The international fun continued yesterday at the Racer Bikes Cup in Winterthur. I had an early start, leaving home at 6.30 to catch the train to meet Richie Felle and James McCluskey who were already there.
The starting line-ups are getting tougher each time, today 42 Elite Females, with 12 nationalities including the British, Dutch, USA and Argentinian national teams. We were lucky that the course was in good condition despite really heavy rain over night.
I was gridded 32nd and a really tight tarmac start loop at the usual ferocious pace meant it was hard to get into a good position. I waited until a nastily steep climb before starting to make up some places. The course was good, a real mixture with something for everyone. Steep climbs on tarmac/fireroad, fun sliddery switchback descents, and long flat fireroad sections (too long if you ask me, I haven’t trained to go fast on the flat!). It meant the racing was really close with different people making time on different sections.
I certainly feel I’m getting stronger, especially on the climbs I was really able to make up time, but didn’t quite feel as fresh as last week (too much training in the week I reckon!). It was a long race, nearly 2 hours for me, and the last lap was tough, I kept seeing the bright orange kit of a Dutch rider closing in on me, but managed to hold her off in the end. I finished 25th (again!) but no getting lapped this time and if I can get 13.8% faster I could win these things!
Afterwards it was fun hanging out with some girls I met at last week’s race and then watching Richie in the men’s race. He wasn’t as lucky with the weather as we were, it started to rain and the course looked super greasy. It was cool to watch Absalon do his thing too, blasting up the hill in the big ring where I was in the granny by the end!
We thought we had the train for the next morning sorted but a lack of German and Sunday timetables meant it didn’t show up at the time we expected and we had to wait an hour. There was just about time for me to get sorted and warm up but we were cutting it fine. Turns out this was the start of our luck running out with my puncture and Richie having porridge issues in his race!
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.
This week has been a good experience of the roller coaster of emotions you have being injured. I can’t explain just how frustrating it is and trying to stay positive is definitely not easy! Postage issues have meant my turbo trainer hasn’t arrived yet so ‘extreme hiking’ has been my training for the week. Going downhill is very boring and I can’t imagine its very beneficial so I only go up, as fast as possible and then get the bus down. Its quite enjoyable, the tracks are really steep and if a signpost says 1 hour I try to do it in 20 minutes so it becomes a good anaerobic workout if nothing else! Its also a good chance to take some photos and go trail finding so I’ve a load more cool routes as soon as I’m fixed. (more picture 
(the one arm thing seems to be a theme for me in the Alps – this pic is 3 years ago setting off to climb Alp d’Huez!). Luckily there’s a really straight, smooth bike path following the river Rhine so I felt quite safe doing it – Irish potholes might not be so nice. It was hard work though – after 2 hours my right arm was aching and i was surprised how hard my legs had to work to stay in the HR zone, but felt so good to get out! managed another 2.5 hrs today followed by a 2hr/1000m hike up the mountain in hot sunshine – pretty knackered now!
Sometimes you have to put things in perspective too, we’ve had some nice weather and it was nice to make the most of a long weekend by heading up for a bbq in the mountains the other day – I really shouldn’t complain too much since its such an amazing place to live even without a bike!
