OSTRAVA CHACHAR - race reports

Average race after a average weekend is how it was really.

We were not sure if the racing here would be the same high level as the Swiss Racer bike cups, but it definitely was. The race doubled as the final of the Central European cup and a UCI Cat 1 race, and some teams made their way over here, as the world cup is 2 weeks away. We stood at the start this morning watch loads of Pro teams and National teams from all over Europe, warm up and get their bikes cleaned and looked after, this is a dream for us that if we keep working hard we too can have aspiring amateur athletes looking up to us. The track was drying but no way near as fast enough for us, we still had dry tires on, and I was not risking running tubes again after my last two tubed races, so we sucked it up and raced. 

Carl 

It was a hard day to say the least in warm up I was boosting and was really thinking I was going to go good, I started well up but soon as we got to single track I was skating, there was a really cool peace of track though were I honestly don't know what the euros were doing but it was a sweet hot line, on the 1st lap I past 5 guys on one 40 meter peace of track I was stoked, that was as good as it got every lap. All I was gagging for was a climb but the track was really flat with only a few tech pinches but we had to run up them anyway, the mud was stuffing everyone's bikes up but I found the time to stop and clean my bike up cause it was really pissing me off. I finished up 20th where I should have been in the top 10 had I been a pro racer for the weekend like I have been for the other races.

Just so everyone doesn't get worried this race was a race a last minute one which we were going to wing, so wing it we did. The next 3 are down to the T every thing is PRO from now.

Katie

I think Carls very straight up summaries of our weekend of winging it provide insight into our frustration. It is hard to go with the flow when we know that to preform at this level we need every advantage we can get. I am a routine girl when it comes to racing, from dinner the night before to pre race nutrition... it has been so long since I have tested why but after today I will return to the routine. I am also a firm believer that when a race is muddy "I had the wrong tires" is a bad reason to race poorly as mountain biking is not just having skill, not just having power, and not just the equipment you need all these. So we suffered the consequences of our poor preparation for this one (but again it was what it was, a last minute add in which was directed at finishing off our hard training block and starting off our racing - so mission accomplished in this sense). 

The field was strong and consequently I was ranked further down than in some of the other races, the start was through a flat paddock which we twisted our way up making for a slow but congested start. The first two laps I really struggled with the muddy sections, loved the technical rooty steep sections (with carls hotline) and loved how my legs and form were from the hard training. I had a lot of ground to make up and was far back in the field but determined to do so and with the track tacking up nicely in the last 2 laps I was able to ride my way back through the field up into 9th place in the elite women's which I am pretty stoked with. 

A relief that the weekend of winging it is now over :) and tomorrow we are heading to our next accommodation which is going to be great perfect for what we need, great tracks and great people oh and a kitchen, so Carl has no reason for McD's :) 

Katie and Carl   

Rambalings Pre Race - What a day

Holey shit today has been epic... I was stressing hard most of the day but now im over it.
Sorry for the language at some points in this but its how the day was.

Started in Praha (Prague) we went for a bit of a sight see as we couldn't check into our hotel in Ostrava until later in the afternoon and the track open until after 6pm.
The night in Praha we had tried to plan to have a kitchen in our apartment as we knew tonight in Ostrava we didn't have one... so that was mint we had a kitchen with no pots or pans... we got one little pan from the chap down stairs and we cooked up some chicken breasts... hole breasts as we didn't have a knife... then fired up some pasta in the pan... no pot... that was meant to be dinner, turns out it was lunch.. any longer in a hot car and it would have been the trots.

Anyway with our cooking out of the way we got in some sightseeing, Charles st bridge and some of the old town in Prague, pretty impressive and with Hot chocolate even better. Then it was off to ostrava a 3.5hr drive away... the roads in czech are no autobarn we bumped our way to Ostrava arriving a bit after 3 to our hotel.

Check in at the hotel did not run smoothly, with our capacity of the czech language starting with hello (dobridon) and ending with thank you (diky) it was hard to explain that our bikes would be coming inside. With use of google translate on the internet katie and the lady at the hotel came to the understanding there was no where for our bikes and they were NOT aloud in our room.... sucks for them! however they got us back as there resturant is closed on Sunday and now this means our one meal we could easily get will not be available.. guess we are even and with a shower made for a 3 foot midget they really jibbed us.

