This weekend I travelled to Albstadt in Germany along with Think Bike rider, Richie Felle to compete in a Bundesliga race. Ranked UCI Hors Category, this race offered the toughest challenge yet, featuring 12 different nationalities and a standard comparable to a World Cup.
I got off to a good start getting up to 16th place and was feeling really strong. The course was amazing, long steep climbs that seemed never ending, but the descents made it worthwhile. Super dry, technical switchbacks, and long swooping forest singletrack were so much fun. 30C heat made it really hard but 15,000 spectators and an incredible atmosphere helped spur me on. It was such a cool feeling having your name called over the loudspeaker and huge cheers from the crowd on the toughest part of the climb – felt like a celebrity!
On the 3rd lap a nail punctured my tyre and problems with my C02 forced me to run over 3km to the tech zone, loosing 7 minutes and dropping to 30th. Back on the bike I rode hard to get back to 25th and into the UCI points, but had to finish early after getting lapped by winner Sabine Spitz.
I was gutted and felt like throwing my bike on the floor in a big tantrum but I got such a buzz from the race the feeling didn’t last long. I’ve gained a lot of confidence from the way I rode, a big improvement from last weekend. Definitely a lack of racing was part of the issue last week, my heart rate yesterday was a bit insane, its never been so high for so long before.
A big thanks to Richie for lending me his wheel and to the British Cycling Team for their help in the tech zone (the sandwiches too, they were very tasty!). Check out www.spoke.ie and www.irishcycling.com for race reports too. The race itself is only half the story, we’ve had lots of adventures and ‘blog moments’ over the last week – pictures and updates coming soon…