on the wind-trainer for around 20-30min.  After this the legs felt good and ready to perform.

Race start was at the slightly unusual time of 10 passed 10 (not sure why exactly).  Within the first 100m of race start there were 2 massive crashes and quite a few hit the deck.  I managed to avoid the gravel rash this time, but unfortunately got held up a little in trying to get around…one of the disadvantages of starting at the back!  It then felt like an all-out sprint for the first 10minutes to try and get a reasonable position. These first couple of km’s are always the worst with high levels of lactic in the legs, lungs burning and riders veering all over the track.  A little bit of luck is always needed at the start for a clean run.  I would have liked to round up a few in the start loop but only really managed to hold position.  The next lap my legs just didn’t want to respond and it was all I could do, just to keep pedalling.  Telling myself I would come good soon, I just continued to pedal and hold position.  It was frustrating when the few times I tried to get around riders I was veered into and forced off the bike and running.  The last couple of laps I was able to close some gaps and make a few passes, but by this stage I was well behind the top 50 and in the end had to settle for 55^th. Row Fry was just ahead in 52^nd and Kath O’Shea just behind in 56^th.

The elite men were up after us and the Australians had 5 entered.  Anytime Fitness /Trek teammate Dan McConnell has been riding well all season and really mixing it with the top in the World.  This race was again a top result by anyone’s standards finishing in 38^th.  Behind him, Chris Jongewaard finished in 42^nd, Lachlan Norris in 69^th Paul Van Der Ploeg in 81^st and Sid Teberlay 95^th.

After 2 weeks of illness and therefore losing some much needed form, I guess I couldn’t expect much more.  I can’t change the past though and just need to remain focused and prepare as best I can for next week’s race in France. So we have just hit the road for the epic 10hr journey, across 4 countries and up into the hills of La Bresse.  I shall keep you all posted on how it pans out.