We got to the track after driving in circles for the good part of 2 hours and it started to bucket down hard. I packed a sad and didn't want to get my finger wet and soggy, plus our bike had to get in the hotel and to function in the race tomorrow with no way of cleaning them, So after not eating since before 12 now been around 630 we headed off looking for food... yea good one all the places are pubs and cant read a menu... I can read one menu though McDonalds so after trying for an hour and half to avoid McDs, I ended up there and Katie went to some hong kong fuwi place and got some rice dish and vegetable dish.

Now: 15mins ago I had a bath because of the midget shower... the water was the colour of a river so got out of that in a hurry, but not before I got my finger all wet, which by the way got put back on all crocked so now I have a deformed finger that I have no feeling in, and still has all the blood on from the day it happened. Might give it a good clean now though. Still haven't decided if ill race, probably will as I have been riding all week and I feel fast, I just haven't used my finger at all yet so don't no how it will handle it. Ill Man up though for sure       


ok we are off to bed now to get some much needed rest and listen to our good old English DRINKING songs from the pub below. "Where did you come from where did you go ... cotton eye joe"


Carl 





     

On the move again

The time has finally come to leave what has been home for the last month, Karlovy Vary Czech Republic.

This month has been torture in terms of training putting in a large block, although it was all suffering it was definitely made easier with our great location where we had everything, flat, hills, really technical single track. So a massive thanks to Renata and Vasek, and Renata’s family, for showing us Karlovy Vary and welcoming us into their home.

Last night we drove to Prague, which looks beautiful a city full of history. We have a small chance to take in some sites this morning prior to our drive to Ostrava where we will be racing a UCI cat1 race, but after the accumulated weeks of training in our legs we might have to stick to sightseeing from the car this time round in our flying visit to Prague.

Carl is yet to decide if he is racing tomorrow, although his finger is healing well it is not yet back in use, we will ride the track this evening and he will see if it is up to racing.

Will keep you posted! We are off to see the 'old town' and recommended Charles Bridge in Prague

A Bit of an update on an unhappy finger

Yesterday I had a wee miss hap, our bikes needed new brake pads so a straight forward pad change was needed it all went sweet until, my bike was rubbing so while we wheel was spinning quite quick I went in to make an adjustment and as I grabbed the calliper my right braking finger went into the disk. It all happened so fast I knew what I had done but was in a wee bit of shock looking down I thought my finger was a goner, but lucky for me it was still there just cut a long way through. After getting back in the house and a good 20 mins of hanging in a sink feeling very grogy and all faint 5 minutes of that I was out of it and could see any think or hear much (I’m a real pussy with blood and pain),we started trying to think about what to do next it defiantly needed medical attention so we searched out the hospital and boosted there.

They couldn’t do a whole lot but clean it out and F#$% me they cleaned it out alright, it couldn’t be stitched because of the nail so they just strapped it back with a whole lot of bandages and sent me on my way with instructions on where to go in the morning for its bandage change and check up. So today after struggling to find where I had to go, I found a doctor behind a big steel door in a packed out patients hospital (thanks to Katie’s persistence that surely even though no one spoke English she would find someone to look at the finger) . I was fully shitting myself but it was clean and the doctor spoke English, when they took the bandages off it was manky as, they cleaned it as much as they could bandaged it and gave me orders don’t move it, don’t get it wet, ice it, go to the hospital in the weekend to get it checked and bandages changed, and come see me Monday...

So yea here I am just chilling it’s not really buggering me up to much for training because the tour de france is motivating me so much I just go riding. It’s not ideal and I defiantly can’t use my hand at all. I missed a really important double session of training yesterday, I tried to do it after the tour but it started to rain and one handed arm under my arm pit intervals don’t really cut it so I came home and wrote the day off.

Today however the rain stayed away and the tour motivated me again, and I got a easy ride in on the roads still riding with my hand up under my arm pit but riding. I’ll be on the roads for a week I would say.

We have one week left in Karlovy Vary until we move across Czech to a UCI cat 1 race in Ostrava I’m looking forward to it as I was feeling super fast at the start of the week then a bit tired from training later in the week but defiantly feeling the best I have ever felt and I will be trying my best not to let this one get in the way of any think.

Carl

Karlovy Vary (our new training ground) and our trip here

After Val d’isere we headed to check out the kayak scene and catch up with Luuka and Lou. We made it in time to watch the women’s final race which was impressive this sport is down to the wire and technique is so important.

Waiariki rep!

