Lugagnano Internaizionali D’Italia XC series

This weekend been we left the awesome team base in Val Di Sole, Italy to head to the Lugagnano Valdarda Bike race a round of the internazionali d'Italia XC series.

We got away on Saturday morning, a 3hr mission checking in to Hotel Arda our accommodation for the night along the way. We arrived at around 2pm but after mucking round a bit did not have enough time to ride a full lap of the track before the relay racing. We decided as it was a technical track with lots of rocky sections and tight twisty descents to wait until the racing had finished to get in a full lap. This was a perfect opportunity to clean the bikes and get in a bit of study, nothing like sitting in a car for 3 more hrs. We had a pretty good lap of the track, which was steep, technical and completely exposed providing minimum shelter from the sun and no opportunity to rest.

After packing up the car up we went back to our hotel for dinner and off to bed, excited for our Italian breakfast which was included with the room. Unfortunately as we found out in the morning the Italian breakfast was a cappuccino, and with the lack of English (or our lack of Italian) there was not much chance of getting anything more than that. We headed to the supermarket to get some food for the day and then to a café for breakfast. 4 Café’s later we realized we were in for something sweet, pizza, coffee, or our favorite an alcoholic beverage. Back to the supermarket it was, where we settled for a pizza bread, croissant, and some bread and nutella. Pretty sure we checked the carb’s box with one of those items so we were happy enough to roll with it and get to the track to get the racing underway.

Katie’s Race.

I woke up feeling pretty average all round at that point I knew either way the racing went that I would need to be ready to hurt. My warm up went well and was ready to get racing and embrace the 30 degree high that Lugagnano had put on for us.

My first lap was ok I started bad again too busy watching the near crash, I then got going and picked off riders quickly to about 5th position. the 2nd lap I felt average and was wondering how I would survive 5laps, but stuck to the plan drink, drink, drink, keep the body cool and gels going in. By lap 3 I felt great I was climbing really well in comparison to other weeks, lap 4 I attacked the girl with me getting a nice gap feeling even stronger than lap 3, however I got caught in a crash with a jnr guy going down (around 80 jnrs had started a few minutes prior and we were working our way through the back of them). I stayed up but ended up having to run the section lost a place and momentum so I sat in and recovered to ensure I could hit out fast when passing back. On the last lap I attacked again like lap 4 but no hold ups this time and managed to do another solid lap. My lap times showed a similar story and on lap 3 and 5 I was lapping in 3rd position and really enjoying the steep climbs, I was making gains on the podium however 4th place was mine as I crossed the start finish for the final time. Eva Lechner World cup #1 winner took out the race, would have been pretty awesome to stand on a podium with her.

Big thanks to Carl for feeding me, my race was before his so he had to cook in the feed zone before totally baking out on the track! Will be nice to be back racing with the NZXC set up for our final two races where Sam Thompson has been doing an awesome job as manager and manning the feed zones we definitely missed support this weekend, but well worth making the trip.

Start line - 2nd row

On the way to the finish

Feedzone

Carls Race

My race pretty much didn't go as I wanted it. I had a good grid position in 15^th 3^rd row but somehow buggered up the start and got boxed in and swamped down both sides, I slipping into the 30s on the 1^st climb it was open and fast and I started passing people again but once we got onto the single track a guy in front of a group of us decided he was on a Sunday ride and with no way to get by we were all getting gaped very quickly. I got a beauty of a block pass into the single track down hill on this guy and continued on. The heat was unreal with over 30 degrees and been not very conditioned to it at all I really struggled to keep cool, every bottle was to the top with half going over me and half into the tank even the shots drink mix was going on me. For the 1^st 45 minutes it seemed like the body was fighting me and not wanting to go but once I managed to cool myself down a bit the last hour was good I was coming back through the field, on the last lap I was very strong and could see a top 15 result but managed to hang myself upside down in a tree for a bit.

I finished 18^th and am pretty disappointed about it lots of guys I have been beating at the world cups along way in front. Just an all-round bloody hot day in the sun but nice to see Katie ride very well and get much loved UCI points and a bit of cash to pay the bills.