After the last race I realised that you need to get to within a few positions of where you want to finish on the first lap. So I’ve been training for fast starts and hoped to get towards the top 15. I was disappointed to find myself in last place on the grid (later discovered i was my name was registered the wrong way around so points from the last race weren’t counted for!) and trying to get ahead of over 30 people is not an easy task.
There wasn’t much space but I managed to move up a few spots on the first climb and then lost any advantage as I got stuck behind a huge group when we hit some super steep wooden steps that everyone was running up. I spent the whole of the first lap working like hell to pass people, it was tough, warm weather and steep climbs left me breathing like a donkey and the course was mostly singletrack so passing opportunities were limited. I got into the back of a group of 5 or 6 people (some of whom I know were ahead of me in Schaan) and it was wheel on wheel stuff with no chance for recovery. By the end of the lap I was in 22nd place (last time I was 27th at that stage so an improvement).
I really enjoyed the course but it was hard work, a 7.2km lap with a mixture of steep climbing and descending (260m total climb per lap) and a lot more technical than last time. The ground was mostly dry but it meant that the few wet parts were super greasy. Into the 2nd lap I’d moved to 2nd in the group and was feeling ok until on a descent someone shouted ‘achtung!’ and next thing I know WHAM, I rammed my shoulder into a tree at full speed and then hit my head and knee as I fell. I got up feeling disorientated, straightened my bike out and hopped back on but I’d lost several places and was passed by a couple of others as I struggled to fight pains every time I hit a bump.
It took a couple of minutes to put the crash out of my mind and get focused again but I pressed on trying to catch the group. We actually all got a split up – a girl 2 places behind me crashed at the same place and couldn’t go on (they taped that line off on the next lap). By lap 3 I’d settled into a good rhythm and kept getting glimpses of people in front. Unfortunately using the upper body was really important with lots of rocks and drops to negotiate, and I wasn’t able to go as fast as I’d have like on the descents. I kept thinking I’d caught the girl ahead and then she’d pull away again.
On the last lap I was chasing hard, but also being chased. As hard as I tried I couldn’t make up another place and was really annoyed to be caught from behind on a descent. I can partly put it down to my shoulder but I would have like to have been strong enough to stop it happening – mentally as much as physically.
I finished in 20th place, 14 minutes behind the winner. Not the best race ever but I definitely learnt a lot from it, both good and bad. Infact I’m almost happy to have had a bad race so that I know I can deal with it – in Ireland racing so few people its easy to convince yourself it was good whatever happens!
It was only when I stopped I realised how sore my shoulder is. Can hardly lift my arm! I think its just a bad bruise so hopefully won’t take too long to fix – I was hoping to be done with injuries for a while. You know its been tough when you’re wiping away blood, picking stones out of your leg, and simple things like getting dressed become an endurance test!!