What a week

A root canal, some longer harder training rides, a small local race with a nasty crash and the circus.

This week we have been with Pascal Schmutz a swiss mountain bike racer and his family mother Beatrice and father Dieter getting so well looked after we do not know how to begin to thank them for their generosity.

The root canal - Katie

So we better start with the nasty root canal first, yep I was right the pain I was in the Engelberg race was the sign of my poor tooth on its last legs. On Thursday I woke up and had no pain I thought how great is this I may not need to go to the dentist at all… but then after strong advice to get to the dentist anyway I went. When I went to the dentist and said it was the most pain ever for 5 days and now is better he laughed and said good you want need an injection. Turns out he was right the nerve was dead dead dead and it was YUCK! So part1 the drilling and xray and removal of the nerve is over part 2 is on Tuesday. The tooth is really wobbly as drilling into a tooth which is mostly fake anyhow from an injury to it in 2009 is not that great I have mastered cutting fruit up and eating slowly without using my front teeth. So I think I have the dental side under control.

The circus

Pascal and us outside the circus

Swiss National Circus

Beatrice and Dieter shmultz invited us to come along to the Swiss national circus it was a great night and having not been to the circus in years we all enjoyed it. After the Circus we went to the roof top beach here in Basel it is on top of a carpark and has been converted into a beach bar, with sand, a pool and a relaxed and nice atmosphere, from the roof we also got to enjoy the lunar eclipse, so a great night all round.

City beach

The great swiss food

During our stay we have been fornuate to have had some very swiss meals cooked for them and they have all be so YUM! “Raclett” and “Cholermus” are two of the meals we really liked.

Raclett

The training rides

In Basel there are various single tracks and we have had a sample of these with a few 2hr + rides with Pascal. It is great to be shown the tracks and has been mint for our training.

The Race

Today we started in reverse the men were off first with 6 laps and then the women at 3pm with only 3 laps. The track was some little climbs with some fast slippery downs and quite a bit of fast roads.

Carl’s Race

After a big week leading into this race I was feeling a wee bit tired but it was “gut“. The race was back to the hour and a half racing it is ment to be but at the same time it was a less serious race. There was however quite a few fast riders were there to try get the 400CHF that was up for grabs and the money went back a long way. We had to start 2mins behind the U19 riders and there were also good riders in there (top 10 at the last world cup) and we were all going for the same podium so it was a hard ask for us. I played a bit of a tactical race because I was getting sat on and euro sprinted into every single track, its pisses me off slightly so I started attacking the hill and trying to stay away. On the last lap I was flying again and the guy I was with attacked me on the hill I held his wheel and attacked the “scheisse” out of him over the top and got a slight lead and into a steeper running part of the track I really ran with everything I had getting a bigger enough lead to finish up in 7th with 2 U19 in front, Pascal was back in front of me this week in 6th so 2nite I get dinner happy with the little bit of CHF I picked up so I can feed myself for a week.

Carl

Katie’s Race … Katies’s Crash

The ice cream makes her happy

It was not a big race and so there was no pressure all I had to insure was that I got in a hard session to toughen me up for the race the following weekend and try collect some money for the dental bills.

Off the line I was a snail (after being slack in the warm up department and watching carls race instead) but I picked up on the first clmib slotting into 4th on the first decent and quickly pulled away from 5th and gained on 3rd place. I managed to catch 3rd place and but she was a racer that’s for sure and played some interesting tactics, sitting on, darting in front into the single track and then sitting back up and calling me through to sit on me again like the last climb except when she called me through I decided I had enough and knew I was stronger and instead of rolling through and letting her sit on I sprinted she did not like this and started sprinting with the next single track fast approaching and then swung across into me to get into the single track before me and we both went down in a high speed crash on tarseal and gravel. 15minutes into the race, mine was over. I was patched up with some nasty deep injuries on the joints which although deep enough for stitches they recommend I try butterfly stitches instead as the arm and knee need to move.

I hope to heal quickly, and have a final appointment with the dentist on Tuesday so will aim to be on the bike again Tuesday until then sitting is good. Even though crashing is not the most positive experience I am still loving every bit of the racing over here (maybe because I only raced for 15minutes??) but regardless bring on more racing!!!

Katie

We have 2 more days in Basel and then it is off to Chur for our final swiss racer bike cup! Will keep you posted.

Katie and Carl