We arrived in Czech late Monday afternoon
and settled into our accommodation in a small village called Bystre deep in
the country side of Czech a 30 minute drive from Nove Mesto. We were staying
with a guy who calls himself Milky at a penzion (Czech hotel/motel/backpackers)
Sam Shaw and Dirk had stayed with him last year and said he was a good guy and
hard case. Hard case he was he spoke very little English but enough for us to
understand him if not we would take a trip to Google translate and sort the
situation.
The World cup track at Nove Mesto Na Morave is awesome, along with Champery it is definitely a favourite. Carls description ‘Rotorua on steroids’ is a good description for those back home although missing the over 130km of it. It is naturally technical with rooty descents and climbs, further technical features (steroids) have then been added with downhill, uphill and flat manmade rock gardens.
The track was much the same as we remember it from two years ago, with the addition of one more rock feature, a gnarly looking rock descent. It was a risk versus reward section where the easier line reduced the chance of crashing and flat tyres. We found out when racing we were able to pass 2 riders at a time if they went into the slower safer line so was pretty happy to make it safely down the A line with no flat tyres or crashes all week and during the race.
Carl's race
Unfortunately after last week I was hoping
to move up on World cup ranking however the new UCI rules this year have you continuing
on world ranking position and not the world cup ranking, so it was back to 83rd
for me 10 rows back I was called up 76th so there was a bit of a
movement forward with riders DNS in front of me, and on the start line I snuck
another line when we pushed up, maybe to the 8th line of 120 riders.
On the start lap we follow the roads for a couple of minutes going on to one of
the main climbs of the track and continuing onto the race lap, this gives you a
bit of time to move up as much as you can, I sat in holding my ground until the
1st little climb then hit it hard passing a large number of riders,
down the other side of this hill it was a high speed right hander a few riders
went down and we got slightly gaped to the main pack dodging them. From then
on I had space to move on the next single track climb we still had to run but
looking behind me there was way more riders than normal. I come round to start
the 1st normal lap of 7 1min20 down in 63rd so I had
already made a big jump on my grid position and last time I raced here after
the 1st 8min start loop I was 100 position and 3mins 20 down, so I was
slightly stoked hoping I was in for a good one. However things kind of stalled
out from here and I went backwards again before coming forwards, having a few
rough patches where people would pass me and I couldn't hold their wheels to me
absolutely smashing it back past them. I was loving the technical sections and
making back time every time things got tough. Again I made the last lap not
sure by how much but the next group of riders behind me missed out so must have
been close, on this lap it started to rain and the track became very slippery
and the
roots and rocks were very different and then my through axle come loose
and had to stop and do it back up so I settled for 63rd another PB World
Cup result so still moving forward. Hopefully an even better story in Val Di
Sole in 3 weeks.
Katie's Race
My race was crazy hard I was
ridden off in the start loop, not confident enough in my climbing or riding to
assert being there. What ground I had made was quickly lost when I got tangled
with another rider. I came through exactly where I started at the back. The
first full lap I rode well technically and felt compose however there was nothing
there. My legs were not participating and for the first time ever I actually
wanted to just stop, I did not feel I should be there. It was pretty hard to
stomach, riders destroying me up the hills with just the technical component
keeping me in there, the complete reverse from previous years.
Fortunately my coach has always
drilled in the mental aspect of the sport and even when the body is not
participating to never give in. On the third full lap it started paying off not
only did I feel good through the technical areas but I found my legs and was
able to pick off riders ahead moving from 50th to 47th
this however was short lived where on the last technical climb I started
struggling with my bike it slipped a gear after I presume clipping the derailleur
somewhere as till this point it was working perfectly. I ended up running. I
then dropped my chain through the next section called the ACDC I got it back on
but not settled in a gear for the ‘rock n roll’ so again got my run on.. Once
back on the bike coming through the start finish I was back to 50th
where I had been in the second lap, so what physically was a strong lap, where
I was able to pass riders who had been pulling away in the climbs ended up a
bit average. I quickly settled back into my rhythm again and although my gears were
not perfect I got them to hold and still feeling strong I passed 2
of the 3 riders who had got passed during my issues and got back up to the wheel of
the one ahead, unfortunately not quick enough as we both missed the cut off for
the final lap by seconds. By no means am I disappointed, I have come such a long way and am continuing to make inroads each week, race and training session.
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