Nove Mesto na Morave World cup

The event was off the scale we had been here for 2 weeks to limit our traveling, and we watched the event take shape the track change daily.

After watching Anton dominate it in the under 19 race the pressure was on to try get good results under our belts also. I (Carl) am writing this blog Katie is organising things for tomorrows journey to Italy.

So our race day rolled around Katie was up 1st at 10.02am starting 2 mins behind the elite women she got down to business early and moved up well, however it turned a bit pear shaped for a lap or 2 losing huge amounts of time to the riders in front, in making some time consuming mistakes (her lap times tell the story). After running around for the first half I watched the end of the race from big screen from here I could rest my legs while watching the racing unfold.  I got my lunch and I look up to see Katie had pulled it back together, and pulled back over a min on the group of girls in front of her, her laps only got faster on the last lap pulling the 5th fastest lap time and stomping home for 9th, she had moved up to 8th on the last lap but cramp on the last climb thought 9th place was better. So im stoked for her but she wanted better. :) And I reckon better is what will come with the winner of the race today was only 40 seconds in front of her in the race we ballsed completely up 2 weeks ago in Ostrava.... 

Katie rolls the inside line moving up in the start lap

On to my hurt fest... 2pm, called up 77th with like 10 rows in front of me and 4 behind I was dreading the start loop it was perfect for the fully grown man to pound me. It was a wide and fast road with 2 power climbs in it, and lots of space for me to move up and back as it was, I was moving up lots but it kinda stayed even with the other chaps rolling around me, the laps were short and we were out to do 7 plus the start lap. After a few mins it went into the 1st single track from the start loop, and it bunched up hard we were barely moving as frustrated as I was there was nothing I could do about it on an 8 min start lap I lost 2 and a half mins, Not Ideal... I was in 100th place. As soon as the track cleared a bit I was on a mission every group I caught I didn't wait a second, I just kept on rolling past and attacking the off my wheel.

Every lap I moved up spots but the damage had been well done by now. My lap times were faster than my position every lap so it is very frustrating to see. I moved up to 77th in the end back to where I started. I had given every thing and got a hole lot of nothing I race with my Garmin and I defanitly was in the red the whole race with an average heart rate of 183 that is my threshold so that was mint to see. So all in all good race not happy with the place though at all. Its a world cup though and its all about the start it always has been so...

We had a mean post race dinner with Luuka, and Mike after they came from there kayak world cup to our world cup to catch a bit of the action! now its on-wards and up wards to Val di Sole in Italy where we do a 10 hour mission drive tomorrow after training. The track sounds like it may suit again

Sorry cant sort Videos and pic's now way to tired, and have a splitting head ache I will try do some at some stage just come back and check it out latter in the week. 

Chur

Carl      

Graeme Murray Photo Shoot

Graeme Murray Photo Shoot

http://www.graememurray.com

This is a bit of actions we got up to before we left NZ, 

Thanks heaps Graeme

More shots to come 

ITS MONDAY!!

Ok its getting close to exciting times, Monday the week of our first World cup race, time is flying by which works perfectly for us as we can’t wait to race in what will be our second ever World cup race.

After Ostrava we have been based in Svetnov, a small village about 20km from Nove Mesto Na Morave where the World cup will be held. We have had good accommodation at Czech cottages and it has been great to be in a little village with well nothing, time to chill and train!

Training has still been smashing us so this week coming into the world cup will be a much appreciated drop in the millage, but I’m sure the increased intensity will make it hurt none the less.

We have had a 3 training sessions on the track since being shown around by the Merida Czech team, who had it dialled – with their manager being involved with the track and event. We also became famous New Zealanders on the Nove Mesto Na Morave World cup website from this pre ride.

http://www.mtbworldcup.cz/item/trat-uz-testovali-i-novozelandani/category/news?lang=EN

Our claim to fame

The track primo, it is around 4km with 4 steep climbing sections and 4 rooty descents broken up by a few scattered rock gardens. The track was not ridden in last week but once all the riders arrive it will definitely get a lot faster and smoother too.

http://www.mtbworldcup.cz/?lang=EN

Link to world cup web page – there is a video which shows a few fun parts in the track

our amature videos of our first play on the track - thought it may be exciting for the blog - few trees in the way, glare form the sun, and a bit of a yarn.. translation "a bit stiff at the bottom" as I went off a rock in the wrong direction:)

We will head out to the track Tuesday/Wednesday when the track is marked out and perfecto for the race, our last ride they were out working hard, some more rocks went in to a few sections making what was the “rock and roll” feel a little less rock and rolly – which turned out great for Carl as the rocks it was missing early in the week were causing him a few male discomforts when his bike geed out.

Todays plan is a bit of R&R and hopefully some of the NZ Kayakers are rolling through the area and we will get to catch up.

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