Langkawi Stages 2,3 and 4

19/10/12

These last few days have been super tough, probably some of the hardest riding / mountaineering I’ve done in my life! I can safely say, for sure I have never done so much hiker-biking.  The mud combined with 25% gradients made much of the course un-rideable and so the race has turned out to be suited to those better runners in the field.  Saying this, there has also been some awesome trails where we have managed to stay on the bike as well as a few road sections thrown in to give some reprieve from the constant slush-fest in the jungle.

Stage 2 for me began quite well.  The first climb for the day started out fairly gradual and then became so steep we had to weave from one side of the track to the other just to get up. At least this track was a fairly dry one though so we were able to stay on-board our machines.  Luckily I chose to start off a little easier than some of the other girls and by the top of the climb had made my way up from 10^th to 6^th position. Once down the descent, it was then onto a long flat road section where unfortunately I was in no-man’s land with no other riders to work with. Inevitably a group of 4 rode back up to me, containing 2 of my female competitors and 2 of the leading master’s riders.  So I jumped onto the back of this bunch and then swapped off turns with the others.

Start of stage 2

The next climb of the day was when it all turned nasty!  I lost track of time, but reckon we must have walked with our bikes up the side of this mountain for at least an hour. In b/w each steep 5-10min section of walking there was probably around 10m of actual riding. Hardly worth getting back on the bike for, but at least giving those calves a much needed rest!  Over the other side of this climb there were some pretty cool descents with switch-backs and plenty of roots to negotiate. These downs certainly got me smiling again, however the grimace and a few swear words came back once the descents turned into a fair few more ups. 

The main problem for this stage was actually not so much the amount of walking, as it was the lack of water.  Most people had calculated on this stage being a lot shorter, as well as having an extra feed station. Unfortunately that feed station never came and there were a lot of people badly dehydrated by the end of the stage. Some even resorted to drinking from the streams.  Needless to say, these people wound up sick the next day!

I limped home in 9^th position, seeing stars in my eyes by the end. To make matters worse, I happened to be down for drug testing on this day, so was forced to sit around waiting for my bladder to once again function.  After 4hrs and I don’t know how many litres of water, my test was actually postponed until the next day when hopefully I would be in much better condition to complete it.

Concentrating on my line

 You won’t too often see Burry Stander in this position

Stage 3 was a much better one for me.  It still included a fair few walking sections; however there were also some fantastic trails and this course proved to be more suited to the XC riders in the field.  The women completed 2 laps of the 25km loop, while the men did 3.  The extra feed-stations during this stage made things all the better and I was able to consume a total of 4litres during the 3.5hr race. I was very pleased to find that I finished the day in 8^th and was only 3minutes down on Blaza from Slovenia who is a regular top 10 World Cup rider.

Stage 4 was a classic cross country style race. The elite females had to complete 5 laps of a 4.5km circuit.  It was a brutal yet fun course which started out with a little single track along the flat, and then it went straight up a very steep bitumen climb which was definitely long enough to hurt!  Once up the top we rode straight down a slippery descent with a few tight corners to negotiate and then there was a fairly short running section up the other side.  The rest of the course was super fun with firstly another flowing descent and then some flatter single track trails to finish.  I think this stage was a favourite amongst most of the competitors, me included.  After a slow start, I passed a few halfway into the first lap and then held 7^th place for the remaining 4 laps. I’m pretty stoked to have finished this one within 10% of the winner and only a few minutes down from previous to 10 world cup riders.  I didn’t pull enough time to move any higher on GC, so it looks like after the short course tomorrow, I will finish off the week in 8^th position.

The real highlight for me over the last few days has been meeting and getting to know all the riders from so many different countries.  Of course there were a few other Aussies in the field who Ed and I have hung out with a fair bit, but we have also met some fantastic people from all around the globe. The female field included a particularly nice bunch of girls and for me it was a real eye opener to race against the best in the world, and then at the end of the day meet up for a meal and share a few laughs. 

So tomorrow morning we will all race a 30min short course and then finish off with a BBQ by the beach. While I’ll be relieved to have finished such a long and hard week’s riding, I will also be sad to leave this beautiful island. Melbourne had just better hurry up and get warm!