After the finals we went out for lunch – We had to go for the unhealthy option after Jane delivered the bad news that the academy would be without its top dog and driving force with her departure at the end of the year. Jane has had so much input into our sport and none of this will be neither forgotten nor go to waste.

mmmmmmmmmmm

After our binge and major brain storming on how to survive without Jane (with no immediate conclusions) we were back to the kayaking where luuka and Lou paddled in a lighter race a bit more fun but with cash up for grabs an exciting one to watch. It was 8 gates and one paddler would go with another setting off 5 seconds behind they would have to catch the one in front. If the gap was less than 5 seconds at the end the chasing paddler would go through and if the gap was more the front paddler would go through.

pre race - in deep thought

Scoping out his competition in luukas bib

Luuka and Lou were the chasers, but made the massive mistake of sitting on the line for some valuable seconds after the beeper went! Lou made it through to the quarter finals but luuka just missed out. It was an event like the XC eliminator event in cross country pretty exciting to watch.

Lou gunning it 

Luuka putting in a powerfull stroke!

In the mens we cheered on John Hastings a Canadian who stayed at the tihi athlete flat in Rotorua last year and should make the Canadian Olympic team, We at Waiariki would like to take some credit as he spent a day on the erg in the middle of the Mokoia campus.

John Hastings in action

It was a primo day all around in the sun

We spent another night in France and then made tracks in the morning to Champery Switzerland (which was a small detour on the route to Basel) where the world championships will be held. Although you are strictly not allowed on to bike on the track we went for a run and scoped out the track. It’s mean track and was as dry as a bone so we got to scope out lines. In the dry it looks to be a hard fast track but we can predict the carnage that would occur when this track is wet. Either way it is going to be a mint challenging track.We also did some riding in Champery we road right up the mountain and decided after seeing the massive huck in the xc that we should do the coupe de monde dh trail, a few hundred meters later and we were both walking - that is one step track not made for an xc bike at all. We were latter told its one of the steepest DH tracks that is raced in the world.

Next stop was Basel in Switzerland to break up our drive, fortunately Pascal and his family put us up for the night. Pascal was off in the early hours of the morning to catch a flight to his next race we won’t see him again until possibly the Czech world cup but wish him all the best for the Swiss National championships!!!

Carls Favourite sign

In the morning we got in hard training ride and were on the road again the autobahn helped the drive go by quickly and in no time we were in Karlovy Vary, we met our friends Renata and Vasek and then their parents who Kindly are putting us up for the next 3weeks while they are enjoying a holiday in Germany.

Film festival

Film festival

We perfectly timed our arrival to Karlovy Vary with the film festival and we had a great few days with Renata lining up some films (English translation and all) and even an impressive party that we weren’t invited to and well under dressed. Of course we avoided the drinking part, with two hard training sessions in the morning, and got through the night with a chocolate crêpe instead!

Renata and Vasek's Power plate studio - tried a work out (carl suffered as usual)

Make up time

Its great here and we have a really wicked mtb circuit technical with monster hard climbs and really sweet decents that are even testing Carl, and currently Luuka is in town on her rest week after her world cups has been primo hanging out on the other side of the world.

a section of our track - techy and fun

Chilling out - as if we have not left Rotorua

a feature wall like we have never seen before

Coupe de France Val d’Isere – Quick update before we hit the road

U23 women podium - (more photos to come hopefully we can get one of Carl leading out the race)

We weren’t sure what to except at this race with a World cup in Canada falling on the same weekend and new the big hitters would be missing but Val d’Isere (to be a world cup venue 2012) put on an outstanding event. This race atmosphere was going off and the track was great and exceptionally hard due a big part to the altitude of 1800meters which had our New Zealand lungs screaming. Even with the World cup on the fields were large and consisted of some strong euro’s whom had opted not to travel to Canada, with 106 starters in the men’s and 35 in the women’s.

Carl – 7th Elite men -Whole shot into the first corner and flat out racing the whole time with some top Swiss, Frenchmen and Italians it was a hard day. 

Katie – 9th Elite women, 2nd U23 – consistent clean race, a nice change from the bad fortune in the past few weeks.

Off to watch a white water Kayak World cup slalom race, Luuka and Lou from Waiariki NZL competed in the qualifying yesterday disappointed to miss out on the finals – this is racing in Europe in all sports down to the wire every second counts and these girls will be sure to be making the finals in the WC’s to come so look out.

Congratulations to the XC riders at MSA – NZ is in for a good year of cross country racing and good luck to the Kiwi downhillers today.

We hope to have internet again soon, but we better get on the road.

Carl and Katie