Racer Bike Cup Granichen – work to do!

On Sunday I finally had chance to get back into racing at the 4th round of the Racer Bikes Cup in Granichen. It was classified C1 and with a very high standard of girls registered, I was really looking forward to it and psyched up to do well.
The day before I headed to the course with fellow Irish rider Fiola Folley who is based in Zurich and was competing in her first xc race. It was nice to have someone to travel and ride with for a change! We followed the Argentinian National Team around a fairly technical course. It was mostly woodland singletrack with a few steep, dusty drop offs and then a quarry section with steep kickers and shooting descents. The lap was really short and with 8 for our race I knew trying not to get lapped would be tough.

Nearly 40 of us lined up at the start with a large, noisy crowd making the atmosphere great. The pace was ferocious, straight into a 5-6 minute climb. I made up a few places but was held up at a tight singletrack part where riders in front of me were walking. It took most of the first lap before we were spread out enough to ride properly. I felt like I was going ok most of the time, but struggling a bit staying on the pace and keeping focused. Although I had no idea what position I was in, I knew there were people ahead of me that I wanted to beat.

There were some really nice bits to the course, I enjoyed the technical drops and a cool switchback climb, but overall I think the laps were a bit too short and it felt quite disjointed. On lap 6 it was obvious I was in real danger of getting lapped and i really put the hammer down to stay in the race but it wasn’t to be. Eventually I heard the horrible sound of the motorbike coming up behind me and winner Kathrin Leumann came flying passed. Not long after for a couple of fun minutes I was following Sabine Spitz up a singletrack climb pretending I was on the same lap as her! On my last lap I got the most excruciating leg cramp as I hopped a log – it left me screaming out in pain right in front of the spectators marquee. I finished in 25th place, not the result I’d hoped for and more frustratingly I couldn’t really work out why. I was feeling strong in the run up to the race and there was no really obvious problem during it.

A few days reflection and I reckon mental tiredness could be a factor – working 10-12 hours a day in college (coming up to the end of term!) and trying to fit in training as well doesn’t help with focusing! There are a few preparation thing I will also change but other than that its recovering and preparing for next sunday – the German Bundesliga in Albstadt, a HC race with an incredibly strong looking line up.

• Share